Explorers After Columbus Caboto, Vespucci, Balboa, and Magellan

Giovanni Caboto 1497 Columbus’ journeys inspired Europe’s leaders to explore and claim land. England sent Giovanni Caboto to the north of where Columbus went. Caboto claimed the land for England and returned to England thinking that he had been to China.

Amerigo Vespucci 1499 and 1501 Amerigo Vespucci did not believe that Columbus and Caboto had sailed to Asia. He sailed for Portugal two times. He went to where Columbus landed, and then south along the coast.

Amerigo Vespucci 1499 and 1501 Vespucci showed that there was land between Europe and Asia. These new continents, North and South America, were named for Amerigo Vesspucci.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa 1513 Balboa was one of the first Spanish settlers in America. He was living in Central America when he learned about an ocean to the west. He became the first European to see what we now call the Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan 1519-1521 Magellan was from Portugal, but sailed for Spain in search of a route to Asia. He headed west from Spain in 1519 with five ships and 250 sailors. He was the first European to sail around South America.

Ferdinand Magellan 1519-1522 Magellan sailed across the Pacific to the Phillipine Islands. He and his men fought with the Natives, and he was killed. His men continued on through Asia and back to Spain. They were the first to circumnavigate the Earth.