Age of Discovery

===The Americas: The New World===
[[File:Waldseemuller map closeup with America.jpg|thumb|Detail of 1507 [[Waldseemüller map]] showing the name "America" for the first time.|alt=]]
Little of the divided area had actually been seen by Europeans, as it was only divided by a geographical definition rather than control on the ground. Columbus's first voyage in 1492 spurred maritime exploration and, from 1497, several explorers headed west.

====North America====
That year [[John Cabot]] ({{lang-it|Giovanni Caboto}}), also a commissioned Italian, got [[letters patent]] from King [[Henry VII of England]]. Sailing from [[Bristol]], probably backed by the local [[Society of Merchant Venturers]], Cabot crossed the Atlantic from a northerly latitude hoping the voyage to the "West Indies" would be shorter<ref>[[#Croxton 2007|Croxton 2007]], web (on subscription)</ref> and made landfall somewhere in North America, possibly [[History of Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]].

In 1499 [[João Fernandes Lavrador]] was licensed by the King of Portugal and together with [[Pero de Barcelos]] they first sighted [[Labrador]], which was granted and named after him. After returning he possibly went to Bristol to sail in the name of England.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 463–64.</ref> 

Between 1499 and 1502 the brothers [[Gaspar Corte-Real|Gaspar]] and [[Miguel Corte-Real|Miguel Corte Real]] explored and named the coasts of [[Greenland]] and Newfoundland.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 464–65.</ref> Both explorations are noted in the 1502 [[Cantino planisphere]].

====The "True Indies" and Brazil====
In 1497, newly crowned King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] sent an exploratory fleet eastwards, fulfilling his predecessor's project of finding a route to the Indies. In July 1499, news spread that the Portuguese had reached the "true Indies", as a letter was dispatched by the Portuguese king to the Spanish Catholic Monarchs.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], p. 185.</ref>

The third expedition by Columbus in 1498 was the beginning of the first successful Castilian (Spanish) colonization in the [[West Indies]], on the island of [[Hispaniola]]. Despite growing doubts, Columbus refused to accept he had not reached the Indies. During the voyage he discovered the mouth of the [[Orinoco River]] on the north coast of South America (now Venezuela) and thought that the huge quantity of fresh water coming from it could only be from a continental land mass, which he was certain was the Asian mainland.

As shipping between [[Seville]] and the West Indies grew, knowledge of the Caribbean islands, Central America and the northern coast of South America grew. One of these Spanish fleets, that of [[Alonso de Ojeda]] and Amerigo Vespucci in 1499–1500, reached land at the coast of what is now [[Guyana]], when the two explorers seem to have separated in opposite directions. Vespucci sailed southward, discovering the mouth of the [[Amazon River]] in July 1499,<ref name=Pohl1966>{{cite book
  | last = Pohl
  | first = Frederick J.
  | title = Amerigo Vespucci: Pilot Major
  | url = https://archive.org/details/amerigovespuccip0000pohl
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher = Octagon Books
  | year = 1966
  | location = New York
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/amerigovespuccip0000pohl/page/54 54–55] }}</ref><ref>[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4820349-amerigo-and-the-new-world] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108102859/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4820349-amerigo-and-the-new-world|date=2021-11-08}} Arciniegas, German (1978) ''Amerigo and the New World: The Life & Times of Amerigo Vespucci'': Octagon Press</ref> and reaching 6°S, in present-day north east Brazil, before turning around.

In the beginning of 1500, [[Vicente Yáñez Pinzon]] was blown off course by a storm and reached what is now the northeast coast of Brazil on 26 January 1500, exploring as far south as the present-day state of [[Pernambuco]]. His fleet was the first to fully enter the Amazon River estuary which he named ''Río Santa María de la Mar Dulce'' (''Saint Mary's River of the Freshwater Sea'').<ref name=Morison1974>{{cite book
  | last = Morison
  | first = Samuel
  | title = The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492–1616
  | url = https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00mori_2
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher = Oxford University Press
  | year = 1974
  | location = New York
}}</ref> The land was too far east for the Castilians to claim under the Treaty of Tordesillas, but the discovery created Castilian interest, with a second voyage by Pinzon in 1508 (the [[Pinzón–Solís voyage]], an expedition that coasted the northern coast to the Central American coastal mainland, in search of a passage to the East) and a voyage in 1515–16 by a navigator of the 1508 expedition, [[Juan Díaz de Solís]]. The 1515–16 expedition was spurred on by reports of Portuguese exploration of the region (see below). It ended when de Solís and some of his crew disappeared when exploring the [[Río de la Plata|River Plata]] in a boat, but what they found reignited Spanish interest, and colonization began in 1531.

In April 1500, the [[2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)|second Portuguese India Armada]], headed by [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]], with a crew of expert captains, encountered the Brazilian coast as it swung westward in the Atlantic while performing a large "[[volta do mar]]" to avoid becalming in the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. On 21 April 1500, a mountain was seen and named ''[[Monte Pascoal]]'', and on 22 April Cabral landed on the coast. On 25 April, the entire fleet sailed into the harbour they named ''[[Porto Seguro]]'' (Port Secure). Cabral perceived that the new land lay east of the line of Tordesillas, and sent an envoy to Portugal with the discovery in letters, including the [[carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha|letter]] of [[Pero Vaz de Caminha]]. Believing the land to be an island, he named it [[Ilha de Vera Cruz]] (Island of the True Cross).<ref>N. McAlister, Lyle. (1984) ''Spain and Portugal in the New World: 1492–1700.'' p. 75.</ref> Some historians have suggested that the Portuguese may have encountered the South American bulge earlier while sailing the "volta do mar", hence the insistence of John II in moving the line west of Tordesillas in 1494—so his landing in Brazil may not have been an accident; although John's motivation may have just been to claiming new lands in the Atlantic easier.<ref>[[#Crow 1992|Crow 1992]], p. 136.</ref> From the east coast, the fleet then turned eastward to resume the journey to the southern tip of Africa and India. Cabral was the first captain to touch four continents, leading the first expedition that connected and united Europe, Africa, the New World, and Asia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hBTqPX4G9Y4C&dq=Cabral+four+continents&pg=PA187 ''Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208111121/https://books.google.com/books?id=hBTqPX4G9Y4C&pg=PA187&dq=Cabral+four+continents&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=zPIIU8HvE-af7AakkYDICw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Cabral%20four%20continents&f=false |date=2016-02-08 }}, Bailey Wallys Diffie and George D. Winius. University of Minnesota Press, 1977 p. 187</ref><ref>[https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/the.coming.of.the.portuguese.htm ''The Coming of the Portuguese''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031005735/https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/the.coming.of.the.portuguese.htm |date=2014-10-31 }} by Paul Lunde, London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, in Saudi Aramco World – July/August 2005 Volume 56, Number 4,</ref>

At the invitation of King Manuel I of Portugal, Amerigo Vespucci<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 456–62.</ref> participated as observer in these exploratory voyages to the east coast of South America. The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him, published between 1502 and 1504, suggested the newly discovered lands were not the Indies but a "New World",<ref>[[#Arciniegas 1978|Arciniegas 1978]], pp. 295–300.</ref> the ''Mundus novus''; this is also the Latin title of a contemporary document based on Vespucci letters to [[Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici]], which had become popular in Europe.<ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], p. 458.</ref> It was soon understood that Columbus had not reached Asia but found a new continent, the Americas. The Americas were named in 1507 by [[Cartography|cartographers]] [[Waldseemüller map|Martin Waldseemüller]] and [[Matthias Ringmann]], probably after Amerigo Vespucci.

From 1501 to 1502, one of these Portuguese expeditions, led by [[Gonçalo Coelho]] (and/or [[André Gonçalves (explorer)|André Gonçalves]] or [[Gaspar de Lemos]]), sailed south along the coast of South America to the bay of present-day [[Rio de Janeiro]]. Vespucci's account states that the expedition reached the latitude "South Pole elevation 52° S", in the "cold" latitudes of what is now southern [[Patagonia]], before turning back. Vespucci wrote that they headed toward the southwest and south, following "a long, unbending coastline", apparently coincident with the southern South American coast. This seems controversial, since he changed part of his description in the subsequent letter, stating a shift, from about 32° S (Southern Brazil), to south-southeast, to open sea, maintaining that they reached 50°/52° S.<ref>[http://icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/THEARCHIVE/FullRecord/tabid/88/doc/839287/language/en-US/Default.aspx The Invention of America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215122112/http://icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/THEARCHIVE/FullRecord/tabid/88/doc/839287/language/en-US/Default.aspx |date=2018-12-15 }}. Indiana University Press. pp. 106–07, by Edmundo O'Gorman</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2zZCAAAAIAAJ Imago Mvndi – Brill Archive – Leiden, Editorial Board] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725002724/https://books.google.com/books?id=2zZCAAAAIAAJ&hl=pt-PT&source=gbs_navlinks_s |date=2020-07-25 }}. Leo Bagrow, Stockholm – ''New light on Vespucci's third voyage'', By R. Levillier pp.&nbsp;40–45</ref>

In 1503, [[Binot Paulmier de Gonneville]], challenging the Portuguese policy of ''[[mare clausum]]'', led one of the earliest [[French people|French]] [[Normandy|Normand]] and [[Brittany|Breton]] expeditions to Brazil. He intended to sail to the East Indies, but near the Cape of Good Hope his ship was diverted to west by a storm, and landed in the present day state of [[Santa Catarina (state)|Santa Catarina]] (southern Brazil), on 5 January 1504.
[[File:Gutiérrez, the Americas, 1562.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''[[Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio]]'' by [[Diego Gutiérrez (cartographer)|Diego Gutiérrez]], the largest map of the Americas until the 17th century, and the first map to use the name "California". [[British Library]], London.]]

From 1511 to 1512, Portuguese captains [[João de Lisboa]] and Estevão de Fróis reached the [[Rio de La Plata|River Plata]] estuary in present-day [[Uruguay]] and [[Argentina]], and went as far south as the present-day [[Gulf of San Matias]] at 42°S.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Bethell
  | first = Leslie
  | title = The Cambridge History of Latin America, Volume 1, Colonial Latin America
  | publisher = Cambridge University Press
  | year = 1984
  | location = Cambridge
  | page = 257
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_w0kAPYQ5xMC&q=froes
  | isbn = 978-0-521-23223-4
  | access-date = 2020-05-03
  | archive-date = 2022-05-20
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220520133454/https://books.google.com/books?id=_w0kAPYQ5xMC&q=froes
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  | last = Laguarda Trias
  | first = Rolando A.
  | title = Pilotos portugueses en el Rio de La Plata durante el siglo XVI
  | publisher = UC Biblioteca Geral 1
  | year = 1988
  | location = Coimbra
  | pages = 59–61
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N4ruiK_IJZQC&q=pilotos+portugueses+la+plata&pg=PA81
  | access-date = 2020-11-08
  | archive-date = 2020-12-11
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201211001504/https://books.google.com/books?id=N4ruiK_IJZQC&q=pilotos+portugueses+la+plata&pg=PA81
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref> The expedition reached a cape extending north to south which they called Cape of "Santa Maria" ([[Punta del Este]], keeping the name the Cape nearby); and after 40°S they found a "Cape" or "a point or place extending into the sea", and a "Gulf" (in June and July). After they had navigated for nearly {{convert|300|km|0|abbr=on}} to round the cape, they again sighted the continent on the other side, and steered towards the northwest, but a storm prevented them from making any headway. Driven away by the ''Tramontane'' or north wind, they retraced their course. Also gives the first news of the ''White King'' and the "people of the mountains" to the interior (the [[Inca Empire]]), and a gift, an ax of silver, obtained from the [[Charrúa]] natives on their return ("to the coast or side of ''Brazil''"), and "to West" (along the coast and the River Plata estuary), and offered to King Manuel I.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://biblio.wdfiles.com/local--files/schuller-1915-nova/schuller_1915_nova.pdf |title=Newen Zeytung auss Presillg Landt |access-date=2013-07-01 |archive-date=2013-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602205142/http://biblio.wdfiles.com/local--files/schuller-1915-nova/schuller_1915_nova.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Christopher de Haro]], a [[Flemish people|Flemish]] of [[Sephardic]] origin (one of the financiers of the expedition along with D. Nuno Manuel), who would serve the Spanish Crown after 1516, believed the navigators had discovered a southern ''strait'' to west and Asia.

In 1519, an expedition sent by the Spanish Crown to find a way to Asia was led by the experienced Portuguese navigator [[Ferdinand Magellan]]. The fleet explored the rivers and bays as it charted the South American coast until it found a way to the Pacific Ocean through the [[Strait of Magellan]].

From 1524 to 1525, [[Aleixo Garcia]], a Portuguese conquistador, led a private expedition of shipwrecked Castilian and Portuguese adventurers, who recruited about 2,000 [[Guaraní people|Guaraní Indians]]. They explored the territories of present-day southern Brazil, [[Paraguay]], and [[Bolivia]], using the native trail network, the ''Peabiru''. They were the first Europeans to cross the [[Gran Chaco|Chaco]] and reach the outer territories of the [[Inca Empire]] on the hills of the [[Andes]].<ref>[http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/sv/svh009b.htm ''Peabiru, the route lost''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422020539/http://novomilenio.inf.br/sv/svh009b.htm |date=2022-04-22 }} in English</ref>