Winds of Change Trivia Quiz

Pedro Cabral was a Portuguese nobleman who was commissioned by King Manual I to follow Vasco da Gama's sea steps to India and then to find a way to circumvent the spice monopoly that was being enjoyed by the Italians, the Turks and the Arabs.

Along the way Cabral either deliberately or inadvertently went too deep into the western Atlantic and sighted what he thought was a large island. That large island, after further investigation, turned out to be the continent of South America. For Portugal, he claimed a large part of this coastline, which would later come to be called Brazil. From there he made his way across to India. He would lose several ships due to inclement weather, then a large number of his crew in his battles for the spice. The Turks and the Arabs were not prepared to give up easily. The trip would, most likely, have been deemed a disaster, had his remaining ships not returned home laden with spice. These were sold by Portugal for an extraordinary profit and the funds utilized for further expansion.

At this point Cabral must have fallen out of favour with the King, for he was overlooked when the next fleet was commissioned. He retired to his estate with the knowledge that he'd become the first explorer to have touched land at four different continents - Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas - in a single expedition.

The early life of Juan Diaz de Solis is clouded with disputes about his heritage, with sources indicating he may have been either Spanish or Portuguese. There is also conjecture that he was responsible for the death of his wife before he scurried away to sea and that he may also have served the French crown.

He wound up serving the Spanish crown, acting as a navigator for separate expeditions by Vincente Pizon to the Yucatan (1506-07) and to Brazil in 1508, before becoming Spain's Pilot Major after the death of Amerigo Vespucci in 1512.

Late in 1515, with three ships and 70 men he began to explore the eastern seaboard of South America, seeking a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1516 he reached, what is now called the Rio de la Plata, which he'd named the Mar Dulce (Freshwater Sea), and then sailed upstream, reaching the confluence of the Uruguay and Parana Rivers. He set foot in what is modern day Uruguay but, sadly, it was also where he met his demise. It is unknown whether he was killed by the Charrua people or the Guarami Indians and this is still in dispute today. As he was shrouded in doubt at birth, so too is he in death.

However, Solis' discoveries were important to Spain. So much so that many places in Uruguay now bear his name. Among these are a body of water, a number of populated townsites and Montevideo's world renowned theatre, the Teatro Solis.

After the death of his explorer father John (Giovanni) Cabot, Sebastian embarked upon his own career as an explorer. One of his earliest missions was on behalf of the English, attempting to seek out the North West Passage through North America. When the English funding dried up he sought the favour of King Ferdinand II of Aragon but, after the King passed away in 1516 and the Spanish money died with him, he returned to England. His future, however, appeared to be in Spain and he returned again in 1522 and was appointed the country's Pilot Major.

When Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe proved that the Earth was bigger than first anticipated, it cast doubts as to the veracity of the markings on the Treaty of Tordeillas, a document that determined the boundaries of the monopolies enjoyed by the Spanish and the Portuguese. Cabot was then commissioned to determine the precise demarcation using astronomical observations. He departed Spain in 1526 with four ships and 250 men. The voyage, however, was a near disaster with the fleet's flagship running aground, the flotilla becalmed in the Doldrums and, when Cabot decided to abandon his charge to pursue rumours of great wealth in the Inca kingdoms, he received open resistance from some of his crew and officers. He ended this mutiny by stranding those men on Santa Catarina.

He sailed into (and named) the Rio de la Plata (meaning River of Silver), and spent five months exploring its tributaries and estuaries. He established settlements at San Salvador, the first Spanish settlement in modern day Uruguay and another fort at Espiritu Santo, which became the first Spanish settlement in modern day Argentina. The town of Gaboto, named in his honour, would be built a short distance from here in the future.

By the time Cabot returned to Spain in 1530, he was left with only one ship and 24 crew. He was arrested and charged with disobedience, misconduct and the death of the two officers who he'd left behind on Santa Catarina. He was fined heavily and banished to Africa for two years, however, whilst there is a record of the fine being paid, there is no record of the exile ever having taken place and he maintained his title as Spain's Pilot Major.

Francisco de Orellana was a soldier in Francesco Pizzaro's conquest of Peru in 1535, before being named governor of Guayaquit some three years later.

In 1541 he was to be a part of an expedition to explore the areas east of Quito. His first role though, was to obtain provisions for the journey and, to this end, he was sent ahead on a brigantine with some fifty men as crew. The current worked against them and they were unable to make their way back to the main body so, he and his men built a bigger boat and continued to explore what is now known as the Amazon River. The river was given its name by Orellana after he and his men were involved in a skirmish with the Tapuyas tribe. The Tapuyas women fought side-by-side with their men and were equally as fierce. It reminded Orellana of the Amazon women of Greek legend.

After a long and eventful journey Orellana managed to return to Spain where he campaigned Prince Philip II for additional funding to further explore the new lands that he'd discovered. He returned to the Amazon in 1548 but it would be a trip he would regret. His ship capsized at the mouth of the mighty river and he was lost.

Juan Ladrillero began his career as a sailor at a very early age and, by the age of 45, received his pilot's license from Sebastian Cabot.

In 1557 he was commissioned by Don Garcia de Mendoza, the governor-general of Chile, to explore the country's coastline from Valdivia, all the way through to the Barbera Channel. In the process, he was to claim all the lands that he'd discovered in the name of Spain. He set sail with two ships, the other under the command of Francisco de Hojea and a brigantine. A month after setting sail they'd almost reached the Strait of Magellan, when Ladrillero's ship was separated from the other two. De Hojea's ship was damaged and, when repaired, they could not find their way back to the entrance of the strait..

Ladrillero sailed on and, in the process, became the first man to navigate the strait (Magellan). Along the way he named numerous sites and claimed the landing at Punta de San Gregoro for his country. A strait between the Angamos and Stosch Islands, in the Magallanes region of Chile has been dedicated in his honour.

Sir Walter Raleigh was a polarizing character in history. At one time he was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, found himself in the Tower of London at the behest of the same monarch before being executed by King James I for treason. In some lights he could be seen as a hero, in others, as a scoundrel.

Born in (possibly) 1554, he fought in the Wars of Religion in France in 1569, and then, the Irish Rebellion in 1575. It was in the latter conflict that he aired his criticisms of the English policy in Ireland, and it was this that caught the attention of, and brought him into favour with, Queen Elizabeth I. This boon led to him holding lucrative trading monopolies in wine licenses and broadcloth exports, influential positions in court and substantial property holdings. He was knighted in 1585 and made Captain of the Queen's Guard two years later. He would fall out of favour with the Queen, some five years later, when the birth of his son made Elizabeth aware that he'd secretly married.

Though he did not set foot in the land, between 1584 and 1589, he attempted to establish a colony at Roanoke in what would become the United States. He named the region Virginia, in honour of his Queen. Not long later he heard stories of the wealth that could be found in the city of El Dorado, which inspired him to lead an expedition up the Orinoco River, mindless of the fact that this sat in the heart of Spanish territory. Tensions, at this time, between England and Spain were taut and Raleigh's actions did not endear him to either side.

After being jailed for treason by King James, he was given a conditional pardon and, in 1617, ventured on a second search for El Dorado. Yet again he failed to find the city, however, he did attack and destroy a Spanish outpost. This breached a condition of his pardon and, on his return to England, he was taken prisoner and executed.

Charles Marie de la Condamine was an extraordinary individual. Born in 1701, he studied humanities and mathematics at the College Louis-de-Grand, became a soldier, fought against the Spanish in 1719, made a fortune exploiting a loophole in the French lottery system and, in 1730, was appointed to the position of Assistant Chemist at the Academie des Sciences.

During the years 1736 to 1743 he led an expedition to Quito to measure the equator as a test of Isaac Newton's theory that the Earth was a sphere and that it bulged at the equator. That was the public face of the journey but, behind the scenes, La Condamine and his crew were to explore and gather intelligence of as much of the country as they could... Spain was keeping this region a closely guarded secret.

The mission was arduous. The jungles did not help, the altitude that they worked at was difficult, countless times they found their passage blocked, the mosquitos were a nightmare and the fact that the two main leaders of the team had a falling out did not help to ease the tensions. When the mission was completed in 1743, Condamine chose not to return to France with the rest of the team. Instead, he opted to canoe down the Amazon River, making detailed maps of the area and conducting one of the first scientific studies of the river. He would return to France two years later with a valuable collection of seeds, two of which generated significant interest; the hevea, a source of natural rubber and the cinchona, the source of quinine.

Isabel Godin des Odonas is almost an accidental explorer who, in 1769, completed an epic 5,000 kilometre (3,000 mile) journey across the Amazon basin.

She was born in 1728 into a wealthy Spanish family, and would accompany her husband, Jean Godin des Odonas, on La Condamine's expedition to measure the equator in the jungles of Peru. Isabel and her husband became separated which meant that when Jean returned with the rest of the team to French Guinea, Isabel was left stranded in Peru. The Spanish authorities were not sympathetic to Jean's cause and refused his re-entry into the country to locate his wife.

Isabel waited 20 years for her husband before deciding enough was enough, gathered a team of 42 members, made up of servants and relatives and set out to make the trek from Quito to Cayenne. The journey took six months to complete but what made it stand out was that, first up, this was an unusual journey to be conducted by a woman. The second, and this is what made it extraordinary, is that along the way, her entire entourage either died from disease or fled, leaving her to negotiate the jungle on her own. Stories vary as to how many days she struggled solo. Some indicate nine days, some say as many as eighteen, the end result is that she too may have passed away had it not been for some native Amerindians who'd found her half-crazed and starving. They nursed her back to health and then assisted her in the final part of her journey.

She was reunited with Jean in 1770. The pair returned to France, only to find that they'd been presumed dead and that their estate had been sold and shared among relatives.

Among a number of sobriquets, the two that stand out for Friedrich von Humboldt are, "Father of Ecology" and "Father of Environmentalism". He garnered these titles as a result of his findings during his journeys along the Orinoco River in Venezuela and his treks through the Andes in Ecuador.

Humboldt's mission was to study the way things inter-related in the natural world, and to identify connections between creatures and habitats. His explorations between 1799 and 1804 would provide a scientific view of parts of South America, for the first time. He and his partner, botanist Amie Bonpland, travelled 2,250 kilometres (1,400 miles) along the Orinoco on canoes, subsisting on a diet of rice and ants. While Bonpland took flower samples, Humboldt took measurements of the river and explored the relationship between creatures and the natural world around them.

In the Andes, despite losing their guides, they climbed Mount Chimborazo, at the time thought to be the highest peak in the world. This enabled them to study volcanos and identify a cool ocean current, which now bears Humboldt's name, that ran along the Peruvian coastline. Humboldt's work would be a significant influence on a young naturalist, who would follow his work, Charles Darwin.

The Brazilian state of Rondonia was named after Marshall Candido Rondon and, with very good reason.

The Brazilian government of the time had become concerned about the isolation of some of the border regions and the central portions of their nation. Not only were they unable to communicate easily with them, some were so isolated that they could only be reached by water. As a consequence of this, in 1890, they appointed the 25 year-old army engineer Candido Rondon, to build the first telegraph line across the state of Mato Grosso.

By 1895 Rondon had completed the task but felt more needed to be done. To this end he built a road that connected Brazil's centre with the Atlantic Ocean. He then set about building a telegraph line across the whole of Brazil, which would later be extended to Bolivia and Peru. One of the major coups he achieved was his ability to negotiate and build a relationship with the Bororo people, a notoriously warlike race. So successful was he that many of the villagers assisted him with the construction.

The telegraph extension took Rondon to areas of the country that had never been explored. This would prompt him, in 1909, to lead an eight month expedition from Moto Grosso to the River Madeira. In the process he discovered a river that did not exist on any of their maps. He would name it the River of Doubt.