Euro Explorers Chart

Bartholomeu Dias

First to round Africa and return

Vasco de Gama

Rounded Africa and reached India for spices

Pedro Alvares Cabral

Discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal, also reached India.

Christopher Columbus

Discovered the Bahamas in 1492 while seeking a westward route to Asia.

Amerigo Vespucci

Italian explorer who is credited with demonstrating that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts, but a separate land.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

First European to see the Pacific Ocean, he crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513.

Francisco Pizarro

Conquered the Incan Empire in Peru.

Ferdinand Magellan

Initiated the first circumnavigation of the globe, proving that the Earth is round and connected by oceans.

John Cabot

An Italian explorer who sailed under the English flag and is credited with discovering parts of North America, specifically the coast of Newfoundland.

Giovanni de Verrazano

An Italian explorer who traveled to North America and is known for exploring the eastern coastline, including New York Harbor, for the French.

Jaques Cartier

A French explorer who is credited with claiming Canada for France and navigating the St. Lawrence River in the 1530s.

Samuel de Champlain

A French explorer known as the "Father of New France," he founded Quebec City in 1608 and established extensive trade relations with Indigenous peoples.

Bartolome de las Casas

A Spanish missionary and historian who advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Americas and criticized Spanish colonial abuses.