Explorers of European Expeditions

Spain:

Name: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

1510-1554

Place of Birth: Salamanca, Spain

Biography:

        He was born in Salamanca, Spain and went to the Americas in 1535 when he was 25. His first appointment was as assistant to the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza.
Legacy:
        Visited New Mexico and other parts of the southwest to which is now the United States.

Name: Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro

1485-1547

Place of Birth: Medellin, Spain

Biography:

        Hernan Cortes was born around 1485 in Medellin Spain, and helped in advancing Spain's position in North America in the 1500s. He came from a lesser noble family in Spain. Some reports indicate that he studied at the university of Salamanca for a time.Portugal.

Legacy:

        He conquered the Aztecs.

Name: Vasco Nuñez de Balboa

1475-1513

Place of Birth: Jerz de los Caballeros, Spain

Biography:

             Balboa was born in 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros, a town in the impoverished Extremadura region of Spain. His father was believed to be a nobleman, but the family was not wealthy; like many of his class, Balboa decided to seek his fortune in the New World.

Legacy:
         Helped establish the first settlement on the South American continent at Darien at the coast of Isthmus in Panama.

Name: Gonzalo Pizarro

1510-1548

Place of Birth: Trujillo, Cacares, Spain

Biography:

        Was the brother of Hernando Pizarro, Juan Pizarro and Francisco Pizarro. The four of them went together in an expedition to Peru.

Legacy:

        Helped in conquering Peru and executing its leader along with his brothers.

Name: Juan de la Cosa

1460-1510

Place of Birth: Santoña, Spain

Biography:

               Juan de la Cosa is also known as the 'Biscayan'. Although researchers have no exact evidences as to where de la Cosa was born, it was presumed that it was in Santoña for his wife as well as his daughter lived there,

Legacy:

        One of the first Europeans who helped in designing the map.

Portugal:

Name: Pedro Álvares Cabral

1467-1520

Place of Birth: Belmonte, Portugal

Biography:

        Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.

Legacy:

        The very first European to ever visit Brazil,

Name: Bartholomew Dias

1451-1500

Place of Birth: Algarve, Kingdom of Portugal

Biography:

        Bartolomeu Dias was a Knight of the royal court, superintendent of the royal warehouses, and sailing-master of the man-of-war, São Cristóvão. King John II of Portugal appointed him, on 10 October 1487, to head an expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India.

Legacy:

       Was the one who led the expedition that founded the Cape of Storms or now called as Cape of Good Hope.

Name: Vasco da Gama

1460-1524

Place of Birth: Sines, Kingdom of Portugal

Biography:

        Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and went on to rise in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed alcaide-mór (civil governor) of Sines in the 1460s, a post he held until 1478, and continued as a receiver of taxes and holder of the Order's commendas in the region.

Legacy:

        The very first European to fin a route to India by sea.

Name: Infante Henrique, 'Henry the Navigator'

1394-1460

Place of Birth: Porto, Kingdom of Portugal

Biography:

        Henry was the third surviving son of King John I and his wife Philippa, sister of King Henry IV of England. He was baptized in Porto, and may have been born there, probably when the royal couple was living in the city's old mint, now called Casa do Infante (Prince's House), or in the region nearby. Another possibility is that he was born at the Monastery of Leça do Bailio, in Leça da Palmeira, during the same residential passage of the royal couple in the city of Porto.

Legacy: 

        He initiated the Age of Discoveries.

Name: João da Nova

1460-1509

Place of Birth: Maceda, Ourensa, Galicia

Biography:

        Juan da Nova was born into a noble family in Maceda, Galicia, then a constituent kingdom of the Crown of Castile. Nova was sent by his family to Portugal, where he grew up, to escape the struggles between aristocratic factions known as the Irmandiño wars. In Portugal, he was also known as João Galhego ("the Galician"). In 1496, he was appointed as Alcaide menor (Mayor) of Lisbon by king Manuel I.

Legacy:

        He is credited as the discoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena islands.

France:

Name: Jacques Cartier

1491-1557

Place of Birth: Saint-Malo, Brittany

Biography:
        French navigator Jacques Cartier was born on December 31, 1491, in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France, and was sent by King Francis I to the New World in search of riches and a new route to Asia in 1534. His exploration of the St. Lawrence River allowed France to lay claim to lands that would become Canada. He died in Saint-Malo in 1557.
Legacy:
        Helped in claiming Canada.

Name: Jacques Marquette

1637-1675

Place of Birth: Laon, France

Biography:

        Frenchman Jacques Marquette became an explorer in the mid-1600s, not only because of his interest in travel and discovery of new lands, but also because of his religion. At age 17, Marquette—who was born in Laon, France, on June 1, 1637—joined the Society of Jesus and became a Jesuit missionary.

Legacy:

        He founded missions in present-day Michigan and later joined explorer Louis Joliet on an expedition to discover and map the Mississippi River.

Name: Samuel de Champlain

1574-1635

Place of Birth: Hiers-Brouage, France

Biography:

        Samuel de Champlain was born in 1574 (according to his baptismal certificate, which was discovered in 2012), in Brouage, a small port town in the province of Saintonge, on the western coast of France. Although Champlain wrote extensively of his voyages and later life, little is known of his childhood. He was likely born a Protestant, but converted to Catholicism as a young adult.

Legacy:

        He established the city of Quebec in the northern colony of New France, and mapped the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes

Name: Pierre Gaultier de Varennes

1685-1749

Place of Birth: Trois-Rivières, Canada

Biography:

        Although he wasn't recognized as such during his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the greatest explorers of the Canadian West. La Vérendrye built a series of trading posts with his two sons and pushed west, exploring surrounding territory as he went.

Legacy:

        Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye is best known for his explorations of the northern U.S. and Canadian provinces.

Name: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

1643-1687

Place of Birth: Rouen, France

Biography:

        Born in Rouen, France, on November 22, 1643, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was an explorer best known for leading an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, claiming the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France, and naming it Louisiana after King Louis XIV. His last expedition was to invade and conquer part of the Spanish province of Mexico, which failed and cost La Salle his life.

Legacy:

        Expeditions down the Illinois and Mississippi river.

England:

Name: James Cook

1728-1779

Place of Birth: Middlesbrough Yorkshire, England

Biography:

        James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 3 November in the local church of St. Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church register.

Legacy:

        Made detailed maps of Newfoundland.

Name: Walter Raleigh

1552-1618

Place of Birth: Devon, England

Biography:

        Little is known about Raleigh's birth. Some historians believe he was born on 22 January 1552, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography currently favours a date of 1554. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, a farmhouse near the village of East Budleigh, not far from Budleigh Salterton, in Devon. He was the youngest of five sons born to Catherine Champernowne in two successive marriages. His half-brothers, John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, Adrian Gilbert and full brother Carew Raleigh were also prominent during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeth's governess, who introduced the young men at court.

Legacy:

        Popularizing tobacco in England.

Name: Percy Fawcett

1867-1927(Disappeared)

Place of Birth: Devon, United Kingdom

Biography:

        Percy Fawcett was born on 18 August 1867 in Torquay, Devon, England, to Edward Boyd Fawcett and Myra Elizabeth (née MacDougall). He received his education at Newton Abbot Proprietary College alongside Bertram Fletcher Robinson, a future friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Percy Fawcett's Indian-born father was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). His elder brother Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866–1960) was a mountain climber, Eastern occultist and author of philosophical books and popular adventure novels.

Legacy:

        Went in expedition in El Dorado, Brazil in which where he disappeared.

Name: Samuel Baker

1821-1893

Place of Birth: London, England

Biography:

        Samuel White Baker was born on 8 June 1821 in London, as the offspring of a wealthy commercial family. His father, Samuel Baker Sr., was a sugar merchant, banker and ship owner from Thorngrove, Worcestershire with mercantile ties in the West Indies.

Legacy:

        Wrote a considerable number of articles and novels.

Name: John Franklin

1786-1847

Place of Birth: Lincolnshire, England

Biography:

        Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in 1786 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He was the ninth of twelve children born to Hannah Weekes and Willingham Franklin, the descendant of a long line of country gentlemen.

Legacy:

        Led his men into the Northwest Passage.

Netherlands/Holland:

Name: Abel Janszoon Tasman

1603-1659

Place of Birth: Lutjegast, Dutch republic

Biography:

        Abel Jans Tasman was born in 1603 in Lutjegast in what is now the province of Groningen, the Netherlands. The oldest available source mentioning him dates 27 December 1631 when, as a widower living in Amsterdam, he became engaged to marry 21-year-old Jannetje Tjaers from the Jordaan district of the city.

Legacy:

        Discovered New Zealand, Tasmania and Fiji.

Name: Henry Hudson

1565-1607

Place of Birth: England

Biography:

        Details of Hudson's birth and early life are mostly unknown. Some sources have identified Hudson as having been born in about 1565, but others date his birth to around 1570. Other historians assert even less certainty; Mancall, for instance, states that '[Hudson] was probably born in the 1560s," while Pennington gives no date at all. Hudson is thought to have spent many years at sea, beginning as a cabin boy and gradually working his way up to ship's captain.

Legacy:

        The gulf or bay discovered by Hudson is twice the size of the Baltic Sea, and its many large estuaries afford access to otherwise landlocked parts of Western Canada and the Arctic.

Name: Oliver van Noort

1558-1627

Place of Birth: Utrecht, Netherland

Biography:

        Olivier van Noort was born in 1558 in Utrecht. He left Rotterdam on 2 July 1598 with four ships and a plan to attack Spanish possessions in the Pacific and to trade with China and the Spice Islands. His ships were poorly equipped, especially in the way of armament and the crews were unruly.

Legacy:

        First Dutchman to circumnavigate the world.

Name: Willem Schouten

1567-1625

Place of Birth: Hoorn, Holland

Biography:

        Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c. 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, Seventeen Provinces.

Legacy:

        First to sail in Cape Horn route to Pacific Ocean.

Name: Willem Barentsz

1550-1597

Place of Birth: Terschelling, Netherland

Biography:

        Willem Barentsz was born around 1550 on the island Terschelling in the Seventeen Provinces, present-day Netherlands. A cartographer by trade, Barentsz sailed to Spain and the Mediterranean to complete an atlas of the Mediterranean region, which he co-published with Petrus Plancius. His career as an explorer was spent searching for the Northeast passage, which he reasoned must exist as clear, open water north of Siberia since the sun shone 24 hours a day, which he believed would have melted any potential ice.

Legacy:

        Had three expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage.

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