European Voyages of Discovery

Before 1500, European sailors seldom ventured far across open water. They preferred to hug the coastline, as Vasco da Gama did in his journey around Africa in 1497–1499. Columbus’s 1492 voyage across the Atlantic was extraordinarily daring, but his successful example inspired others to try alternative routes westward. Cabot, in 1497, sailed across the North Atlantic to Newfoundland. Verrazano, in 1524, sailed due west from the Azores to the Carolinas. Hudson, in 1610, took a far northern route, skirting the ice floes of the Arctic, and “discovered” Hudson Bay. Such men were the superstars of their age; and like superstars of all ages, they became free agents, selling their services to the highest bidder. Thus Columbus, an Italian, claimed Hispaniola for his employer, the Spanish monarchy; and Hudson, an Englishman, claimed the Hudson River for the Dutch East India Company.