United States History Student Edition

EUROPEAN VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION, 1492–1609 Eager to find trade routes to Asia and explore new lands, voyagers from several different European nations journeyed to the Americas.

Sailed for Spain

(1499–1500) Amerigo Vespucci (1492–1493) Christopher Columbus

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60°N

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a v

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EUROPE

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Sailed for Portugal

40°N

Pedro Cabral (1500)

ENGLAND

NETHERLANDS

Sailed for England

FRANCE

(1576–1578) Martin Frobisher John Cabot (1497–1498)

NORTH AMERICA

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

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20°N

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ATLANTIC OCEAN

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Sailed for France

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Gulf of Mexico

Jacques Cartier (1535) (1524) Giovanni da Verrazano

Canary Islands

AFRICA

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Sailed for Netherlands

Caribbean Sea

PACI F IC OCEAN

Henry Hudson (1609)

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U A T

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Orthographic projection 0 1,000 miles 0 1,000 km

SOUTH AMERICA

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Brazil

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A P R

O F C

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P I C

T R O

To India

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GEOGRAPHY CONNECTION 1. Patterns and Movement Which explorer traveled along the northern coast of South America? For which country did he sail? 2. Global Interconnections Study Cabral’s route. Although he eventually sailed around the southern tip of Africa to India, what land did he reach on the westernmost part of his journey?

Further Explorations In 1499 Italian Amerigo Vespucci (veh•SPOO•chee) led a voyage funded by Spain. On this and a later journey for Portugal, he explored the coast of South America. Vespucci realized that South America was a separate continent and not part of Asia. European geographers began to call the continent “America” in his honor. A Spaniard, Vasco Núñez de Balboa (bal•BOH•uh), heard stories of “great waters” beyond the mountains of Panama, in Central America. In 1513, after hiking through steamy rain forests, he arrived at the coast. Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas.

In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer sailing for Spain, reached the southernmost tip of South America. He sailed through the stormy waters of a narrow sea passage, or strait. The strait led him into a calm ocean—the same one Balboa had seen. The waters were so peaceful— pacífico in Spanish—that Magellan named this great sea the Pacific Ocean. Magellan died in the Philippines, but his crew continued to sail westward, arriving back in Spain in 1522. Magellan’s crew were the first people known to circumnavigate , or sail around, the world. The Search for Gold Native Americans told early explorers tales of gold, silver, and wealthy kingdoms. Spanish

circumnavigate to travel completely around something

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