This timeline of European exploration lists major geographic discoveries and other firsts credited to or involving Europeans during the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, between the years AD 1418 and 1957.
Despite several significant transoceanic and transcontinental explorations by European civilizations in the preceding centuries, the precise geography of the Earth outside of Europe was largely unknown to Europeans before the 15th century, when technological advances (especially in sea travel) as well as the rise of colonialism, mercantilism, and a host of other social, cultural, and economic changes made it possible to organize large-scale exploratory expeditions to uncharted parts of the globe.
The Age of Discovery arguably began in the early 15th century with the rounding of the feared Cape Bojador and Portuguese exploration of the west coast of Africa, while in the last decade of the century the Spanish sent expeditions far across the Atlantic, where the Americas would eventually be reached, and the Portuguese found a sea route to India. In the 16th century, various European states funded expeditions to the interior of both North and South America, as well as to their respective west and east coasts, north to California and Labrador and south to Chile and Tierra del Fuego. In the 17th century, Russian explorers conquered Siberia in search of sables, while the Dutch contributed greatly to the charting of Australia. The 18th century witnessed the first extensive explorations of the South Pacific and Oceania and the exploration of Alaska, while the 19th was dominated by exploration of the polar regions and excursions into the heart of Africa. By the early 20th century, the poles themselves had been reached.
15th century
1402 - Castilian colonization of the Canary Islands began with the expedition of the French explorers Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, nobles and vassals of Henry III of Castile, to Lanzarote 1418 – Portuguese explorers João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discover Porto Santo Island in the Madeira archipelago. 1419 – Gonçalves and Vaz discover the main island of Madeira. 1431 – Diogo de Silves discovers the Azores. 1434 – Gil Eanes passes Cabo de Não and becomes the first confirmed person to sail beyond Cape Bojador and return alive. 1444 – Dinis Dias reaches the mouth of the Senegal River. 1446 – The Portuguese reach the mainland peninsula of Cape Verde and the Gambia River. 1456 – Alvise Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes discover the Cape Verde Islands, west of the Cape Verde peninsula. 1460 – Pêro de Sintra reaches Sierra Leone. 1470 – Cape Palmas is passed. 1472 – Fernão do Pó lands on the island of Bioko. 1473 – Lopo Gonçalves is the first European sailor to cross the Equator. 1474–75 – Ruy de Sequeira discovers São Tomé and Príncipe. 1482 – Diogo Cão reaches the Congo River, where he erects a padrão ("pillar of stone"). 1485–86 – Cão reaches Cape Cross, where he erects his last padrão. 1487–92 – Pêro da Covilhã travels to Arabia, to the mouth of the Red Sea, and then eastward by sail to the Malabar Coast (visiting Calicut and Goa on the Indian subcontinent). He later sails south along the east coast of Africa, visiting the trading stations of Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Sofala; on his return journey he visits Mecca and Medina before reaching Ethiopia in search of the mythical Prester John. 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias rounds the "Cape of Storms" (Cape of Good Hope), at the southernmost tip of the African continent. 1492 – Under the patronage of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus explores the Bahamas, Cuba, and "Española" (Hispaniola), which are only later recognized as part of the New World. 1493–94 – On his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus reaches Dominica and Guadeloupe, among other islands of the Lesser Antilles, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. 1497 – Under the commission of Henry VII of England, Italian explorer John Cabot explores Newfoundland. 1497–98 – Vasco da Gama sails to India and back. 1498 – On his third voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus reaches mainland South America. 1499 – Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda explores the South American mainland from about Cayenne (in modern French Guiana) to Cabo de la Vela (in modern Colombia), reaching the mouth of the Orinoco River and entering Lake Maracaibo. 1499 – Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci explores the mouth of the Amazon River and reaches 6°S latitude, in present-day northern Brazil. 1499 – João Fernandes Lavrador, together with Pêro de Barcelos, sight Labrador. 1499 – Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real reach and map Greenland.Diffie 1977, pp. 464–465.
16th century
1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón reaches the northeast coast of what today is Brazil at a cape he names "Santa Maria de la Consolación" (Cabo de Santo Agostinho) and sails fifty miles up a river he names the "Marañón" (Amazon). 1500 – Pedro Álvares Cabral makes the "official" discovery of Brazil, leading the first expedition that united Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The Coming of the Portuguese by Paul Lunde, London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, in Saudi Aramco World – July/August 2005 Volume 56, Number 4, 1500 – João Fernandes reaches Cape Farewell, Greenland ("Terra do Lavrador", or Land of the Husbandman). 1500–02 – Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real explore and name the coasts of "Terra Verde" (likely Newfoundland) and Labrador. 1500–01 – Diogo Dias reaches Madagascar and reaches the gate of the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. 1500 – Rodrigo de Bastidas explores the Colombian coast from Cabo de la Vela to the Gulf of Urabá. 1501–02 – Gonçalo Coelho reaches "Rio de Janeiro" (Guanabara Bay). 1502–03 – On his fourth voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus explores the North American mainland from Guanaja off modern Honduras to the present-day border of Panama and Colombia. 1505 – Juan de Bermúdez discovers Bermuda. 1506 – Lourenço de Almeida reaches the Maldives and Sri Lanka.Ferguson, D. W. The discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506 (Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society, vol. xix, no. 59, 1907, pp. 284–384). 1506 – Tristão da Cunha discovers the remote island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1509 – Diogo Lopes de Sequeira reaches Sumatra and Malacca. 1511 – Duarte Fernandes leads a diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siam or Thailand). 1511 – Rui Nunes da Cunha leads a diplomatic mission to Pegu (Burma or Myanmar). 1511–12 – João de Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis explore the "Cape of Santa Maria" (Punta Del Este) in the River Plate, exploring its estuary, and traveling as far south as the Gulf of San Matias at 42ºS, in present-day Uruguay and Argentina (penetrating "around the Gulf").Newen Zeytung auss Presillg Landt 1511–12 – António de Abreu sails through the Strait of Malacca, between Sumatra and Bangka, and along the coasts of Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, and Flores to the "Spice Islands" (Maluku). 1513 – Jorge Álvares becomes the first European to reach China by sea, landing on Nei Lingding Island at the Pearl River Delta. 1513 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and reaches the Bay of San Miguel, reaching the "Mar del Sur" (Pacific Ocean). 1513 – Juan Ponce de León explores "La Florida" (Florida) and the Yucatán. 1514–15 – António Fernandes reaches present-day Zimbabwe. 1515 – Gonzalo de Badajoz crosses the Isthmus of Panama at the site of Nombre de Dios, reaching as far as the interior of the Azuero Peninsula. 1516 – Juan Díaz de Solís explores the River Plate estuary and names it "La Mar Dulce" ("The Fresh-Water Sea"). 1516 – Portuguese traders land in Da Nang, Champa, naming it Cochinchina (modern Vietnam). 1518 – Lourenço Gomes reaches Borneo. 1518 – Juan de Grijalva explores the Mexican coast from "Patouchan" (Champotón) to just north of the Pánuco River. 1519 – Hernán Cortés travels from Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco. 1519 – Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda sails around the Gulf of Mexico to the Pánuco, proving its insularity; also reaches the "Father of Waters" (the Mississippi). 1519 – Gaspar de Espinosa sails west along the west coasts of modern Panama and Costa Rica as far as the Gulf of Nicoya. 1519–22 – Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reaches the Maluku Islands travelling westward, discovering the Strait of All Saints and crossing the Pacific Ocean. Later, Juan Sebastian Elcano, a member of the tripulation, is elected captain after Magellan's death and completes the first circumnavigation of the globe. 1520–21 – João Alvares Fagundes explores Burgeo and Saint Pierre and Miquelon in Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.Ganong, W. F., Crucial Maps in the Early Cartography and Place-Nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of Canada, with an introduction, commentary and map notes by Theodore E. Layng (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964), Chapter II: "João Àlvares Fagundes," 45–97. 1521 – Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos find the mouth of a river they name "Rio de San Juan Bautista" (perhaps Winyah Bay at the mouth of the Pee Dee River in modern South Carolina). 1521 – Cristóvão Jacques explores the Plate River and explores the Parana River, entering it for about 23 leagues (around 140 km), to near the present city of Rosario. 1522 – Gil González Dávila explores inland from the Gulf of Nicoya, reaching Lake Nicaragua, while his pilot Andrés Niño explores along the coast to the west, reaching the Gulf of Fonseca and perhaps reaching as far as the southwestern coast of modern Guatemala. 1524 – Under the commission of Francis I of France, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano explores the eastern seaboard of the present-day United States from about Cape Fear to Maine. He also explores the mouth of the Hudson River. c. 1524 – Aleixo Garcia travels westward from Santa Catarina, across the Paraná River (perhaps sighting Iguazu Falls) to the Paraguay River near the site of Asunción, then across the Gran Chaco to the Andes and the Inca frontier, somewhere between Mizque and Tomina in modern Bolivia. 1524–25 – Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro explore from Punta Piña (7°56’N) on the southern coast of Panama to the San Juan River (4°N), on the west coast of Colombia. 1525 – Estêvão Gomes probes Penobscot Bay, Maine. 1525 – The Portuguese reach "Celebes" (Sulawesi).Crawfurd, J. 1856. A descriptive dictionary of the Indian islands and adjacent countries. London: Bradbury & Evans. 1525 – Diogo da Rocha and Gomes de Sequeira explore the Caroline Islands. 2004 reissued 1526 – Alonso de Salazar reaches the Marshall Islands (Bokak Atoll). 1526–28 – Pizarro and his pilot Bartolomé Ruiz explore the west coast of South America from the San Juan River south to the Santa River (about 9°S), becoming the first Europeans to sight the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. 1526–27 – Jorge de Menezes reaches New Guinea. 1527–28 – Sebastian Cabot explores several hundred miles up the Paraná River, past its confluence with the Paraguay. 1528 – Diogo Rodrigues explores the Mascarene Islands (which he names after Pedro Mascarenhas), naming the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues. 1528–36 – Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three others are the only survivors of a group of several hundred colonists who travel from the coast of western Florida to the Rio Sinaloa in northern Mexico, where they encounter Spanish slavers. 1531 – Diego de Ordaz ascends the Orinoco to the Atures rapids, just past its confluence with the Meta. 1532–33 – Pizarro explores and conquers inland to Cajamarca and Cuzco. 1533 – Fortún Ximénez finds the tip of Baja California. 1534 – Jacques Cartier explores the Gulf of St. Lawrence, discovering Anticosti Island and Prince Edward Island. 1535 – Fray Tomás de Berlanga explores the Galapagos Islands.Markham, Clements R. Discovery of the Galapagos Islands (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XIV, May 1892, pp. 314–16).