MAT Explorers

Marco Polo

(1254-1324) Italian descent; explored China and Asia

John Cabot

(1450-1498) English descent; explored North America -- Cabot was born in Italy but moved to England in 1495. At the request of King Henry VII of England, Cabot sailed to Canada in 1497, commanding the small ship called "Matthew." Cabot landed near Labrador, Newfoundland, or Cape Breton Island (the exact spot is uncertain) on June 24, 1497. Cabot explored the Canadian coastline and named many of its islands and capes. The mission's purpose was to search for a Northwest passage across North America to Asia (a seaway to Asia). Cabot was unsuccessful, although he thought that he had reached northeastern Asia.

Bartolomeu Diaz

(1450-1500) Portuguese descent; discovered the Cape of Good Hope at the bottom of Western Africa -- known for being the first European to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa. He sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, the first European known to have done so.

Christopher Columbus

(1451-1506) Italian/Spanish descent; discovered the "New World" (America) -- The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not really "discover" the New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of transatlantic conquest and colonization.

Amerigo Vespucci

(1454-1521) Italian descent; America was named after him; first to realize that the Americas were a different continent than Asia. -- The voyage of 1501-02 is of fundamental importance in the history of geographic discovery in that Vespucci himself, and scholars as well, became convinced that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia but a "New World."

Juan Ponce de Leon

(1460-1521) Spanish descent; first European explorer in Florida -- led a European expedition for gold, which eventually brought him to the southeast coast of what would become the United States. He gave Florida its name and went on to become the first governor of Puerto Rico.

Francisco Pizarro

(1470-1541) Spanish descent; discovered Peru and the Incan empire -- a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa, and claimed the lands for Spain.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

(1475-1517) Spanish descent; discovered the Pacific Ocean -- crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

Ferdinand Magellan

(1480-1521) Portuguese descent; the first person to sail around the world. - a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Hernando Cortes

(1485-1547) Spanish descent; discovered Mexico, the Aztec nation -- led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Jacques Cartier

(1491-1557) French descent; explored the St. Lawrence river region (Michigan's great lakes) -- a Breton explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map[1] the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island).[2][3][4][5]

Hernando de Soto

(1500-1542) Spanish; discovered Cuba, Florida, the Southeast region of the U.S. -- Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first Spanish and European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States. He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

(1510-1554) Spanish descent; first European to explore Arizona and New Mexico -- a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542

Fransisco Vasquez de Coronado

(1510-1554) Spanish descent; the mythical city of Cibola, in the Southwestern region of the U.S. -- He failed in his quest for treasure to enrich the Spanish empire, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led one of the most remarkable European explorations of the North American interior.

Sir Francis Drake

(1540-1596) British descent; circumnavigated the globe, helped defeat the Spanish Armada (The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in late May 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England.)

Sir Walter Raleigh

(1552-1618) British descent; eastern coast of the U.S. -- English aristocrat and explorer that is today best remembered for his journey to the South America where he searched for the legendary lost city of gold - El Dorado. His exploits greatly popularized both the myths of this ancient city and the European usage of the South American plant called tobacco. During his life he made three famous journeys across Atlantic - once as a leader of the private owned fleet of ships that colonized the lands of North America (today located across Virginia and North Carolina), and two times as a leader of the expedition fleet in South America.

Henry Hudson

(1611) British descent; discovered the Hudson river and the Hudson bay area -- Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.

Jacques Marquette

(1637-1675) French descent; best known as the first European to see and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.

Robert Peary

(1856-1920) American descent; discovered the North Pole (Fred Cook claimed he did first -- dispute)

Robert Scott

(1868-1912) British descent; discovered Antarctica and the South Pole five weeks after Amundsen. -- a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913). On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents.

Roald Amundensen

(1872-1928) Norwegian descent; the first explorer to reach the South Pole and to fly over the North Pole -- the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911, he was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole, making him the first person, without dispute, to reach both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Arctic.