|
Date
|
Explorer
|
Representing
|
Event
|
|
c. 1000
|
Leif Eriksson
|
Norse
|
Likely first European to Newfoundland
|
|
1418
|
(Prince Henry the Navigator)
|
Portugal
|
Offers training in navigation & cartography
|
|
1431
|
Gonzalo Cabral
|
Portugal
|
Discovered Azores
|
|
1440s
|
various
|
Portugal
|
Exploration along west African coast; slave trade
|
|
1453
|
(Fall of Constantinople)
|
|
Muslim closure of eastward routes may have spurred westward push.
|
|
1487-88
|
Bartholomeu Dias
|
Portugal
|
Reached Cape of Good Hope
|
|
1492
|
Christopher Columbus
|
Spain
|
First voyage
|
|
1494
|
(Treaty of Tordesillas)
|
|
Division of New World between Spain
and Portugal
|
|
1497
|
John Cabot
|
England
|
To Newfoundland;
English claim to North America
|
|
1497-98
|
Vasco da Gama
|
Portugal
|
Rounds Africa to India
|
|
1497+
|
Amerigo Vespucci
|
Spain
Portugal
|
West Indies and South
America
|
|
1500-01
|
Pedro Álvarez Cabral
|
Portugal
|
Brazil
|
|
1513
|
Ponce de Léon
|
Spain
|
Florida
|
|
1513
|
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
|
Spain
|
Crossed Panama
to Pacific Ocean
|
|
1519-22
|
Ferdinand Magellan
|
Spain
|
Circumnavigation of world completed by crew
|
|
1519+
|
Hernán Cortés
|
Spain
|
Conquered Aztecs in Mexico
|
|
1524-25
|
Giovanni da Verrazzano
|
France
|
Searched for Northwest Passage
|
|
1526
|
Lucas Vazquez Ayllon
|
Spain
|
Temporary settlement in in the Carolinas
|
|
1528-36
|
Álvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca
|
Spain
|
From Gulf of Mexico into Texas
|
|
1532+
|
Francisco Pizarro
|
Spain
|
Conquered Incas in Peru
|
|
1535
|
Jacques Cartier
|
France
|
Gulf of St. Lawrence; established
French claim to North America
|
|
1539-42
|
Hernando De Soto
|
Spain
|
Southeastern U.S. and Mississippi
River
|
|
1540
|
Francisco Coronado
|
Spain
|
Northern Mexico and southwestern U.S.
|
|
1542
|
Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo
|
Spain
|
California
|
|
1565
|
Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles
|
Spain
|
St. Augustine
founded
|
|
1576-78
|
Sir Martin Frobisher
|
England
|
Search for Northwest Passage
|
|
1577-80
|
Sir Francis Drake
|
England
|
First English circumnavigation
|
|
1585+
|
|
England
|
Roanoke “Lost
Colony”
|
|
1598+
|
Juan de Oñate
|
Spain
|
Settlement in New Mexico
|
|
1602
|
Bartholomew Gosnold
|
England
|
Explored New England coast
|
|
1603-15
|
Samuel de Champlain
|
France
|
Quebec,
Great Lakes and Lake Champlain
|
|
1607
|
|
England
|
Jamestown
founded
|
|
1609+
|
Henry Hudson
|
Netherlands
England
|
Dutch claim to New York
area; explored Hudson Bay
|
|
1620
|
|
England
|
Pilgrims arrive at Cape Cod
|
|
1630
|
|
England
|
Puritans arrive at Massachusetts Bay
|
|
1673
|
Louis Joliet
Jacques Marquette
|
France
|
Explored upper Mississippi
Basin
|
|
1679
|
Sieur de La Salle
|
France
|
Explored upper Mississippi
and Lake Michigan areas
|
|
1698+
|
Sieur de Bienville
|
France
|
Founded New Orleans;
explored Mississippi Valley
|
|
1699+
|
Sieur d’Iberville
|
France
|
First to enter Mississippi River
from Gulf of Mexico
|
