Download European Exploration

European Exploration
 Vikings – first European group to arrive in the
Americas (Leif Ericsson/New Foundland)
 Claudius Ptolemy – drew maps of a round world
 Bartelmo Diaz – 1488, found a new route to the
riches of India around the southern tip of Africa
 Christopher Columbus – “discovered” America in
1492; Italian who sailed for Spain; landed in San
Salvador (the Bahamas), sailed on to Cuba and
Hispaniola where he established a trading post.
 Treaty of Tordesillas – an imaginary line drawn
north to south in the Atlantic ocean; Spain
controlled west of the line, Portugal east
 Amerigo Vespucci – Italian who reached America
in 1499; had an important country named after him
 Juan Ponce de Leon – discovered Florida in 1513,
claimed it for Spain and called it the “land of
flowers”; looking for the fountain of youth (allegedly)
 Vasco de Balboa – Spanish explorer who traveled
through the Isthmus of Panama in 1510, becoming
first European to “see” the Pacific Ocean
 Ferdinand Magellan- sailed for Spain around the
southern tip of South America in 1520 into the
Pacific Ocean. Credited with being the first to
circumnavigate the globe, though he was killed in
the Philippines by the natives
 Columbian Exchange – Native Americans gave
the Europeans 1) new farming methods, and 2) new
crops (corn and potatoes). Europeans gave the
Native Americans 1) domestic livestock, 2) new
technologies (shipbuilding and firearms), and 3)
disease and death
 Hernan Cortes – traveled to the Yucatan
Peninsula in 1519 to find slaves for Spain and to
find riches. Defeated the Aztecs over a three-year
period, disease helped with this, and claimed Mexico
City for Spain
 Conquistadors – conquerors
 Francisco Pizzaro – defeated the Incas of Peru in
1532
 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado – died in 1540
looking for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola in the
American Southwest
 Presidios – forts that are set up for trading posts
and protection
 Priests - wanted to convert the natives to
Christianity and they built many missions (Alamo)
 San Augustine – the first permanent city in North
America; Florida, 1565
 de Champlain – founded Quebec, Canada, making
it the capital of New France in 1608
 de LaSalle – first person to navigate the
Mississippi River; traveled from North to South
claiming Louisiana for France