Explorers Unit

Explorers Unit You will be creating a biography of one of these explorers. There are enough for most of you to have your own explorer so that we can learn all the important explorers at one time Please look at the pictures to see what you think you would like to

John Cabot Lived in Venice, Italy until he moved to England to find the Northwest Passage.

Hernando De Soto • Lived in Spain • Conquest of the Inca Empire.

Cabeza De Vaca • Lived in Spain • Took an exploration that landed near Tampa Bay, FL

Giovanni da Verrazzano • Born in Italy • Explored the east coast and found New York Bay

Amerigo Vespucci • Born in Spain • New World was named after him “America”

Juan Ponce de Leon • Born in Spain • Found the Bahamas

Marco Polo • Born in Venice, Italy • Travelled through China

Jacques Marquette • Born in France • Searched for the Mississippi River

Ferdinand Magellan • Born in Portugal • Travelled around the world.

Henry Hudson • Born in England • Found the Hudson River

Prince Henry • Portuguese explorer • Never really sailed. Why is he important?...

Vasco da Gama • Born in Portugal • Travelled to India

Sir Francis Drake • Born in England • Sailed around the world

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado • Born in Spain • Searched for the seven cities of Gold

Christopher Columbus • Spanish explorer • Travelled all over including Portugal and India

Samuel de Champlain • Born in France • Travelled to Spain and New France

Vasco Nunez de Balboa • Born in Spain • First European to see the Pacific Ocean from its eastern boarder.

Jacques Cartier • Born in France • In search of the Northwest Passage

Leif Erikson • A viking from Norse • The “real” first person to discover America?