European Explorers

Question 1

“The Father of New France” who founded the first permanent European settlements in Canada, and explored many lakes and rivers in the interior lands from early age to his death (1603-1635).

Answer 1

Samuel de Champlain

Question 2

English privateer who plundered many Spanish towns and ships in the Caribbean and elsewhere. However, he is most notable for completing the second circumnavigation of the world (1577-1580).

Answer 2

Francis Drake

Question 3

Scottish-Canadian fur trader and explorer, employed by the North West Company, who charted much of what is now British Columbia and built the first European settlement in B.C.

Answer 3

Simon Fraser

Question 4

English explorer who explored what is now New York and northeastern Canada. In 1611, after wintering on the shore of James Bay, he wanted to press on to the west, but most of his crew mutinied and cast him (and his son and seven others) adrift, never to be seen again.

Answer 4

Henry Hudson

Question 5

Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas 1540-1542 in search of the “Cities of Cíbola.” His expedition marked the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.

Answer 5

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado

Question 6

British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who disappeared while on his last expedition, attempting to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage (prompting further exploration to search for him).

Answer 6

John Franklin

Question 7

The French botanist who became the first woman to sail around the world after she disguised herself as a man and enlisted as a valet of naturalist Philibert Commercon on the ship of Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Answer 7

Jeanne Baret

Question 8

English fur trader employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company who was the first European to reach the Saskatchewan River and the Canadian prairies as well as the first to leave a description of the grizzly bear and bison.

Answer 8

Henry Kelsey

Question 9

Italian navigator who was the first European to sail along to North American coast since the Norse 500 years prior (1497).

Answer 9

John Cabot

Question 10

Italian explorer known for “discovering” America (1492).

Answer 10

Christopher Columbus

Question 11

The first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River into what is now known as Canada. He spent much of his early life among the Huron and later became an interpreter and guide for Samuel de Champlain. He is thought to have preceded Champlain to the Great Lakes, reuniting with him upon Champlain’s first arrival at Lake Huron.

Answer 11

Étienne Brûlé

Question 12

Dutch explorer who was the first known European to sight the islands of Tasmania, New Zealand, and Fiji (1642-1643).

Answer 12

Abel Tasman

Question 13

Explorer who discovered the land that is now Brazil and claimed it for Portugal (1500).

Answer 13

Pedro Alvares Cabral

Question 14

Baltic German leader of a circumnavigation expedition that discovered the continent of Antarctica (1820).

Answer 14

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen

Question 15

Portuguese explorer who led the first circumnavigation of the globe (1519-1521), although he was killed in the Philippines.

Answer 15

Ferdinand Magellan

Question 16

Basque explorer who took command after Magellan’s death and completed the voyage, becoming the first person to circumnavigate the earth (1521-1522).

Answer 16

Juan Sebastián Elcano

Question 17

Danish cartographer who was an officer in the Russian Navy and led the First Kamchatka Expedition (to confirm the existence of the strait between Asia and Alaska) and the Great Northern Expedition.

Answer 17

Vitus Bering

Question 18

Italian explorer who traveled to the far east and back to Venice. He is noted for making detailed chronicles of his travels (1271-1295)

Answer 18

Marco Polo

Question 19

Italian navigator known for convincing the Europeans that the New World was not Asia, but an entirely new unknown continent. This new continent was soon named after him.

Answer 19

Amerigo Vespucci

Question 20

Norwegian settler in Iceland who was reportedly the first European to sight Greenland

Answer 20

Gunnbjörn Ulfsson

Question 21

English navigator primarily known for his attempt to discover a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first European to discover the marginal sea between Greenland and Canada.

Answer 21

William Baffin

(the marginal sea between Canada and Greenland is Baffin Bay)

Question 22

Italian explorer (in the service of France) renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524.

Answer 22

Giovanni da Verrazzano

Question 23

Portuguese explorer known for being the first European to sail to India (1497-1498).

Answer 23

Vasco da Gama

Question 24

British-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer, known to some native peoples as Koo-Koo-Sint or “the Stargazer”. He traveled some 90,000 km across North America, mapping 4.9 million square km.

Answer 24

David Thompson

Question 25

Spanish conquistador who played an important role in Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, crossing the Mississippi River.

Answer 25

Hernando de Soto

Question 26

The discoverer of South America, as commander of the fleet with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci (1493-1510).

Answer 26

Alonso de Ojeda

Question 27

Scottish explorer known for accomplishing the first east to west crossing of America north of Mexico in 1793 (which preceded the more famous Lewis and Clark Expedition by 12 years). The longest river system in Canada is named after him.

Answer 27

Alexander Mackenzie

Question 28

Spanish explorer known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European to reach and see the Pacific from the Americas (1513).

Answer 28

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Question 29

British explorer who led three voyages to the Pacific. He is known for exploring and charting many islands in the ocean such as Polynesia, New Zealand, The Hawaiian Islands, and the eastern coast of Australia (1768-1779).

Answer 29

James Cook

Question 30

Spanish conquistador who led the Spanish conquest of Peru. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa, and claimed the lands for Spain.

Answer 30

Francisco Pizarro

Question 31

Dutch sailor and explorer who was the second European to land in Australia and the first to reach Western Australia and to leave behind an artifact to record his visit.

Answer 31

Dirk Hartog

Question 32

French explorer and fur trader in North America who explored the Great Lakes but is best known for a 1682 expedition in which he canoed the Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

Answer 32

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

Question 33

Norse explorer who is credited for being the first European to set foot on American soil (c. 1000).

Answer 33

Leif Erikson

Question 34

British officer of the Royal Navy best known for his 1791–95 expedition, which explored and charted North America’s northwestern Pacific Coast regions.

Answer 34

George Vancouver

Question 35

Italian-born French explorer who sailed up the Gabon and Ogoué rivers, who established the French settlement at Mfoa on the Congo, and who was named governor-general of the French Congo (although he was later dismissed for not being exploitative enough of the native population)

Answer 35

Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza

(the French settlement at Mfoa is today known as Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo)

Question 36

General who raided, captured, and conquered many coastal cities in Asia for the Portuguese Empire.

Answer 36

Afonso de Albuquerque

Question 37

The first European to travel inland in North America, he claimed the lands he explored for France (1534).

Answer 37

Jacques Cartier

Question 38

The first European to explore the Congo River and the west coast of Africa, south of the equator (1482-1486).

Answer 38

Diogo Cão

(anglicised as Diogo Cam)

Question 39

The first Governor of Puerto Rico, he discovered Florida in 1513. He is the first known European to set foot on today’s continental United States (1508-1513).

Answer 39

Juan Ponce de León

Question 40

The first European to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa, finding the eastern sea route to the Indian Ocean (1488).

Answer 40

Bartolomeu Dias

Question 41

Scottish physician and missionary who was the first European to cross south-central Africa (during which he named Victoria Falls). Also noted for his obsession with discovering the source of the Nile and his meeting with Henry Morton Stanley.

Answer 41

David Livingstone

Question 42

British explorer who could communicate in 29 European, Asian and African languages, who translated the Kama Sutra and 1001 Nights for scandalized Victorians, and who disguised himself to experience the Hajj to Mecca. During his African adventures, Somali warlords impaled his face with a spear, leaving an intimidating scar. He searched the source of the Nile and discovered Lake Victoria.

Answer 42

Richard Francis Burton

Question 43

Conquistador who led the Spanish expedition to explore and conquer the Aztec Empire (1519-1521).

Answer 43

Hernán Cortés