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AP US History Period 1 (1491-1607) Exploration Flashcards

Vocabulary terms, events, and people on the topic of exploration in US History.

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1575056930Vasco da GamaPortuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route.0
1575056931Christopher ColumbusAn Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journeys until the time of his death in 1503.1
1575056932Henry de SotoFirst person to sail into the Miss. River in 1542. He earned a reputation with the members of the "Five Civilized Tribes" due to his cruelty and ruthlessness. He died upon reaching the Mississippi River due to fever.2
1575056933Ponce de LeonDiscovered and claimed Florida (Land of the Flowers) for Spain while looking for the Fountain of Youth3
1575056934Samuel Champlain(1608) French explorer who founded Quebec, the first permanent French settlement in North America4
1575056935Francis DrakeEnglish explorer and admiral who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and who helped to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588.5
1575056936Hernando Cortez(1519) A brash and determined Spanish adventurer, Hernando Cortez crossed the Hispaniola to mainland Mexico with six hundred men, seventeen horses and ten canons. Within three years, Cortez had taken captive the Aztec emperor Montezuma, conquered the rich Aztec empire and found Mexico City as the capital of New Spain.6
1575056937Francisco Pizarro(1533) A conquistador like Cortes, who conquered the Incas in Peru and help to begin more advances in South America. Besides miners who worked in the silver mines, farmers, priests, friars and missionaries went to South America after it was conquered.7
1575056938Francisco Balboa(1513) This Spanish explorer was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and he called hit the South sea8
1575056939Ferdinand Magellan(1480?-1521) Portuguese-born navigator. Hired by Spain to sail to the Indies in 1519. Magellan was killed in the Philippines (1521). One of his ships returned to Spain (1522), thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.9
3508817012Francisco CoronadoA Spanish soldier and commander; in 1540, he led an expedition north from Mexico into Arizona; he was searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold, but only found Adobe pueblos. The state Colorado earned its name from his expeditions.10
3508820671Marquette and JolietFrench explorers who went through the Great Lakes to find the Mississippi River for Robert La Salle to explore later, who claimed the region and Louisiana for France.11
3508821972Robert La SalleFrench explorer who explored the Mississippi and claimed Louisiana for France.12
3508823543Henry HudsonAn English explorer who explored for the Dutch. He claimed the Hudson River around present day New York and called it New Netherland. He also had the Hudson Bay named for him. This led to the Dutch settlements in New York.13
3508825583Jacques CartierFrench explorer who explored the St. Lawrence river and laid claim to the region for France (1491-1557)14

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