1
Q
Marco Polo
A
- Born to a Venetian merchant family
- Age 17, he accompanied his father along the Silk Road through Mongolia to China.
- Left in 1271 and returned in 1295.
- Dictated his book, Discourse Concerning Various Experiences, which became the basis for maps and travel guides.
2
Q
Amerigo Vespucci
A
- Born in 1454 in Florence
- Went on three voyages and explored the coast of South America and the mouth of the Amazon River.
- First modern person to calculate longitude.
- Contracted Malaria on his third voyage and died in Spain in 1512.
- His name was the basis for the word, America.
3
Q
Prince Henry the Navigator
A
- Born in 1394 as the third son of the king of Portugal.
- His shipbuilders invented a faster ship, called the caravel.
4
Q
Christopher Columbus
A
- Genoese by birth.
- Went on four voyages to the Western Hemisphere.
- Became governor of Hispaniola, but fell out of favor with the Spanish Crown for mismanagement.
- Died in 1506 in Spain.
5
Q
Vasco de Gama
A
- Sailed from Portugal, around the African Continent to India, and returned in 1498.
- Established regular trade with the Spice Islands and India.
- Named Viceroy of India where he died in 1524.
6
Q
Hernando Cortes
A
- 1519, He landed and quickly subdued two Indian tribes.
- Met with Montezuma, the Aztec emperor.
- The Aztecs killed Montezuma and revolted.
- Cortes crushed the revolt and destroyed the Aztec empire.
7
Q
Francisco Pizarro
A
- Took Atahualpa, the Incan ruler, captive, held him for ransom, then killed him anyways.
- Pizarro quickly conquered the rest of Peru.
- Assassinated by his own men in 1541.
8
Q
Cabeza de Vaca
A
- One of four survivors of an expedition to explore Florida in 1528.
- Crossed the Gulf of Mexico on rafts.
- First European to see the Southwest.
- Drew further expansion into what became New Mexico.
- Provincial governor of New Mexico until he was deposed.
9
Q
Hernando de Soto
A
- First Spaniard to successfully explore Florida.
- Landed with six hundred men in 1539 and surveyed most of the Southeast.
- Discovered the Mississippi river, but died in 1542.
10
Q
John and Sebastian Cabot
A
- Venetians that worked for the English Crown.
- John died before the journey began.
- His son, Sebastian claimed fishing beds off the coast of Canada in 1509.
- Responsible for the first English claim of the New World.
11
Q
Giovanni de Verrazano
A
- Francis I sent him to claim land for France.
- Landed near the Carolinas in 1523, then went up the coast to Nova Scotia.
- Only North American explorer known to have been killed and eaten by American Indians in 1528.
12
Q
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
A
- Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile united the Spanish Nation.
- Drove out the Moors, Muslims who had conquered the Iberian Peninsula.
- Patrons of Christopher Columbus.
- model for other European Nations to start explorers.
13
Q
Bartolome de las Casas
A
- Dominican friar and priest, who travelled back and forth between Spain and the New World.
- Lobbied the Spanish Crown for reforms in the treatment of Native Americans.
- His efforts largely failed.
- Slavery advocates used las Casas’s writings to justify it as a means of helping American Indians.
14
Q
Junipero Serra
A
- Franciscan friar.
- Founded nine missions in California and San Diego.
- Responsible for spreading civilization to the west.
- An example of harsh treatment from the Spanish Crown, which was one reason for the collapse of the Spanish empire.
15
Q
Jacques Cartier
A
- First French explorer of Canada.
- Made three voyages and was responsible for naming Canada.
- 1534, sailed 1,000 miles up the St. Lawrence River.
16
Q
Samuel de Champlain
A
- French explorer who searched for the non-existant Northwest Passage
- Founded settlements in what would become Quebec and Montreal.
- Solidified French alliance with the Huron Indians against the Iroquois.
- Lived the rest of his life as governor of Montreal.
17
Q
Rene-Robert de la Salle
A
- Claimed the mouth of the Mississippi River for France.
- Named the delta region Louisiana and founded a colony there for France.
- Killed by a mutiny from his crew members after he was unable to find the Mississippi river again.
18
Q
Peter Stuyvesant
A
- Governor of New Netherland
- Last hope of Holland and Dutch East India company to hold onto its colonies.
- Kept the French at bay long enough for England to create colonies that could defend themselves.
- English took over Dutch colonies in 1664, and renamed New Amsterdam as New York.
19
Q
Elizabeth I
A
- Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
- Became queen in 1558
- Her refusal to marry kept a foreign monarch from interfering in English affairs.
- After she refused King Phillip II of Spain, Spain went to war with England.
- England won the war, giving it naval supremacy around the world.
- She died in 1603
20
Q
Francis Drake
A
- A English pirate who, in 1577, sailed his ship, The Golden Hind, across the Atlantic coast of the Spanish Empire and plundered every port he encountered.
- Circumnavigated the globe.
- Arrived back in England in 1580
- Played an instrumental role in defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588.
21
Q
Sir Walter Raleigh
A
- Established the colony of Virginia, which was named after the virgin queen Elizabeth.
- Published a book, Discourse concerning western planting, which explained the rationale for English colonization.
- Beheaded by James I
22
Q
Lord De la Warr
A
- New governor and captain of Virginia.
- Arrived in Jamestown in 1610 just as the colony was on the brink of collapse.
- Established the practice of giving the Virginia Company land to Virginians as their own private property.
- On his return to England, his ship was blown off course into the mouth of a river, which he named the Delaware.
23
Q
Anne Hutchinson
A
- A Bostonian, who taught doctrines the Puritans believed to be heretical.
- Puritan authorities put her on trial.
- Her views were similar to Quakerism.
24
Q
Roger Williams
A
- Puritan Minister.
- First to advocate the separation of Church and State.
- Banished from Massachusetts and lived among American Indians.
- Founded a new colony, Rhode Island, in 1636.
- Father of what would become Baptist churches in America.
25
John Locke
- Built on the ideas of Thomas Hobbes about the Social Contract.
- Advocated the preservation of life, liberty, and property.
- Nearly all the Founding Fathers were students of his writings.
- He wrote the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina in 1669.
26
William Penn
- Took part in the founding of three colonies.
- Converted to Quakerism, or the Society of Friends.
- The King owed Penn's family money and repaid the debt by the grant of Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods.
- Drafted several versions of a Constitution for Pennsylvania.
- Made peaceful relations with Native Americans.
- First person to propose British colonies be placed under one government.
- Penn family lost control of Pennsylvania when they refused to support an armed conflict during the Glorious Revolution.
27
Jonathan Edwards
- Preacher from Northampton, Massachusetts.
- His sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" forced people to repent for their sins.
- After a dispute, he was dismissed from the Northampton church.
- He ended his life as president of Princeton University.
28
George Whitefield
- Famous preacher of the First Great Awakening.
- Evangelical and Calvinist Anglican.
- Spread Jonathan Edwards's work through the American Colonies.
