Explorers and Discoveries Quiz

Who set up a school for sailors and mapmakers in Portugal, helping to launch the Age of Exploration?

• Vasco da Gama

• Christopher Columbus

• Prince Henry the Navigator

• Ferdinand Magellan

Which explorer was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route to Asia?

• Bartolomeu Dias

• Vasco Núñez de Balboa

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Francisco Pizarro

Who was the first European to reach India by sea by sailing around Africa?

• Pedro Álvares Cabral

• Vasco da Gama

• Juan Ponce de León

• Hernán Cortés

Which explorer accidentally landed in Brazil while trying to reach India?

• Christopher Columbus

• Francisco Coronado

• Pedro Álvares Cabral

• Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Who realized that the lands Columbus found were not Asia but a 'New World'?

• Vasco Núñez de Balboa

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Francisco Pizarro

Which explorer led the first expedition to circumnavigate the world?

• Hernán Cortés

• Francisco Coronado

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Juan Ponce de León

Who conquered the Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico for Spain?

• Francisco Pizarro

• Hernán Cortés

• Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

• Vasco da Gama

Which explorer crossed Central America and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean?

• Vasco Núñez de Balboa

• Bartolomeu Dias

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Juan Ponce de León

Who was the first European to reach the Mississippi River?

• John Cabot

• Jacques Cartier

• Hernando de Soto

• Giovanni da Verrazzano

Which explorer sailed for England and explored the coast of North America in 1497?

• Hernando de Soto

• John Cabot

• Jacques Cartier

• Giovanni da Verrazzano