Prince Henry the Navigator
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan
Ponce de Leon
Amerigo Vespucci
Bartolomeu Dias
Vasco da Gama
Indigenous Explorers
Jeanne Baret
The Niño brothers
Juan Garrido
Bartolomé de Las Cases
World History Cross-Links:
European Explorers and Encounters in the Americas
Viking Exploration of North America
Exploration and Encounters
The period from the 15th century to the 17th century is known as the 'Age of Exploration' or the "Age of Discovery'. It is also known as the Age of Encounters between people from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
- The purpose of the vast amount of exploration that took place at this time was to find more trading routes, a sudden rise in monarchies in Europe, and more accurate sea navigational technology.
Explorers to the new world were from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, England and France.
- Spanish explorers like Columbus, Balboa, Cortez, de Leon, de Soto, and Coronado became very famous.
- Others like Drake, Verrazano, Raleigh, Carter, Champlain, Cabot and Hudson are not as well known.
- Each one of these explorers contributed to the formation of a new world.
Click here for multiple lesson plans regarding the Age of Exploration from PBS.
Click here for a Khan Academy about the Origins of European exploration in the Americas with a focus mainly on Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exchange.
Prince Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry the Navigator, although not a sailor or a navigator, contributed much to the Age of Exploration. He was responsible for funding many explorations along the western coast of Africa.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an experienced Italian sailor from the town of Genoa. Unable to convince the Italian rulers to sponsor his voyage to sail, he convinced the Spanish that he would be able to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a sea route to Asia.
- Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sponsored his first trip. He sailed for 33 days before spotting land, thinking they were in Asia. Columbus landed on an island in the present-day Bahamas, though the exact island of his landing is unknown.
- While Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas (Norse explorers in the 11th century had found and briefly colonized Greenland and Newfoundland), his 1492 exploration led to the first sustained contact between European nations and the Americas. In the following decades, several more explorers sponsored by several different governments would send their own explorers to investigate the new land.
- Upon landing, Columbus gave voice to many of the European motivations for exploration mentioned above. He wrote of the rich natural resources he saw in the new land:
- "Hispaniola [name Columbus used for where he had landed] is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are bothfertile and beautiful ... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . . . Thereare many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals...." Ominously, he also wrote of enslaving the native peoples. To Columbus, his voyage and discovery were a triumph of the Christian God: "Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities."
Columbus' voyages have given rise to several different historical interpretations.
- Some, such as the American historian Howard Zinn, have condemned Columbus for engineering widespread theft, enslavement and genocide of the native peoples.
- Others, such as the American naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, have praised Columbus for his excellent seamanship and his great contribution to the development of the nations of Western Europe.
Click here to learn more about the native people that Columbus first encountered.
"The Columbus Letter," written by the explorer in 1493 in which he declared his successful voyage to the "islands of the India sea."
Link to The Doctrine of Discovery by Pope Alexander VI
- Stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers.
- US Supreme Court in the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the unanimous decision held "that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands."
Read also, Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, an excerpt from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.
Indigenous People's Day
Quest to Change Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day Sails Ahead, CNN (October 10, 2016)
Here are the Cities That Celebrate Indigenous People's Day (2017)
Replica of Magellan's ship Victoria
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer intent on discovering possible trade routes between the Spice Islands of the Southeast Pacific and Europe.
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Intent on sailing west to Asia by way of what was known as the "Southern Ocean", Magellan's Spanish expedition ultimately resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
- Setting out from Spain in 1519 with five ships, only one ship, the Victoria, returned three years later. Eighteen of the original 270 crew members survived the journey
- Magellan was not among them, having been killed by a poison arrow in a skirmish with native Filipinos. Magellan and co. were the first Europeans to see and sail the Pacific Ocean, and named it Mar Pacifico for its supposed peacefulness.
Magellan's Voyage Round the World, 1519-1522
Click here for more information about Ferdinand Magellan's life and journey around the globe.
Click here to learn about 10 surprising facts about Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe.
Click here for an animated video describing Magellan's journey in its entirety (8:20)
Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon was one of the Spanish Empire's most ambitious and successful explorers.
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He began his journey for fame in fortune in 1493, joining Christopher Columbus on his second journey to the New World. His arrival on the coast of Florida in 1513 marked the beginning of permanent European contact with North America. Ponce, Puerto Rico, is named in Ponce de Leon's honor.
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Ponce de Leon spent significant amounts of time searching for rumored gold and the famous "fountain of youth" on the island of Puerto Rico and in Florida while serving as governor of Hispaniola, what is present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
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de Leon helped to establish colonies in Puerto Rico and Florida, and discovered the Gulf Stream that would help future European explorers find their way home. Ponce de Leon was killed in July of 1521, when a Native American raid attacked his party of settlers in Florida and left him mortally wounded.
Click here for information about Ponce de Leon's early life and career as explorer, including information on his exploits in Puerto Rico and Florida.
Click here for a short video discussing the historical validity of Ponce de Leon's search for the "fountain of youth".
Click here for a quiz about the life and achievements of Ponce de Leon.
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, and navigator. Following several expeditions to the recently found coasts of "Asia", Vespucci became convinced that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia, but rather a New World.
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Following this declaration, a German geographer named Martin Waldseemuller suggested for the that the new lands be called Americus or America in a pamphlet; this is the first documented instance of the New World being referred to as the Americas.
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Martin Waldseemuller is the notorious map maker who is credited with creating the first map that contained the name 'America'.
Click here for a translation of Vespucci's letters.
Click here for more 15th century maps.
Waldseemuller Map, 1507:
Click here for more information about Waldseenmüller's 1507 map.
Click here for information about Amerigo Vespucci's early life, exploration career, and achievements.
Click here for a short video discussing the life and explorations of Vespucci that swayed him to declare the discovery of Columbus to not be part of Asia, but a New World.
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to travel around the Cape of Good Hope. He was sent by Portuguese King John II to explore the coast of Africa and find a route to the Indian Ocean. He was also an advisor to another famous explorer, Vasco da Gama.
Click here for an interactive map regarding Dias' travel.
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama was the first person to successfully sail from Europe around Africa to Southeast Asia, opening a sea route to India in 1498.
- He is recognized as the most successful Portuguese navigator, since his achievements allowed Portugal to expand its colonial empire from Coastal Africa to Southeast Asia.
- Luiz Vaz de Camões, the great renaissance Portuguese poet, wrote a book called The Lusiad in 1572 about Da Gama's voyage.
Click here for more information about Vasco da Gama.
Click here for an interactive map regarding Da Gama's voyage.
Click here to read The Lusiad.
This section of the page focuses on Indigenous Explorers
10 Indigenous Explorers across the Centuries (2020)
The Indigenous people who traveled to Europe, an article from The Smithsonian Magazine (January 26, 2023).
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Jeanne Baret (July 27, 1740 - August 5, 1807)
First woman to circumnavigate the globe, disguising herself as a man on a French expedition from 1766-1769. She is given credit for much of the botanical discoveries made on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's journey around the globe.
Click here for more information on the life of Jeanne Baret and her journey around the globe.
Click here for more information about women explorers in different time periods.
Click Here for a slideshow complete with the stories about 21 Incredible Women who helped explore the globe.
Exploration Timeline
- 1493 Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and established permanent colony on Hispaniola
- 1498 Northern Coast of South America by Venezuela
- 1502 Coastline of Central America by Panama/Honduras
- 1513 Vasco Nunezde Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean
- 1519-1521 Hernando Cortes conquered Mexico/Aztec Empire
- 1519-1521 Ferdinand Magellan reached Orient by sailing around Cape Horn, South America
- 1531-1535 Francisco Pizarro explored West Coast of South America, laid waste to the Inca Empire in the Peruvian Andes, and founded Lima
- 1531-1537 Diego de Almagro aided in the conquest of Peru
- 1536-1538 Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada explored the Northern Andes, founded Bogotá, and searched for El Dorado (as did brother Pizzaro)
- 1540-1541 Pedro de Valdivia conquered and explored Chile and founded Santiago
- 1541 Francisco de Orellana traveled over the Andes down the Amazon River also searching for El Dorado
Click here for an interactive timeline.
Trade goods that were brought back to Europe: gold, silver, dyes, cotton, vanilla, hides from livestock, cacoa, maize/corn, tobacco, manioc/cassava.
The Niño brothers
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The Niño brothers comprised of four brothers: Pedro, Alonso, Francisco, Juan and Bartolomé, who traveled alongside Columbus on his voyage to the New World. These brothers would also take part in Columbus's second and third voyages.
Here is the portrait of one of the brothers, Pedro Alonso Niño.
Click here to learn more about Pedro Alonso Niño.
Juan Garrido
Juan Garrido was an African-Spanish conquistador who had been born a slave and joined an expedition to the New World as Pedro Garrido's servant. He was one of many participants in the invasions of Puerto Rico and Cuba in 1508. He became a freedman and had traveled to the Americas as well. Juan Garrido is recognized as the first man to harvest wheat in the New World for commercial purposes.
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Click here to learn more about Juan Garrido.
Bartolomé de Las Casas
- He was born in either 1474 or 1484 and died in 1566.
- He was an early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous people by Europeans in the Americans and call for the abolition of slavery there.
- He started out a lot like Columbus – a wealthy adventurer who traveled to the New World, where he owned a large planation with many slaves. However, he underwent a radical transformation after witnessing the violent atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples. At that point, he gave up his land, freed his slaves, became a priest, and spent the rest of his life fighting the brutal colonization of the New World. He spent the next 50 years advocating for equality.
- His stand against the cruelty of the Spanish Crown earned him the title "Defender of the Indians."
- He is considered one of the first advocates of universal human rights.
- While a prolific author and influential figure of the Spanish court, he failed to stay the progressive enslavement of the indigenous people of Latin America.
- More resources about Bartolomé de Las Casas include:
- Ever what to know how these early explorers were able to find their way around vast oceans and return home alive?
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