| A | B |
|---|
| Colony | an area settled in and claimed for another country |
| gold | a precious metal many explorers were searching for |
| trade | becoming wealthy by bartering food, furs, and European goods between Native Americans and Europeans |
| Cathay | former European name for China |
| Northwest Passage | a nonexistant water route through North America that many explorers hoped would be a shortcut to Asia |
| Christianity | the religion that many Spanish explorers hoped to convert the Native Americans to |
| Superstitions | unfounded beliefs that made many sailors afraid to explore unknown waters and lands |
| Marco Polo | famous Italian land explorer whose description of China and the Indies Islands inspired exploration |
| Leif Eriksson | explorer who traveled along the Canadian coast, finally settling in Vinland |
| Prince Henry the Navigator | nickname for the Portuguese leader who set up the first European school for training sailors in navigation and had hopes of being the first person to discover a water route to Asia |
| Bartholomeu Dias | explorer who was the first European to sail around the souther tip of Africa before turning back |
| Vasco da Gama | explorer who sailed around the southern tip of Africa to India |
| Christopher Columbus | explorer who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean seeking a western route to Asia |
| Amerigo Vespucci | explorer who came to the conclusion that he and Columbus had discovered a previously unknown continent rather than Asia |
| Vasco Nunez de Balboa | explorer who crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean |
| Ferdinand Magellan | explorer whose surviving crew managed to be the first to sail around the world |
| Hernando Cortes or Cortez | explorer who defeated the Aztec Empire in search of gold in what is now Mexico |
| Francisco Pizarro | explorer who defeated the Inca Empire of South America in a search for gold and riches |
| Juan Ponce de Leon | explorer who discovered what is now Florida while searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth |
| Francisco Vasquez de Coronado | explorer who explored areas in the Southwest United States searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold |
| Hernando de Soto | explorer who was the first European to see the Mississippi River |
| Jacques Cartier | explorer who sailed up the St. Lawrence River searching for a Northwest Passage to Asia and who began the fur trade with the Huron Indians |
| Samuel de Champlain | explorer who set up a settlement called Quebec and a trading post at what is now Montreal |
| Henry Hudson | explorer who claimed the land along the Hudson River for the Netherlands |
| Sir Walter Raleigh | English nobleman who sent people to settle England's first colony just off the coast of what is now North Carolina |
| Captain John Smith | English leader who forced the colonists to work |
