Topic 4.2 - Cause for European Exploration

Prince Henry

Portuguese prince who started a school for sailors and sponsored early voyages of exploration

Bartholomeus Dias

Portuguese sailor who sailed to the tip of Africa in 1488

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route.

El Mina

Most important of early Portuguese trading factories in forest zone of Africa

Fort Jesus

Early 1600's barracks found in Mombasa( on the Zenj Coast). Was a Christian and Portuguese thing, but then Omani sultans take it over in 1696. in the 1700's Portuguese tried to recapture it, but failed.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journies until the time of his death in 1503.

Conquistador

A Spanish conqueror of the Americas

Ferdinand Magellan

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

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Northwest Passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century.

Jacques Cartier

French explorer who explored the St. Lawrence river and laid claim to the region for France (1491-1557)

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer in Nova Scotia who established a settlement on the site of modern Quebec (1567-1635)

Henry Hudson

An English explorer who explored for the Dutch. He claimed the Hudson River around present day New York and called it New Netherland. He also had the Hudson Bay named for him

John Cabot

English explorer who claimed Newfoundland for England while looking for Northwest Passage

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia

Plymouth Colony

A colony established by the English Pilgrims, or Seperatists, in 1620. The Seperatists were Puritans who abandoned hope that the Anglican Church could be reformed. Plymouth became part of Massachusetts in 1691.