Latin America - Explorers and Discoverers

Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus was the greatest of the New World explorers, not only for his accomplishments but for his tenacity and longevity. In 1492, he was the first to make it to the New World and back and returned three more times to explore and establish settlements. Although we must admire his navigation skill, toughness and tenacity, Columbus had a long list of failures as well: he was the first to enslave New World natives, he never admitted that the lands he found were not part of Asia and he was a terrible administrator in the colonies he founded. Still, his prominent place on any list of explorers is well-deserved.

In 1519, the Portuguese Magellan set sail under a Spanish flag with five ships. Their mission: to find a route through or around the New World to get to the lucrative Spice Islands. In 1522, one ship, the Victoria, limped into harbor with eighteen men aboard: Magellan was not among them, having been killed in the Philippines. But the Victoria had accomplished something great: it had not only found the Spice Islands but had gone all the way around the world, first ever to do so. Although Magellan only made it halfway around, his is still the name most commonly associated with this mighty feat.

Although Magellan gets all the credit, it was Basque sailor Juan Sebastian Elcano who was the first to make it around the world and live to tell the tale. He signed on the Magellan expedition as ship's master on board the Concepcion, returning three years later as captain of the Victoria. Elcano took over command of the expedition after Magellan died fighting natives in the Philippines. In 1525, he attempted to duplicate the feat of sailing around the world, but perished en route to the Spice Islands.

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was a Spanish conquistador, explorer and adventurer best remembered for his early explorations of the area now known as Panama while serving as governor of the settlement of Veragua between about 1511 and 1519. It was during this time that he led an expedition to the south and west in search of treasure. Instead, they fund a great body of water, which he named the "South Sea." It was actually the Pacific Ocean. Balboa was eventually executed for treason by a subsequent governor, but his name still remains attached to this great discovery.

Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was not the most skilled or accomplished explorer in the history of the New World, but he was one of the most colorful. He only went to the New World twice: first with the Alonso de Hojeda expedition in 1499, and then as leader of another expedition in 1501, financed by the King of Portugal. Vespucci's letters to his friend Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici were collected and published and became an instant hit for their fascinating descriptions of the lives of the New World natives. It was this fame that caused printer Martin Waldseemüller to name the new continents "America" in his honor in 1507 on published maps. The name stuck, and the continents have been the Americas ever since.