Age of Discovery

===Exploring North America===
[[File:Henry Hudson Map 26.png|thumb|upright=1.35|right|Map of [[Henry Hudson]]'s 1609–1611 voyages to North America for the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC)]]

The 1497 English expedition authorized by [[Henry VII of England]] was led by Italian Venetian [[John Cabot]] (Giovanni Caboto); it was the first of a series of French and English missions exploring North America. Mariners from the Italian peninsula played an important role in early explorations, most especially Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus. With its major conquests of central Mexico and Peru and discoveries of silver, Spain put limited efforts into exploring the northern part of the Americas; its resources were concentrated in Central and South America where more wealth had been found.<ref name="ReferenceB">[[#Paine 2000|Paine 2000]], p. xvi.</ref> These other European expeditions were initially motivated by the same idea as Columbus, namely a westerly shortcut to the Asian mainland. After the existence of "another ocean" (the Pacific) was confirmed by Balboa in 1513, there still remained the motivation of potentially finding an oceanic [[Northwest Passage]] to Asian trade.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> This was not discovered until the early twentieth century, but other possibilities were found, although nothing on the scale of the spectacular ones of the Spanish. In the early 17th century colonists from a number of Northern European states began to settle on the east coast of North America. Between 1520 and 1521, the Portuguese [[João Álvares Fagundes]], accompanied by couples of mainland Portugal and the Azores, explored [[Newfoundland]] and [[Nova Scotia]] (possibly reaching the [[Bay of Fundy]] on the [[Minas Basin]]<ref>Mount Allison University, ''[http://www.mta.ca/marshland/topic3_europeans/european.htm Marshlands: Records of Life on the Tantramar: European Contact and Mapping] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419042914/https://www.mta.ca/marshland/topic3_europeans/european.htm |date=2021-04-19 }}'', 2004</ref>), and established a fishing colony on the [[Cape Breton Island]] that would last until at least the 1570s or near the end of the century.<ref>''Tratado das ilhas novas e descombrimento dellas e outras couzas, 1570'' Francisco de Souza, p. 6 [https://books.google.com/books?id=3WMDAAAAQAAJ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125134500/https://books.google.com/books/about/Tratado_das_ilhas_novas_e_descombrimento.html%3Fid%3D3WMDAAAAQAAJ%26redir_esc%3Dy|date=2020-01-25}}</ref>

In 1524, Italian [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] sailed under the authority of [[Francis I of France]], who was motivated by indignation over the division of the world between Portuguese and Spanish. Verrazzano explored the Atlantic Coast of North America, from [[South Carolina]] to [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], and was the first recorded European to visit what would later become the [[Virginia Colony]] and the United States. In the same year [[Esteban Gómez|Estevão Gomes]], a Portuguese [[cartography|cartographer]] who had sailed in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet, explored [[Nova Scotia]], sailing South through [[Maine]], where he entered what is now [[New York Harbor]], the [[Hudson River]] and eventually reached [[Florida]] in August 1525. As a result of his expedition, the 1529 [[Diogo Ribeiro (cartographer)|Diogo Ribeiro]] world map outlines the East coast of North America almost perfectly. From 1534 to 1536, French explorer [[Jacques Cartier]], believed to have accompanied Verrazzano to Nova Scotia and Brazil, was the first European to travel inland in North America, describing the [[Gulf of Saint Lawrence]], which he named "[[Name of Canada|The Country of Canadas]]", after [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquois names]], claiming what is now Canada for Francis I of France.<ref>[[#Cartier E.B. 2009|Cartier E.B. 2009]], web.</ref><ref>[[#histori.ca 2009|Histori.ca 2009]], web.</ref>

[[File:Half Moon in Hudson.jpg|thumb|left|Henry Hudson's ship ''[[Halve Maen]]'' in the [[Hudson River]]]]

Europeans explored the Pacific Coast beginning in the mid-16th century. Spaniards [[Francisco de Ulloa]] explored the Pacific coast of present-day Mexico including the [[Gulf of California]], proving that [[Baja California]] was a peninsula.<ref>[[#Gutierrez 1998|Gutierrez 1998]]. pp. 81–82.</ref> Despite his report based on first hand information, the myth persisted in Europe that California was an [[Island of California|island]]. His account provided the first recorded use of the name "California". [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo|João Rodrigues Cabrilho]], a Portuguese navigator sailing for the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish Crown]], was the first European to set foot in California, landing on September 28, 1542, on the shores of [[San Diego Bay]] and claiming California for Spain.<ref>[[#San Diego HS|San Diego HS]], web.</ref> He also landed on [[San Miguel Island|San Miguel]], one of the [[Channel Islands of California|Channel Islands]], and continued as far north as [[Point Reyes]] on the mainland. After his death the crew continued exploring as far north as [[Oregon]].

The English [[privateer]] [[Francis Drake]] sailed along the coast in 1579 north of Cabrillo's landing site while circumnavigating the world. Drake had a long and largely successful career attacking Spanish settlements in the Caribbean islands and the mainland, so that for the English, he was a great hero and fervent Protestant, but for the Spanish he was "a frightening monster." Drake played a major role in the defeat of the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588, but led an armada himself to the Spanish Caribbean that was unsuccessful in dislodging the Spanish.<ref>Pattridge, Blake D. "Francis Drake" in ''Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture'', vol. 2, 402</ref> On 5 June 1579, the ship briefly made first landfall at South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of [[Coos Bay]], [[Oregon]], and then sailed south while searching for a suitable harbor to repair his damaged ship.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Drake's First Landfall |journal= Pacific Discovery, California Academy of Sciences|author-link1=Edward Von der Porten |first=Edward |last=Von der Porten |volume=28 |issue=1 |date= January 1975 |pages=28–30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Morison| first = Samuel Eliot | year = 1978 | title = The Great Explorere: The European Discovery of America| publisher = Oxford University Press, Inc. | location = New York| isbn = 978-0-19-504222-1| page = 700}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| last = Cassels | first = Sir Simon | title = Where Did Drake Careen The Golden Hind in June/July 1579? A Mariner's Assessment| journal = The Mariner's Mirror| volume = 89| issue = 1 | date = August 2003| page = 263| doi = 10.1080/00253359.2003.10659292 | s2cid = 161710358 }}</ref><ref name="gough1980">{{cite book | last = Gough | first = Barry | year = 1980 | title = Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809 | url = https://archive.org/details/distantdominionb0000goug | url-access = registration | publisher =U Univ. of British Columbia Press | location = Vancouver | isbn = 0-7748-0113-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/distantdominionb0000goug/page/15 15]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Turner | first = Michael | year = 2006 | title = In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage | publisher = Paul Mould Publishing | location = United Kingdom | isbn = 978-1-904959-28-1 | page = 163 }}</ref> On 17 June, Drake and his crew found a protected cove when they landed on the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California near [[Point Reyes]].<ref>{{cite journal| last = Cassels | first = Sir Simon | title = Where Did Drake Careen The Golden Hind in June/July 1579? A Mariner's Assessment| journal = The Mariner's Mirror| volume = 89| issue = 1 | date = August 2003| page = 263,264| doi = 10.1080/00253359.2003.10659292 | s2cid = 161710358 }}</ref><ref name="gough1980" /> While ashore, he claimed the area for Queen [[Elizabeth I of England]] as Nova Albion or [[New Albion]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Sugden | first = John | year = 2006 | title = Sir Francis Drake | publisher = Pimlico | location = London | isbn = 978-1-844-13762-6| page=136,137}}</ref> To document and assert his claim, Drake posted an engraved plate of brass to claim sovereignty for Queen Elizabeth and her successors on the throne.<ref>{{cite book | last = Turner | first = Michael | year = 2006 | title = In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage | publisher = Paul Mould Publishing | location = United Kingdom | isbn = 978-1-904959-28-1 | page = 173 }}</ref> Drake's landfalls on the west coast of North America are one small part of his 1577-1580 circumnavigation of the globe, the first captain of his own ship to do so. Drake died in 1596 off the coast of Panama, following injuries from a raid.<ref>Pattridge, "Francis Drake", 406</ref>

From 1609 to 1611, after several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective [[Northern Sea Route|Northeast Passage]] to India, English mariner [[Henry Hudson]], under the auspices of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC), explored the region around present-day New York City, while looking for a western route to Asia. He explored the [[Hudson River]] and laid the foundation for [[New Netherland|Dutch colonization]] of the region. Hudson's final expedition ranged farther north in search of the [[Northwest Passage]], leading to his discovery of the [[Hudson Strait]] and [[Hudson Bay]]. After wintering in [[James Bay]], Hudson tried to press on with his voyage in the spring of 1611, but his crew mutinied and they [[marooning|cast him adrift]].