Amundsen, Roald (1872–1928) A Norwegian explorer. In 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.

Balboa, Vasco Núñez de (1475–1519) A Spanish explorer. In 1513 he was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

Cabot, John (c.1450–1499) John Cabot was an Italian explorer who led an English expedition to North America in 1497.

Caillié, René (1799–1838) A French explorer. Disguised as an Arab, René Caillié was the first European to safely return from the African trading town of Timbuktu.

Cartier, Jacques (1491–1557) A French explorer. Between 1534 and 1542 Jacques Cartier made three voyages to America and claimed modern-day Canada for France.

Columbus, Christopher (1451–1506) A Genoese sailor and explorer. In 1492 Columbus sailed to America in the service of Spain while searching for a sea route to Asia. Before this, Europeans had been unaware of the American continent.

Colony An area controlled by another country in a different part of the world.

Conquistadors The Spanish invaders, or conquerors, of the Americas. Two famous conquistadors were Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), who conquered the Aztec Empire, and Francisco Pizarro (c.1471–1541), who defeated the Inca Empire.

Cook, James (1728–1779) A British sea captain who was the first European to sail to the east coast of Australia. Captain James Cook also sailed further south than anyone had before.

Da Gama, Vasco (c.1460–1524) A Portuguese sailor. In 1498, Vasco Da Gama led the first ships to sail from Europe to India around the southern tip of Africa.

De Soto, Hernando (c.1496–1542) A Spanish explorer. In 1539, he led an expedition to Florida in search of gold and became the first European to see the Mississippi River.

Dias, Bartolomeu (c.1451–1500) A Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, near Africa's southernmost tip,

Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) A Portuguese prince who funded many expeditions. He set up a school of map-making, navigation and astronomy for sailors to learn the skills they needed at sea.

Humboldt, Alexander von (1769–1859) German naturalist, geographer and explorer. Humboldt travelled extensively thoughout Latin America between 1799 and 1804, describing the nature and landscape he observed from a scientific point of view. His five-volume work, Kosmos, was a highly detailed investigation into the nature of the Earth and the Universe.

Kingsley, Mary (1862–1900) Mary Kingsley was an English explorer who travelled through Africa, where she met cannibals and collected specimens for the British Museum.

Livingstone, David (1813–1873) Scottish missionary and explorer. David Livingstone was the first European to see the Victoria Falls and to cross Africa from east to west.

Magellan, Ferdinand (c.1480–1521) Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer whose fleet of ships, in the service of Spain, was the first to sail around the world, 1519–22.

Missionary Someone who sets out to convert people to their religion. During the 18th and 19th centuries, hundreds of Christian missionaries journeyed to the European colonies to convert local people to Christianity and a European lifestyle.

Nansen, Fridtjof (1861–1930) A Norwegian explorer. In 1888 he led the first team to cross the interior of Greenland and, in 1893, he travelled farther north than anyone had before but failed to reach the North Pole.

Peary, Robert (1856–1920) Robert Peary was an American explorer who claimed, in 1909, to be the first person to reach the North Pole.

Polo, Marco (1254–1324) Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveller, whose travels across Asia to China and back are recorded in his Book of the Marvels of the World, published in around 1300.

Scott, Robert Falcon (1868–1912) British explorer. In January 1912, Scott and four members of the British Antarctic Expedition reached the South Pole, only to find Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it. Scott and his men died on the return journey.

Stanley, Henry (1841–1904) Henry Stanley was an American journalist who went to Africa to seek fame—which he did when he “found” the explorer David Livingstone in 1871.

Vespucci, Amerigo (1454–1512) An Italian explorer who reached South America in 1499. It is thought that a version of Amerigo Vespucci's name, written on an early map of the continent, gave us the name “America”.

West Indies The Caribbean Islands, so-called because Columbus believed he had reached Asia (the Indies) when he landed there.

Consultant: Philip Parker