OTHER EXPLORERS

OTHER EXPLORERS

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (1475-1519) was a Spanish explorer who was the first European to see the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean (in 1513), crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

 

Amerigo Vespucci

Explorer Amerigo Vespucci was born in 1451,  in Florence, Italy. On May 10th, 1497, he embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain, on February, 1512.

 

 Ferdinand Magellan

    Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal in  1480. As a boy, he studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mid-20s, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. In 1519, with the support of King Charles V of Spain, Magellan set out to find a better route to the Spice Islands. He assembled a fleet of ships which, despite huge setbacks and Magellan’s death, circumnavigated the world in a single voyage.