Who Am I -- Explorers

I am a Portuguese businessman who started a school for navigators. I also help fund people who wanted to go out exploring so long as they are spreading Christianity.

• Prince Henry the Navigator

• Henry Hudson

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Juan Ponce De Leon

I believed I could reach Asia by traveling west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. I eventually got the king and queen of Spain to pay for my journey. I thought I had landed in India, so I called the natives, "Indians." Later people will realize that I really landed in the Bahamas off the coast of North America.

• Christopher Columbus

• Samuel De Champlain

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Francisco Coronado

I was the first guy to finally realize that Cabot and Columbus were NOT in Asia, but they had been in a new land. America was named after me. On my voyages I was looking for gold to take back to Spain.

• Christopher Columbus

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Leif Ericson

I was truly the European on the North American Continent. I arrived in Canada with my Viking friends around 1000.

• Christopher Columbus

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Leif Ericson

I am a Spanish Conquistador. I was looking for Peru, and found it, along with the entire Inca civilization. I found the Incan gold and took it while, enslaving and murdering thousands of Incans along the way. I did achieve my goals by finding gold and claiming Peru for Spain.

• Francisco Coronado

• Francisco Pizarro

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Leif Ericson

I am the conquistador that went looking for the Seven Cities of Gold. Though I never found these cities, I did conquer much of what is today the southwestern U.S. for Spain. And I did “discover” the Grand Canyon!

• Francisco Coronado

• Francisco Pizarro

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• Leif Ericson

I am a conquistador that conquered the Aztec empire and built Mexico City.

• Francisco Coronado

• Francisco Pizarro

• Hernan Cortez

• Hernando De Soto

• René-Robert Cavelier (aka La Salle)

I was searching for the Fountain of Youth, and though I never found it, I was the first to step foot on what is today U.S.A. soil.

• Francisco Coronado

• Juan Ponce De Leon

• Samuel De Champlain

• Hernando De Soto

• René-Robert Cavelier (aka La Salle)

I was looking for a way to go west from Europe to find Asia also known as the Northwest Passage. Instead he discovered a famous river and explored the area around what is today NYC. While I never found his way to Asia, my efforts helped drive European interest in North America. On my last voyage my crew left me adrift and no one knows exactly what happened in my last days. Today my name can be found all around us on waterways, schools, bridges and even towns.

• Prince Henry The Navigator

• John Cabot

• Samuel De Champlain

• Jacques Cartier

• Henry Hudson

I was the famous Spanish Explorer who reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513 after landing in Panama.

• René-Robert Cavelier (aka La Salle)

• John Cabot

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Vasco Nunez De Balboa

• Ferdinand Magellan