History Explorers

Henry Hudson

English navigator who discovered the Hudson River

Samuel de Champlain

Father of New France

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Explored the California coast for Spain in 1542

Francisco Coronado

Spanish explorer who heard stories about the Seven Cities of Gold and set out to find them

Jaques Cartier

French explorer, found the St. Lawrence River and laid claim to Canada as a French possesion (1534)

Francisco Pizarro

Conquered the Incas

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Spanish explorer who explored what is now Texas in 1528

Giovanni da Verrazano

Italian who explored east coast of US from NC to NY for France in 1524

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world.

Amerigo Vespucci

A mapmaker and explorer who said that America was a new continent, so America was named after him.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

First European to see the Pacific Ocean

Hernando De Soto

Discovered the Mississippi River

Prince Henry the Navigator

Sent others to explore for him, made very first explorer school, first person to value exploring

Barthelomeu Dias

Portuguese captain who sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.

John Cabot

1497 claimed Canada for England

Vasco da Gama

the first European to reach India by sea sailing around the tip of Africa.

Juan Ponce De Leon

Spanish Explorer who discovered and named Florida while searching for the "Fountain of Youth"

Hernando Cortes

Conquered the Aztecs

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River.

Bartolomé de las Casas

the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there.

Panifilio de Narvez

After surviving a hurricane near Cuba, his expedition landed on the west coast of Florida, near Tampa Bay, in April 1528, claiming the land for Spain.