1. Explorers

2. Marco Polo Venetian trader and Venetian explorer Gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book Il Milione or The Travels of Marco Polo one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road &Silk Road visit the Great Khan

3. Bartolomeu Dias Portuguese explorer Portugueseexplorer who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope,Cape of Good Hope the southern tip of Africa, in 1488 the firstAfrica1488 European known toEuropean do so since ancient times.

5. Prince Henry He became aware of profit possibilities in the Saharan trade routes and with expanding Portuguese trade

6. Vasco De Gama The first person to sail directly from Europe to IndiaEuropeIndia

8. Alphonso de Albuquerque Portuguese naval general Responsible for building the Portuguese Castle on island of Hormuz He became the second viceroy of the State of India, a position he would hold until his death.

9. Christopher Columbus A navigator & maritime explorer credited as the discoverer of the Americas. History places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian

10. Santa Maria

12. Amerigo Vespucci Italian Merchant, explorer Cartographer; explorered east of South America America named after him

13. Vasco Núñez de Balboa Spanish Explorer Marches through Panama and becomes the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

14. Ferdinand Magellan First to circumnavigate the globe.

15. Hernando Cortez conquistador who became famous for leading the military expedition that initiated the Spanish ConquestSpanish Conquest of Mexicoof Mexico.

16. Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro and 200 men conquer the Inca of Peru.

17. Pedro Álvares Cabral 1500 Portuguese Reaches Brazil.

18. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

20. Pedro de Peralta The viceroy of Mexico appointed him to the post of governor of New Mexico From April to October of that year, Peralta organized an expedition to that province.

21. Bartolomé de Las Casas 16 th Century Spanish Priest famous for his advocacy of the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Americas

22. Hernando DeSoto Spanish navigator and conquistador Participated in the conquest of Panama Took an active role with Pizarro in Spanish conquest of Peru

23. Giovani Caboto (John Cabot) Italian navigator and explorerItaliannavigatorexplorer Commonly credited as the first early modern Europeanearly modern European to discover the North AmericanNorth American mainland, in 14971497

24. Jacques Cartier French navigator who first explored and described the Gulf of St-Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named Canada

25. Jacques Marquette & Louis Jolliet Father Marquette & Louis Jolliet were theLouis Jolliet first EuropeansEuropeans to see and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River

27. Robert LaSalle French explorer Explored Great Lakes region; Mississippi River, & the Gulf of Mex., & claimed the entire Mississippi basin for France

29. Ponce de Leon Spanish conquistador First Governor of Puerto Rico by appt. of Spanish crown First European known to have visited what is now known as the continental U.S. first known European to set foot in what is now Florida, discovering it in 1513.