1. Exploration

2. Prince Henry (the Navigator)
Judging by his name, you might think that Henry the Navigator was a great explorer with extraordinary navigating skills. Truth is, Prince Henry of Portugal never set sail on voyages of discovery. A nobleman of English, French, and Spanish ancestry, Prince Henry gained his reputation by sponsoring many voyages of discovery along the western coast of Africa.
Prince Henry had several reasons for dispatching his expeditions. He hoped to find rumored Christian allies, add to geographic knowledge, and perhaps find a sea route to the Orient. But he also hoped to find gold. For centuries gold objects from sub-Saharan Africa had made their way to Europe. Some Portuguese even believed that the objects came from a "River of Gold." If only this gold supply could be found, Henry's costly expeditions could begin to pay for themselves and perhaps even strengthen Portugal's economy.
In 1441, two of Henry's captains, Antam Gonclaves and Nuno Tristao, set out, separately, to Cape Bianco on the western coast of Africa. To the south of the Cape they came across a market run by black Muslims dressed in white robes and turbans. There they received a small amount of gold dust. The Portuguese crew also seized twelve black Africans to take back to Portugal, not as slaves, but as exhibits to show Prince Henry. (These would not be Portugal's first African slaves.)
The new captives included a local chief who spoke Arabic. The chief negotiated his own release, the terms of which were that if he and a boy from his family were taken back to their homeland and released, they would provide other black slaves in exchange.
In 1442, Antam Goncalves sailed back to Cape Bianco, then returned with more gold dust and ten black Africans. The following year, Portuguese explorers returned from Africa with nearly thirty slaves.
Within ten years, thousands of slaves had been transported by sea to Portugal and the Portuguese Islands.

3. Bartolomeu Dias Claim to Fame:
The first European to sail around the tip of Africa, Dias opened the doors for seafaring trade with India.
Birth/Death: 1450 CE CE
Nationality: Portuguese
Objective: To sail the southern end of Africa to find a route to Asia, and to find Prester John
Sponsoring Nation: Portugal
Cause of Death: Shipwreck on the “Cape of Storms” later named Cape of Good Hope
Claim to Fame:
The first European to sail around the tip of Africa, Dias opened the doors for seafaring trade with India.
Name: Bartolomeu Dias
Birth/Death: 1450 CE CE
Nationality: Portuguese
Birthplace: Portugal
Objective: To sail the southern end of Afric to find a route to Asia, Shipwreck

4. Vasco da Gama
In 1497, da Gama made it to India, using Dias’ route from the Cape of Good Hope.
Had issues. Left came home a hero.

5. Slave Trade
Initially most Europeans were concerned with trading for gold and other commodities than trading for humans…what changed?
12.5 million were taken from Africa
10.7 survived the Middle Passage

6. Columbus Blah Blah Blah Got paid to go to India,
Thought he found India
Went back a few times
Died thinking he found India
Who really found America?

7. Juan Ponce de Leon
Born into Spanish nobility, Juan Ponce de León may have accompanied Christopher Columbus on his 1493 voyage to the New World.
A decade later, he was serving as governor of the eastern province of Hispaniola when he decided to explore a nearby island, which became Puerto Rico.
In pursuit of a rumored fountain of youth located on an island known as Bimini, Ponce de León led an expedition to the coast of what is now Florida in 1513.
Thinking it was the island he sought, he sailed back to colonize the region in 1521, but was fatally wounded in an Indian attack soon after his arrival.

8. Hernan Cortes