EXPLORERS AND DISCOVERY

Chronology of Voyages of Exploration, 1486-1522

Simple tool that accounts for the exploratory voyages during the Age of Discovery. Explorers, dates of exploration and significance.

European Voyages of Exploration

Splendid site from the University of Calgary.  "The modern world exists in a state of cultural, political, and economic globalization. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries two nations, Portugal and Spain, pioneered the European discovery of sea routes that were the first channels of interaction between all of the world's continents, thus beginning the process of globalization in which we all live today." . . . "The two pioneering nations [Spain and Portugal], their motivations, their actions, and the inevitable consequences of their  colonisation."  General introduction to exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries.   Then considers the Iberian Peninsula, the Portugese with Prince Henry, the Atlantic Islands, Africa, Asia, and Brazil, the Spanish with the Carribean, Christopher Columbus, and Latin America, and the "geographical, technological, economic, political, and cultural patterns of that era." Knowledge and Power, Cartography, Shipbuilding and Navigation, European Maritime Superiority, European Way of War, Communication, Religion and Exploration, Trade: Sugar and Slaves.

Welcome to 1492: An Ongoing Voyage

Library of Congress Exhibition examines the first sustained contacts between American people and European explorers, conquerors and settlers from 1492 to 1600. During this period, in the wake of Columbus's voyages, Africans also arrived in the hemisphere, usually as slaves. All of those encounters, some brutal and traumatic, others more gradual, irreversibly changed the way in which peoples in the Americas led their lives.

Mariners' Museum - Newport News, Virginia

Covering maritime history from the ancient world to the eighteenth century. In the Age of Discovery it focuses on the exploits of people, covering Prince Henry, Vasco Da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth, the Cabots, Sir Francis Drake, Jaques Carter, Henry Hudson, and James Cook. Also some information on ships, maps and cartography, navigational techniques in the 15th century, a glossary, and interesting student activities, such as how to build your own navigational instruments.

Columbus Navigation Homepage

"Examining the History, Navigation, and Landfall of Christopher Columbus." Extensive information regarding the 4 voyages of Christopher Columbus. Wonderful site about early map making and navigational tools. Interesting bits of information regarding how the early explorers found their way and measured distance traveled per day.

Uncovering the Real Columbus

Certainly more information than you ever learned in school about Christopher Columbus. His marriage, his children and the controversy that surrounded him. Excerpts from a 1992 book.

Sir Francis Drake

"Pages focused on Sir Francis Drake, and in particular on his "Famous Voyage" - the circumnavigation of the world in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.Packed with material. The Famous Voyage was a mystery before it began; only a handful of the men who set out from England on the Golden Hind in 1577 had any idea of the journey's original destination, and perhaps not even Sir Francis. The mystery continued after the voyage ended; secrecy fostered confusion and, as will be seen on these pages, the confusion persists to this day.

Ferdinand Magellan

It was only a generation after Columbus that Magellan's tiny fleet sailed west, via his strait, then on around the world. No one could be sure how wide the ocean was. "I would not care to sail to the Canaries in such crates," wrote the Portuguese consul in Seville, with obvious pleasure. "Their ribs are soft as butter."

European Voyages of Exploration - Prince Henry the Navigator

"Henry was somewhat of a paradox: a dreamer, a scholar, and a monk who nevertheless possessed the instincts of a businessman." Prince Henry had a role in the Portuguese slave trade, though his intention was mainly to convert them to Christianity. His thirst for warfare and exploration led to an interesting life. A wealth of information on this brave and determined man.

Henry The Navigator

Founder of the Portuguese empire, Prince Henry of Portugal was a patron of explorer. One of the earliest geographers. In honor of the discoveries he inspired, he came to be called Henry the Navigator.

Pirates Legends: Pirates & Privateers

You cannot study the Age of Discovery without taking a good look at the pirates who ravaged ocean explorers during this time. Numerous links to both Facts and Fiction pages, but check out Blackbeard, Drake, and Gráinne O'Malley. Royalty in Europe worked with one another to carefully define ocean routes, but it is believed by many historians that Queen Elizabeth secretly encouraged piracy. This explains the classic image of a pirate as a weathered old tyrant with a suspiciously British accent.

Pirates: Wild Women and Salty Dogs

"Pirates were thieves and looters and hard drinkers. They loved wild women. Some times they were wild women." Originally a Discovery Channel Online site. It is down, but read about two of the most infamous pirates of the 18th century, both of them women! Site includes the origins Anne Bonny and Mary Read and the story of these two vicous pirates.