Exploring the Americas

1492 - Italian explorer - sailed for Spain - looking for trade route west to Asia but landed in present-day Bahamas

• Martin Luther

• Christopher Columbus

• Rene LaSalle

• Ponce de Leon

1000 - Viking explorer - believed to be the first European to reach the Americas

• Christopher Columbus

• Martin Luther

• Rene LaSalle

• Leif Ericson

1497 - Italian explorer- sailed around South America, realized it was a new continent (not Asia), the Americas are named after him

• Henry Hudson

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Vasco Balboa

• Amerigo Vespucci

1513 - Spanish explorer - traveled across modern-day Panama to be the first European to see the Pacific Ocean

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Henry Hudson

• Vasco Balboa

• Amerigo Vespucci

1513 - Spanish explorer - claimed modern-day Florida for Spain

• Rene LaSalle

• Christopher Columbus

• Martin Luther

• Ponce de Leon

to sail around the world

• circumnavigate

• conquistador

• immunity

• compass

1517 - wrote 95 Thesis listing his objections of the Catholic teachings and selling of indulgences (forgiveness of sins)

• Rene LaSalle

• Martin Luther

• Christopher Columbus

• Ponce de Leon

16th Century (1500s) - led to the establishment of the Protestant (Christian) churches - led by Martin Luther for religious reasons and Henry VIII (8th) for political reasons

• printing press

• Columbian Exchange

• Protestant Reformation

• St. Augustine

1450 - invention that affected the speed of the spread of information itself. Allowed people to read the Bible for themselves for the first time

• printing press

• immunity

• carrack

• compass

1669 - French explorer - used a canoe to follow the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico - named present-day Louisiana after King Louis XIV (14th)

• Ponce de Leon

• Christopher Columbus

• Vasco Balboa

• Rene LaSalle