Hi everyone. This week's Links list is about those intrepid explorers who discovered new worlds and found people who didn't even know they were lost!
Enjoy this list in the spirit of adventure, and pass it along to those who will be interested.
Cheers
Aoife
Explorers
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/explorers/explorers_start.htm
BIOGRAPHIES OF EXPLORERS AND ASSOCIATED PEOPLE
http://www.mariner.org/age/biohist.html
Enchanted Learning Explorers
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/index.shtml
(Site Excerpt of the first Entry) ALBUQUERQUE, AFONSO DE
Afonso de Albuquerque (14??-1515) was a Portuguese soldier and explorer who
sailed to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas, a group of Islands in Indonesia)
in 1507-1511, trying to monopolize trade with this area; from Europe, he
sailed around Africa to the Indian Ocean. He was appointed the Viceroy of
India by King Emmanuel in 1509. He forcibly destroyed the Indian city of
Calicut in January, 1510, and took Goa (in southern India) in March, 1510,
claiming Goa for Portugal.
Elementary Themes
Vasco da Gama
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/exgama.htm
(Site Excerpt) Vasco da Gama is famous for his completion of the first all
water trade route between Europe and India. Da Gama's father, Estavao, had
originally been chosen by King Joao II to make this historic voyage, but he
died before he could complete the mission.
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
http://www.mariner.org/age/magellan.html
(Site Excerpt) The first circumnavigation of the globe was led by Ferdinand
Magellan. He was born in the spring of 1480 to a family of lower nobility.
Educated in the Portuguese court, Magellan proved himself in many battles in
the name of his country. Like Columbus before him, Magellan believed he
could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west. He knew he would have to
sail around or through the New World to do so. Like so many explorers before
him, he thought the earth was much smaller than it actually is. Snubbed by
the Portuguese king, Magellan easily convinced the teenaged Spanish king,
Charles I (also known as the Holy Roman emperor Charles V) that at least
some of the Spice Islands lay in the Spanish half of the undiscovered world.
THE EXPLORATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
http://www.mariner.org/age/columbus.html
(Site Excerpt) Like all learned men of his time, Columbus knew the world
was round. He theorized that since the earth was a sphere, a ship could
eventually reach the Far East from the opposite direction. He thought to
establish trade routes to Asia in this manner. The fifteenth-century
Europeans were not aware of the South and North American continents during
this timeframe. Mapmakers did not show an accurate picture and no one knew
there was a Pacific Ocean. For a decade, Columbus approached the Portuguese
king and the Spanish monarchs to obtain a grant to explore possible trade
routes to the west.
Leif Ericsson
About AD 970 -1020
http://viking.no/e/people/leif/e-leiv.htm
(Site Excerpt) Watch out for that iceberg! Eric the Red shouted the order to
the rowers. Exiled from Iceland, he was searching for a new home for his
family. Young Leif, his son, kept staring at the huge iceberg while they
slowly and carefully rowed past it in their Viking ship. Soon the fjord
opened up and Leif could see green grassland both to the right and left. The
men stopped rowing and soon the ship gently grounded on the beach and they
all went ashore. For the first three years, they lived there in virtual
seclusion. There were no other inhabitants around, and they focused on their
family and environment, learning and taking what the new land offered.
Marco Polo Travels in China
1275-1292
http://campus.northpark.edu/history//WebChron/China/MarcoPolo.html
(Site Excerpt) Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy in the year 1254. He had
an education of different skills in accounting, foreign languages, and
knowledge of the Christian Church. His background in business and culture
and his love for nature made Marco Polo very observant of humans, animals,
and plants. His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who
began their first eastern journey in 1260. They visited Constantinople and
made their way to the domain of the Great Kublai Khan, ruler of China. The
Emperor became interested in stories of the native land of the merchants;
thus, he sent the Polos back to the Pope as his ambassadors with messages of
peace and interest in converting areas of China to Christianity.
THE LIFE OF AMERIGO VESPUCCI
http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/canaday.html
Amerigo's uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, had a profound influence on the
life of Amerigo [Pohl 15]. Giorgio was a canon, scholar, collector of
manuscripts, and the owner of a library, which he gave to the Medici Family,
who ruled Florence [Pohl 16]. About a year before Amerigo was born, Giorgio
opened a school in his convent of San Marco for the sons of the principle
nobles of Florence. As soon as Amerigo was of age to go to his uncle's
school, he did [Lester 58]. Giorgio saw Amerigo as the man who would save
the decimating fortune of the Vespucci family. Amerigo acquired a love for
Virgil, Dante, and Petrarch, while he studied with his uncle; hence, Amerigo
studied to perfect the language of scholars, Latin [Pohl 16].
SIR WALTER RALEIGH
1554-1618
http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/renaissanceman.html
(Site Excerpt) ...in 1590, Raleigh was at the height of his power. By this
time he was known as one of the dashing personalities of England. He had
been knighted and was one of the queen's favorites. He was so popular with
the queen he was granted 12,000 acres of land in the new world.
Jacques Cartier
http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/cartier.html
He made the crossing of the Atlantic in only twenty days, and landed on an
island near the coast of Newfoundland, by then already much frequented by
Breton fishermen. He sailed north, and entered the Strait of Belle Isle. He
sailed into the Bay of St. Lawrence and along the westcoast of Newfoundland,
and crossed the Bay to the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island, both
of which he thought part of the mainland. Then he went to Chaleur Bay and
Gasp�peninsula.
