Age of Exploration

  • 1488

    Bartolomeu Dias rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope

    In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diasy became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia.
  • 1492

    Columbus sailed out of a spanish port and sailed towards the New World.

    Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage. On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina.
  • Aug 3, 1492

    Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage

    The First Voyage of Columbus. Christopher Columbus departed on his first voyage from the port of Palos (near Huelva) in southern Spain, on August 3, 1492, in command of three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. His crew mostly came from surrounding towns such as Lepe and Moguer.
  • Aug 3, 1492

    Christopher columbus reaches the Americas

    The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas.
  • Jun 7, 1494

    Treaty of Tordesillas happen

    Treaty of Tordesillas, (June 7, 1494), agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers.
  • 1497

    Vasco da Gama, Explore Africa until he reached India.

    Those who says that Vasco Da Gama had discovered India are completly wrong,India existed for a long time even before his arrival. He actually discovered the direct sea route to India. ... India was not discovered by Vasco-da-Gama. He actually discovered the sea route to India from Europe.
  • May 30, 1498

    Columbus' third voyage

    Image result for Columbus' third voyageen.wikipedia.org
    The Third Voyage of Columbus, 1498-1500. Columbus left the port of Sanlucar in southern Spain on May 30, 1498 with six ships, bound for the New World on his third voyage. After stopping at the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, the fleet arrived at Gomera in the Canary Islands on June 19.
  • 1499

    John cabot and amerigo vespucci explore the Americas

    They discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him.
  • 1499

    Amerigo Vespucci traveled along the east coast of South America. He said what

    On the 1499 voyage, Vespucci sailed to the northern part of South America and into the Amazon River. He gave places he saw names like the "Gulf of Ganges," thinking, as his explorer contemporaries did, that he was in Asia.
  • May 11, 1502

    Columbus fourth Voyage

    History & Culture. On May 11, 1502, Christopher Columbus set out on his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He had four ships, and his mission was to explore uncharted areas to the west of the Caribbean, hopefully finding a passage west to the Orient
  • 1513

    Vasco Nunez de Balboa reached the South Sea.

    The 16th-century Spanish conquistador and explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa helped establish the first stable settlement on the South American continent at Darién, on the coast of the Isthmus of Panama. In 1513, while leading an expedition in search of gold, he sighted the Pacific Ocean.
  • 1513

    Pizarro discovered Peru

    In 1513, he joined Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his march to the "South Sea," during which Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. In 1532, Pizarro and his brothers conquered Peru. Three years later, Pizarro founded the nation's new capital, Lima.
  • 1519

    Spanish conquest of Mexico begins

    A Spanish settler in Cuba, Hernán Cortés, led an expedition (entrada) to Mexico, landing in February 1519, following an earlier expedition led by Juan de Grijalva to Yucatán in 1517. Two years later Cortés and his retinue set sail, thus beginning the expedition of exploration and conquest.
  • 1519

    Hernand Cortes landed on the shores of Mexico.

    In 1519 Cortés was to command his own expedition to Mexico, but Velázquez cancelled it. Cortés ignored the order and traveled with about 500 men and 11 ships to Mexico
  • 1520

    Magellan Sails into Pacific Ocean

    Image result for Magellan Sails into Pacific Ocean
    Ferdinand Magellan Reaches the Pacific Ocean. On this day in 1520, famed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan entered "The Sea of the South" having sailed from the Atlantic Ocean through the passage that now bears his name, the Straits of Magellan.
  • Roanoke was founded.

    White took the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later search of the island found none of the settlers. The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585.
  • First Dutch fleet arrives in India

    The United East Indian Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC), referred to by the British as the Dutch East India Company, was originally established as a chartered company in 1602, when the Dutch government granted it a 21-year monopoly on Dutch spice trade
  • Jamestown in Virginia is established by the English.

    The Virginia Company of England made a daring proposition: sail to the new, mysterious land, which they called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and begin a settlement. They established Jamestown, Virginia, on May 14, 1607, the first permanent British settlement in North America.
  • First boatload of slaves brought directly from Africa to the Americas.

    In 1619, Dutch traders brought African slaves taken from a Spanish ship to Jamestown; in North America, the Africans were also generally treated as indentured servants in the early colonial era. Several colonial colleges held enslaved people as workers and relied on them to operate
  • Plymouth was founded

    Plymouth Colony, America's first permanent Puritan settlement, was established by English Separatist Puritans in December 1620. The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom, or simply to find a better life.
  • English Found Massachusetts bay colony

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    Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the original English settlements in present-day Massachusetts, settled in 1630 by a group of about 1,000 Puritan refugees from England under Gov. John Winthrop and Deputy Gov. Thomas Dudley.
  • La Salle Explores the lower Mississippi River

    Image result for La Salle Explores the lower Mississippi River
    Tonti was to command the fort while La Salle traveled again to France for supplies. On July 24, 1684, La Salle sailed again from France and returned to America with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River.