Great Explorers and Navigators 1400-1600 Quiz

Answer: Bartholomeu Dias

Bartholomeu Dias called the place Cabo das Tormentas, "Storm Point". His journey ended at Great Fish River, where the crew forced him to turn. He drowned off the Cape of Good Hope as a member of an expedition led by Pedro Cabral.

Answer: Christopher Columbus

Columbus reached one of the islands in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Later he visited Cuba and Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic/Haiti) where he established a minor colony.

Answer: Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama founded colonies in Calicut and Cochin. Along with Goa these were the first Portuguese colonies in India. He died in Cochin in 1524.

Answer: Pedro Cabral

Pedro Cabral was the first European to enter Brazil and he acquired it for his native country, Portugal.

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan reached the Magellan Strait in 1520 and named it after himself. He was killed by locals in the Philippines, but his ship was taken safely back to Spain.

Answer: Amerigo Vespucci

The continent of America was named after Amerigo Vespucci by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507. Vespucci was born in Florence but became a naturalized Spanish citizen in 1501. On his voyage he first explored the coast of Venezuela.

Answer: John Cabot

The Italian name of this man is Giovanni Caboto. He settled in Bristol, England about 1490. Under letters patent from king Henry VII he sailed from Bristol in 1497. The land he first sighted was probably Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He claimed North America for England; Newfoundland was not colonized until the 17th century.

Answer: Juan Ponce de Leon

Ponce de Leon served as a governor in Hispaniola, later in Puerto Rico. He was also made a governor of Florida, but didn't stay for long. He retired to Cuba and died there from a wound inflicted by a poisoned arrow. Florida was Spanish from 1513 to 1821, except 1763-83 when it was British. The USA bought it in 1821.

Answer: Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean. He acquired both the ocean and the Panama isthmus for Spain. A city in Panama (Canal Zone) was named after him. Later, Magellan renamed it the Pacific Ocean.

Answer: Hernan Cortes

Hernan Cortes crushed the Aztec empire and its capital 1519-21 and was made the governor of "New Spain" by Charles V.

Answer: Henry the Navigator

Henry the Navigator was a Portuguese prince with a court set up at Sagres, Algarve. He also erected an observatory and school of scientific navigation. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to settle in West Africa in the 1440s.

Answer: Diego de Velazquez

The island was colonized immediately by the Spaniards, who founded Havana in 1519. Velazquez was the governor of Cuba 1511-24.

Answer: Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier made three voyages (1534-41) to North America searching for a westerly route to Asia. He founded the French colony in Canada.

Answer: Francisco Pizarro

Pizarro and Almagro sailed for Peru in 1526, and in 1531 began the conquest of the Incas. Pizarro caught the Inca king Atahualpa in 1532 and founded Lima, later the capital of Peru.

Answer: Willem Barents

Barents led three out of four of the Dutch expeditions sent to find a northern route to China and Japan. He died at Novaya Zemlya in 1597.