1Henry Hudson

Voyages sailed: 1607-1610

English navigator who sailed for the Dutch along the Atlantic coast of North America. The Dutch traders later established settlements in the Americas in

modern-day New York. The Hudson River was named for his voyages. His exploration opened up routes for settlement into the Americas by the Dutch and

later English in Canada.

2Jacques Cartier

Voyages sailed: 1534-1541

French navigator and explorer who was authorized by France’s king to lead a voyage to the New World in order to seek gold and other riches, as well as a new route to Asia. Cartier’s

three expeditions along the St. Lawrence River would later enable France to lay claim to the lands that would become Canada.

3Bartolomeu Dias

Voyages Sailed: 1488

Portuguese explorer who was the first to sail the southern tip of Africa. He was the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia. Dias’ ships rounded the perilous Cape of Good Hope and then sailed around Africa’s southernmost point to enter the waters of the Indian Ocean. It opened the door to

increased trade with India and other Asian powers for Portugal.

4

Vasco da Gama

Voyages sailed: 1497-1499

Portuguese explorer who rounded the tip of Africa and landed on India’s southwest coast. He finished the voyage Dias had begun 9 years prior and opened up a water route into Asia for Europe. Europe no longer had to rely on the Silk Route as the only trade route between

the two regions.

5Christopher Columbus

Voyages Sailed: 1492

Italian navigator who sailed for the Spanish crown (Ferdinand and Isabella) in his attempt to reach Asia sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean to find new trade routes between

Europe and Asia via the sea.

Instead of reaching Asia however, his ships landed on the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Trade then occurred between the Native Taino Indians and Columbus

as he believed he had landed on the coast of Asia, not an unexplored land.

It would not be until cartographer Amerigo Vespucci became convinced that Columbus had discovered a new world and created a map labeling this continent “America.”

6Hernando de Soto

Voyages Sailed: 1539-1541

Spanish explorer and conquistador who is best known for leading the first Spanish and European expeditions into the territory of modern-day states of Florida, Georgia,

Mississippi, and the American south-east. He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

7Ferdinand Magellan

Voyages Sailed: 1519-1522

Led the first expedition to sail completely around (circumnavigate) the world. First European to sail the Pacific. Started his voyage with 270 men, he died in the Philippine

Islands due to getting involved in a local civil war (poisoned arrow), and his voyage ended without him with only 18 men.

8Amerigo Vespucci

Voyages Sailed: 1497

Explorer Amerigo Vespucci (cartographer/mapmaker) was born March 9, 1451, (some scholars say 1454) in Florence, Italy. On May 10, 1497, he embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him.