Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World." Bartholomew Diaz Bartholomew Diaz was a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household. More importantly, he was also a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so. Some historians though, credit Herodotus' account of a Phoenician expedition that achieved the feat under the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (610 – 595 BC). Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. For a short time in 1524, he was the Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy. Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He obtained Spanish nationality in order to serve the Spanish Crown, so that he could try to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He thereby became the first European to lead an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. This was also the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. Although he did not complete the entire voyage (he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines), Magellan had earlier traveled eastwards to the Malay Peninsula. So he became one of the first explorers to cross all of the meridians of the globe. García Jofre de Loaísa García Loaísa was a 16th century Spanish explorer ordered by king Charles I of Spain to command an expedition to Asia, known as the Loaísa expedition, which in 1525 was sent by the western route to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies, thus crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 450 men were aboard, including different kinds of trades and administrative staff, intended to establish a permanent Spanish settlement in the Spanish East Indies. This was the second attempt of the circumnavigation of the world.

Ruy Lopez de Villalobos Ruy López de Villalobos was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico (New Spain) to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which in 1543 were near to the Line of Demarcation of Portugal. Miguel Lagazpi Miguel López de Legazpi, also known as Adelantado or El Adelantado (The Governor) and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who established the first colony in the Philippine Islands in 1565. Sources: Wikipedia.org Wikipilipinas.org