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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Known as the 'Father of New France,' this French explorer founded Quebec City in 1608.

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

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

Vasco da Gama's fleet met a hostile welcome at this Swahili-coast port in 1498, then found a friendlier one at Malindi.

European contact spread this deadly disease, devastating Indigenous populations with no prior immunity.

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

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

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

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

In 1541-42, Francisco de Orellana became the first European to navigate the full length of this great river.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magellan was killed in 1521 in a battle on this small Philippine island against a local chieftain's forces.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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