| A | B |
|---|
| Marco Polo | Venetian merchant who traveled to China in 1271; worked for Kublai Khan; brought back many new ideas |
| Zheng He | Chinese explorer; sailed throughout Southeasat Asia and to Africa's eastern coast |
| Mansa Musa | Muslim ruler and the greatest king of Mali |
| Johannes Gutenberg | Developed a printing press, which allowed books and ideas to spread more quickly across Europe |
| Prince Henry | Ruler of Portugal who founded a school of navigation to encourage explorer |
| Bartolomeu Dias | Portuguese explorer; sailed around the southern tip of Africa to the eastern coast of Africa |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese explorer; sailed around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean to India |
| Christopher Columbus | Sailed for the Spanish; wanted to reach Asia by sailing west; landed in the Bahamas; led several voyages to the West Indies |
| Pedro Alvarez Cabral | Portuguese explorer who explored eastern South America and claimed it for Portugal |
| Amerigo Vespucci | Made several voyages to South America and the Caribbean; made several maps of the region |
| Vasco Nunez de Balboa | Spanish explorer; crossed the mountains and jungles of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean |
| Ferdinand Magellan | Sailed for Spain; although he died on the voyage, his crew proved that Asia could be reached by sailing west; named the Pacific Ocean |
| Hernan Cortes | Spanish explorer; conquered the Aztecs in Mexico |
| Ferdinand and Isabella | King and queen of Spain who supported Christpher Columbus for his voyages |
| Moctezuma | Chief of the Aztecs at the time they were conquered by Cortes and the Spanish |
| Juan Ponce de Leon | First Spanish explorer to reach what is now the US; sought the "fountain of youth" and gold; explored present-day Florida |
| Hernando de Soto | Spanish explorer; started in Georgia and explored the southeast US; first European exlorer to reach the Mississippi River |
| Francisco Vasquez de Coronado | Spanish explorer seeking the cities of gold that de Vaca sought; trveled through much of the Southwest and up to Kansas |
| caravel | new type of ship during the Age of Exploration with triangular sails making it possible to sail into the wind |
| conquistador | Spanish name for conqueror; soldiers eager to find wealth and fame; explored and claimed much land for Spain in the Western Hemisphere |
| Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria | Names of the three ships during Columbus's first voyage |
| Renaissance | Time period during which many changes took place in Europe and new technology was developed; word means "rebirth" |
| Juniperro Serra | Spanish priest who led an expedition up the coast of California; built the settlement of San Diego and built many missions in California |
| Pope | Pueblo Indian who led a successful revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico |
