Italy: Notable Explorers and Merchants
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9 Terms
1185 - 1252 - Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (All Facts)
Italian Catholic Explorer, Diplomat, and Archbishop
He was one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Guyuk Khan
He was sent by Pope Innocent IV
He began his journey with two fellow-monks, setting out into the vast steppes
They had not travelled far when they met Guyuk Khan’s people, the Mongols, and were sent on their way to the city of Karakorum for Guyuk Khan’s inauguration as great khan
Pope Innocent IV’s envoys then rode with the namesake for thousands of miles with very little respite and little to eat and drink but millet mixed with salt and melted mountain snow
This was a remarkable achievement for a rather portly 66-year old fat Italian friar used to the comforts and luxuries of civilized Italy
He and his companions reached Guyuk Khan just in time for his inauguration at which they were the sole western witnesses
As a result of there stay, Guyuk Khan was keen to contact the great priest who ruled the west and sent the namesake back with a letter that was given to Pope Innocent IV
1312 - Lancelotto Malocello (All Facts)
Italian Explorer who, in a French ship, discovered the uninhabited Canary Islands
1254 - 1324 - Marco Polo (All Facts)
Italian Explorer and Merchant
He was from Venice
He traveled to and visited the court of Kublai Khan in Dadu (modern-day Beijing) in China
He arrived with his father and uncle, the second visit already for his older family members and missionaries
On their first visit, they were entrusted by the khan to give the pope a message from the khan
On the second visit, the missionaries eventually abandoned their mission, but the adventurous Venetians stayed
There, they interacted in front of an international group of advisors and military technicians like the experts in siege warfare whom the khan had hired from Baghdad
He became a favorite of Kublai Khan’s at the Mongol emperor’s stately capital of Cambuluc where the Jin Dynasty once ruled
The khan was taken by the namesake’s wonder at the glories of the capital he had built
The khan employed the namesake on a number of diplomatic missions, having travelled to India and Persia on the khan’s business and having become fluent in Persian and Mongolian
He was a sharp-eyed observer, recording his impressions of the efficient Mongol administration with its roads and postal system, its census, markets and paper money; all of which was adopted by the khan from the Chinese
His favorite impression was the khan’s marble pleasure palace in the city of Shangdu, where he had said that the khan could drink “the milk of paradise”
He was partially motivated to visit due to the peaceful rule in China of the Mongols at the time
His captivating descriptions of the customs of the people he met intrigued Europeans; for example, he described how Mongols
had multiple marriages
drank mare’s milk
burned coal to heat their homes
bathed frequently, often 3 times per week
His contributions to European curiosity about Asia stimulated new interests, especially in cartography
While in a Genoese prison, he recorded the story of his travels in China and Asia, his account having been the basis of Western knowledge of China
He supposedly knew about Australia while on his journeys
1450 - 1499 - John Cabot (All Facts)
Italian Explorer and Navigator
He was from Genoa
He was born in Genoa and gained citizenship in Venice
He went to England to raise support for a transatlantic crossing expedition, where he settled in Bristol
He set sail thereafter from Bristol on his ship “The Matthew”
He led an expedition across the Atlantic where he reached North America after a journey that lasted 35 days
His voyage was sponsored by King Henry VII of England who gave him money from the Privy Purse and an annuity thereafter
From there, he started to explore the coastline from Cape Breton to Labrador
At Labrador, he planted the banner of the House of Tudor back in England and the standard of St. Mark, in contravention of an agreement to allow Spain a monopoly of voyages of discovery
His journey had taken him less time than it had taken his contemporary Christopher Columbus, and vindicated his decision to explore a more northerly crossing
He was given a boat to sail to Cathay (northern China) by King Henry VII of England
From there, the expedition reconnoitered the coastline from Newfoundland to New England, never making China
When the boat returned, the namesake did not as he had died on that very voyage
1451 - 1506 - Christopher Columbus (All Facts)
Italian Explorer and Seaman
He was from Genoa, but he sailed for Spain
He was an admiral from Genoa, genius of a navigator, and a shrewd master of men
He was a great captain but a poor colonizer
He charted about 60 islands and landed on the shores of modern-day Venezuela
He found little gold on his voyages, but much tobacco
His seamanship identified trade winds both ways across the ocean at different latitudes
He was thus, in a sense, the foreigner who “put Spain on the map by making the map”
He is credited with discovering the “New World,” on his search for a western route to India
He persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon to sponsor his planned expedition to discover a western route to the Indies
He then led the royal Spanish expedition to pioneer a westward route to the Indies
His ships weighed anchor just before dawn at Palos in Spain
His journey lasted 71 days
His flagship, the Santa Maria, was 85 feet long and displaced 100 tons
His escort ships, the Pinta and Nina, displaced 55 tons
His crews comprised men scraped together from the back streets of Palos in Spain and the local prison
He proved to the world that the world itself is round
This is something he believed for many years, having proved the point to his doubters which included those in his crew who were convinced the world was flat
On his first voyage, he
landed on an island he called San Salvador (in the Bahamas)
He named this island the “Saint of Salvation”, piously recognizing the good fortune in making his long-awaited landfall
He thought the island lay near Japan
arrived in Cuba, believing it to be Japan
landed on an island he called Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), in search of gold
deposited a small group of settlers at Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)
However, these settlers were soon killed by the natives there
He
and his crew had sailed over the horizon from the Canaries, not having seen land for 35 days
for nine days found strong winds to carry him westward
Then, as his ship slowed in a dense swamp of sinister yellow seaweed, his crew became increasingly nervous
fooled his crew into believing that they had not run as far west as they thought
As his ship picked up speed again, so did fears grow that the westerly bearing would take them over the edge of the world to their deaths in a giant abyss
at last, seeing large flocks of migrating birds, remembered that the Portuguese had discovered the Azores by studying such behavior
so, he changed course to southwest, to the birds’ flight line
and his calm confidence persuaded the crew to agree to two more days’ exploration along the newfound birds’ flight line
On his second voyage, he
landed on an island he called Santa Gloria (Jamaica)
ordered all “Indians” (Native Americans) over 14 years old in Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) to pay tribute money in gold every three years to King Ferdinand of Spain
imposed a system of forced labor on the “Indians” (Native Americans) in Hispaniola
brought back from the West Indies to Europe samples of tobacco
his crew were offered the “bewitching vegetable” that was tobacco by Native Americans
introduced sugar to the Indies, despite his main interest having remained the discovery of gold in order to pay off his backers
However, Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) simply had none to offer, and, desperate for funds, he imposed a gold tax, offering the natives copper bracelets for their valuables
When he sailed out of Hiero, the most westerly of the Canary Islands, the needle of his compass was pointing markedly west-of-north
His crew, most of whom were anyway doubting the wisdom of these expeditions he managed, were shaken
Along the Atlantic Coast of Europe up to this point, mariners had long since noticed that the compass points slightly East of North
It was as if the Earth’s magnetic fields, instead of being fixed, were subject to fluctuation and variation
Thus, more than ever, his fleet of three caravels looked very vulnerable, as the ships were to be tested to their limits
Despite his untrustworthy compass, the namesake still was able to navigate using the North Star as his guide
On his third voyage, he
suppressed a revolt by Spanish settlers and natives against his poor administration in and of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)
returned to Spain arrested on the orders of his successor as (Spanish) Governor of the Indies, Francisco de Bobadilla, after having been charged with the offense of having suppressed another rebellion by hanging seven settlers in the street
returned to Spain being less needed by Spain thereafter
On his fourth voyage,
he returned home after a voyage of two years
On his last voyage,
his ships beached and were unseaworthy at Santa Gloria (Jamaica), flaring distress signals, which were ignored for a year
He first sought backing for his grand obsession in Portugal, then in France, and then in England
He won support in Spain after
fighting the Moors in Granada
promising gold from his expedition to finance another Holy War for Christian Europe
On his second voyage sailing from Cadiz,
After five months in Spain, with 17 ships and 1,200 settlers, he returned to the original site of Queen Isabella
There was trouble as soon as the turbulent Spaniards got ashore
The namesake brought this under control and went exploring
When he returned, he discovered his settlers at war with the natives, who resented demands for food, women, and gold
He massacred the natives in response
In spite of that, colorful complains about him came to Madrid from the Spaniards
He thus had to fight on two fronts 3K miles apart
He had stirred things up with his stories about discovering a new world in the West or a new route to the Indies so much so that the kings of Spain and Portugal decided to divide between them all the new lands the namesake and all the Portuguese explorers of his time had discovered, leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas
He died in Valladolid in Spain, embittered, isolated, and still convinced that what he had found in the west was the true Indies, not a place his contemporaries described as the “New World”
His will left his son the one-tenth share of the wealth generated by his discovery, as promised in his contract with King Ferdinand of Spain but still unpaid 14 years since
1454 - 1512 - Amerigo Vespucci (All Facts)
Italian Explorer and Navigator
He was from Florence
He gave his namesake to America
He had America supposedly named after him based on his claim that he discovered the mainland of America a year before his contemporary Christopher Columbus arrived
However, historical records indicate that it was Columbus who had arrived prior to him and that the namesake arrived two years after Columbus
His achievements as an explorer do not compare with those of Christopher Columbus, whose log of his expedition was genuine in terms of every date being recorded, as the namesake’s was more dubious in this regard
Nonetheless, the namesake’s accounts of his voyages sailing for Spain and Portugal earned him a powerful reputation
He sighted land in several parts of central and south America
He explored the northeast coastline of South America
His expedition (was) set off the follow the trail of Christopher Columbus
He was the first European to see the Rio de la Plata River
He wrote extensively of his experiences there,
in which he told of a veritable earthly paradise, as it was a fertile land filled with fruits and wholesome vegetables and swarmed with wild animals and exotic birds
in which he explained that the native Brazilians
were warlike cannibals who ate their enemies and thus had lives quite different from that of Europeans
“having no laws and no religious faith, they live according to nature. There is no possession of private property among them” and that “they have no king, nor do they obey anyone. There is no administration of justice because in their code no-one rules”
were a brutal people, in which men pierced their lips and cheeks with bones to make themselves look more fierce
slaughtered without mercy, and that “those who remain on the field bury all the dead of their own side, but cut up and eat the bodies of their enemies”
took as slaves the survivors of their enemies and frequently offered them as sacrifices, providing ritual food for the cannibals
He returned to Florence from his voyage to the New World
On his first voyage, he
discovered a city of natives built on water with stilt houses and named it Venezuela (“Little Venice”)
He died in Seville
1491 - 1528 - Giovanni da Verrazzano (All Facts)
Italian Explorer
He was from Florence, but he sailed for France
He went on an expedition to find a northwestern route to the Indies, commissioned by King Francis of France
He sailed out with four ships, including the “La Dauphine”
He landed at Cape Breton in the New World
He first sighted land at Cape Fear
He sailed some 200 miles up and down the coast from there
He sought a passage through to the Pacific Ocean
He explored the fertile terrain and made contact with the native inhabitants of America who he said were “clad in feathers of diverse colors”
He returned to France with only two of the four shops, the other two having been lost in a storm
These two surviving ships put into an English port for repairs, then proceeded along the coast of Spain, on which they made a profitable raid; before returning back to France in which one ship brought the booty on the raid of the coast of Spain back to France
On this expedition, he discovered the lands of modern-day New York, at the northernmost extent of his voyage
He described it as “a very pleasant place, situated amongst certain little steep hills; from amidst the hills there runs down into the sea a great stream of water”
This stream, which he had explored in a small boat, was easily navigable
He described the stream’s mouth as “very deep, and from the sea to the mouth of same, with the tide, which we found to rise eight feet, any great vessel laden may pass up”
On another expedition to Brazil, he was killed by natives in the Caribbean
1474 - 1557 - Sebastian Cabot (All Facts)
Italian Explorer
He was from Venice
He sailed for England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire
He reached Hudson Bay in the North Atlantic Ocean, in searching of a northwest passage