The Age of Exploration (15th-17th Century) Trivia Word Search

This Portuguese navigator became the first European to round the southern tip of Africa in 1488.

Portuguese traders established this settlement on the southern Chinese coast in 1557.

Balboa crossed this narrow strip of land to become the first European to view the Pacific from the Americas.

This Dutch navigator's 1642 voyage was the first to reach New Zealand and the island now named for him.

This conquistador partnered with Pizarro to conquer Peru before the two fell out and fought each other.

Also called the Spice Islands, this archipelago was the world's only source of nutmeg and cloves in the 1500s.

Adapted from Islamic astronomers, this instrument let sailors measure a star's angle above the horizon.

This Portuguese captain, blown off course en route to India in 1500, landed in Brazil and claimed it for Portugal.

Queen _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I of Castile personally sponsored Columbus's 1492 voyage alongside her husband Ferdinand.

Columbus explored this island in 1492, initially mistaking it for part of mainland Asia.

The Spanish viceroyalty built atop conquered Aztec territory was officially known as New _ _ _ _ _.

European explorers prized the Moluccas for nutmeg and cloves, nicknaming this archipelago the _ _ _ _ _ Islands.

This Andean staple crop, unknown in Europe before the Columbian Exchange, later became a European dietary staple.

This was the smallest of Columbus's three ships on his first Atlantic crossing in 1492.

This Cossack leader began Russia's conquest of Siberia for the Tsar in the 1580s.

Russian expansion across this vast, resource-rich region began in earnest in the late 16th century.

Hernan Cortes toppled this Mesoamerican empire, centered on the city of Tenochtitlan, between 1519 and 1521.

Portugal's Corte-Real brothers explored this icy island, reached by Norse sailors centuries before.

This Portuguese Atlantic island was an early staging point and sugar colony for voyages down Africa's coast.

Sponsored by Spain, this Genoese navigator crossed the Atlantic in 1492 seeking a western route to Asia.

Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao explored the mouth of this major West African river in 1482.

Spain built these large, armed cargo ships to carry silver and goods across the Atlantic from its colonies.

Sailing for the Dutch East India Company in 1606, this navigator was the first recorded European to sight Australia.

This Dutch navigator searched repeatedly for a Northeast Passage to Asia; an Arctic sea is now named after him.

Vasco da Gama's fleet reached this Indian port city in 1498, opening a direct sea trade route to Asian spices.

Once native to the Americas but long extinct there, these animals returned with Spanish explorers in the 1500s.

Cortes ruled New Spain as captain general until 1535, when Antonio de Mendoza became its first _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

Holy Roman Emperor _ _ _ _ _ _ _ V, also king of Spain, financed Magellan's circumnavigation attempt.

This triangular sail, borrowed from Arab and Mediterranean ships, let caravels sail closer into the wind.

One of the five ships in Magellan's original fleet shared its name with the patron saint of Spain.

Sailors relied on this hand-drawn nautical chart, marked with compass lines radiating from key points.

Rumors of gold in this legendary West African city helped draw European explorers toward the Sahara's edge.

Vasco da _ _ _ _ opened Portugal's sea route around Africa to India, reaching Calicut in 1498.

This Inca emperor was captured and later executed by Pizarro's forces at Cajamarca in 1532.

After Magellan's death, this Basque navigator completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.

Portuguese shipwrights developed this fast ship type, able to sail closer to the wind than earlier vessels.

This Portuguese capital served as the launching point for da Gama's fleet on its voyage to India.

_ _ _ _ _ _ de Albuquerque, a Portuguese admiral, seized Goa and Malacca to build an Indian Ocean trading empire.

Samuel de Champlain founded this Canadian city, later the capital of New France, in 1608.

Columbus's first landfall in the Americas was this Bahamian island, which he renamed San Salvador.

This conquistador led a major expedition through the American Southwest searching in vain for cities of gold.

Founded in 1607, this was the first permanent English settlement in North America.

In 1513, this conquistador crossed Panama to become the first European to sight the Pacific from the Americas.

This English navigator made three Arctic voyages searching for a Northwest Passage in the 1570s.

Francisco Pizarro conquered this South American empire, centered in the Andes, in the early 1530s.

This Flemish cartographer's 1569 map projection, still used today, was designed to aid sea navigation.

Sponsored by Walter Raleigh, this English colony on the Carolina coast mysteriously vanished in the late 1580s.

Cortes's conquest of the Aztec Empire laid the foundation for the Spanish colony that became this modern country.

Frobisher and Hudson both searched in vain for a Northwest _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to Asia through North America.

Portuguese sailors had to cross this imaginary line circling the globe on their voyages down the African coast.

In 1492, cartographer Martin Behaim built the oldest surviving example of this spherical world map.

This Florentine explorer argued Columbus's discoveries were a wholly new continent -- later named after him.

Hernando de _ _ _ _ led the first documented European expedition to reach the Mississippi River, in 1541.

Sailors relied on this magnetized instrument, already known for centuries, to keep a steady heading on open water.

Dias first called Africa's southern tip the Cape of Storms; King John II renamed it the Cape of Good _ _ _ _.

King _ _ _ _ II of Portugal initially rejected Columbus's proposal before later sponsoring African exploration.

Ferdinand Magellan named this ocean for its relatively calm waters after his fleet rounded South America.

This English sea captain became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, completing the voyage in 1580.

This English courtier sponsored the ill-fated Roanoke colony without ever settling in the Americas himself.

Magellan's expedition named this South American region after encountering unusually tall local people.

Columbus's flagship on his 1492 voyage was named Santa _ _ _ _ _, honoring the Virgin Mary.

Along with the Nina and the Santa Maria, this caravel completed Columbus's first transatlantic fleet.

Queen _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I of England knighted Francis Drake aboard his ship after his circumnavigation voyage.

Pizarro and Almagro's conquest of the Inca Empire centered on the region that is now this South American country.

Indigenous peoples introduced European explorers to this plant, later smoked and traded across the Atlantic.

This Indian coastal territory, conquered by Albuquerque in 1510, became the capital of Portugal's Asian empire.

This Spanish port city controlled all official trade with Spain's American colonies through a royal trading house.

This Aztec emperor ruled when Cortes and his soldiers arrived in Tenochtitlan in 1519.

Magellan's fleet landed on this Pacific island, later a US territory, in 1521 before reaching the Philippines.

Navigators consulted printed tables like this one to calculate star positions and plan their course at sea.

Named for a Seville convent of Our Lady of Victory, this was the only ship of Magellan's fleet to complete the circumnavigation.

This Filipino chieftain's forces killed Ferdinand Magellan in battle; he is honored today as a national hero.

Prince _ _ _ _ _ of Portugal sponsored the early voyages that launched the Age of Exploration.

This Spanish conquistador conquered the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521.

Juan Ponce de _ _ _ _ led the first Spanish expedition to Florida in 1513 and was Puerto Rico's first governor.

Portugal's 1415 capture of this North African city is often cited as the symbolic start of the Age of Exploration.

Ferdinand Magellan navigated a narrow channel near South America's southern tip that now bears his name.

Columbus's fleet made its final resupply stop at these Spanish Atlantic islands before crossing to the Americas.

Albuquerque's 1511 conquest of this Malay port city gave Portugal control of a key spice-trade chokepoint.

King _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ II of Aragon co-sponsored Columbus's voyages together with his wife Isabella.

Sailing for England out of Bristol in 1497, this Italian-born navigator reached the coast of North America.

Accurately measuring this coordinate at sea remained an unsolved problem throughout the Age of Exploration.

A 1529 treaty signed in this Spanish city set the line dividing Portuguese and Spanish claims in Asia.

This Spanish conquistador led the conquest of the Inca Empire, capturing its emperor at Cajamarca in 1532.

Spanish explorers in South America chased rumors of this mythical city of gold, never finding it.

This Spanish explorer led the first European expedition down the entire length of the Amazon River.

This handheld instrument let sailors estimate their latitude by measuring the angle of the sun or a star.

These mid-Atlantic Portuguese islands served as a key waypoint for ships heading toward Africa and the Americas.

This Portuguese navigator led the first circumnavigation of the globe (1519-1522) but died before it finished.

This was the name of Magellan's own flagship, distinct from the Victoria, which completed the circumnavigation.

Pedro Alvares Cabral's 1500 landing gave Portugal a claim to this South American territory.

This English navigator explored a great bay bearing his name before his crew mutinied and set him adrift.

King _ _ _ _ _ _ I of Portugal sponsored both Vasco da Gama's voyage to India and Cabral's landing in Brazil.

This French navigator explored the St. Lawrence River in the 1530s and claimed the region for France.

Juan Ponce de Leon named this peninsula for the Spanish phrase for 'flowery,' reflecting the season he landed.