Early European Explorers

Explorers	Country Represented	Year of Exploration	Journey
Leif Ericson	Vikings (Norway)	about 1000	Newfoundland
Bartolomeu Dias	Portugal	1487-1488	First European to round Cape Of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa
Christopher Columbus	Spain	1492	San Salvador and West Indies
John Cabot	England	1497	Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland
Vasco da Gama	Portugal	1497-1498	First to reach India from Europe by sea
Amerigo Vespucci	Spain	1497-1502	South America and West Indies
Pedro Cabral	Portugal	1500	Sailed around Africa to India; discovered Brazil
Vasco de Balboa	Spain	1513	First to sight Pacific Ocean
Ferdinand Magellan	Spain	1509-1522	Led first expedition to sail around the globe, but died mid way
Juan Ponce de Leon	Spain	1513	Florida
Hernando Cortes	Spain	1519-1521	Aztec kingdom of Mexico
Giovanni da Verrazano	France	1524	Eastern coast of North America
Panfilo de Narvaez	Spain	1528	Florida and Mexico
Francisco Pizarro	Spain	1531	Inca empire of Peru
Jacques Cartier	France	1535	St. Lawrence River
Esteban and Father Marcos	Spain	1539	Canada and Quebec; Zuni pueblos of New Mexico
Hernando DeSoto	Spain	1539-1542	Mississippi River, American Southeast
Francisco de Coronado	Spain	1540-1542	American Southwest
Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo	Spain	1542	California
Sir Francis Drake	England	1577-1580	Around the world
Samuel de Champlain	France	1603-1609	The Great Lakes and Quebec
Henry Hudson	England	1609	Hudson River and Hudson Bay