Amerigo Vespucci was a pioneering navigator and popular chronicler, as well as the man who gave the American continent its name. He explored a long stretch of the South American coastline, and was the first person to realize that this part of the world was not an unknown region of Asia, but a completely separate continent. In particular, he discovered...
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In 1492, three ships captained by the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. Although the Viking explorer Leif Eriksson had first discovered the Americas almost 500 years earlier, Columbus and his men were the first to establish sustained contact with the continent's indigenous populations. While his expedition brought immense wealth to the Spanish Crown and made it...
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In 1859, Charles Darwin’s seminal book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published and presented the groundbreaking idea that all species on Earth are the result of a slow process of evolution and continue to evolve as part of the struggle now commonly known as the survival of the fittest. Darwin’s conclusions were the fruit...
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The conquistador Francisco Pizarro was one of the most important figures of Spanish colonization. His subjugation of the Inca Empire allowed him to seize power in the capital, Cuzco, and establish a number of new towns on behalf of the Spanish Crown, bringing a huge amount of wealth to Spain and helping it to become one of the most powerful countries...
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Leif Eriksson is a crucial figure in maritime exploration: this Viking navigator is believed to have discovered the Americas at the turn of the first millennium AD, over 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Indeed, at this point in history the Vikings were far better explorers than other Europeans due to their more technologically advanced ships and excellent navigation skills, which allowed...
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Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who is known for completing the first circumnavigation of the earth. His voyage is particularly interesting because of the discoveries that were made along the way: he discovered a previously unknown strait while sailing past America and proved once and for all that the world is not flat. In just 50 minutes,...
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Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who, along with Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, was one of the most famous European explorers of his time. Known in particular for being the first person to open up a direct maritime route between Europe and Asia, da Gama sailed around Africa to reach the Western coast of India in the late...
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