# data[].attributes.body
He wasn't an explorer himself, but he SPONSORED a lot of explorers from Portugal - he also started a school of navigation!

# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps the most famous explorer, sailed for Spain and "discovered" the continent of North America. Leave a comment about WHY I put "discovered" in quotations?

# data[].attributes.body
Vasco de Gama sailed for Portugal and was the first to actually find a sea route to Asia (which is what everyone else was trying to do!).

# data[].attributes.body
Pedro Cabral wasn't a very experiences explorer, but his main mission was to spread Christianity to the lands he sailed to. He was supposed to follow Vasco de Gama's route, except go a little bit more west. Leave a comment about WHAT country he found and WHY that country now speaks Portuguese?

# data[].attributes.body
Ponce de Leon is known for "discovering" and naming Florida. His exploration lead to Florida becoming a Spanish colony (St. Augustine!!).

# data[].attributes.body
Hernan Cortes' explorations lead to the fall of the Aztec empire in Mexico. He did not fight fair and won using sneak-attacks. He also enslaved a lot of the Native people he encountered.

# data[].attributes.body
Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the globe! That means he went all the way around the Earth!! He actually died before he made it all the way around, but he's still the one we give credit to. He was trying to find the spice islands near India.

# data[].attributes.body
Francisco Pizarro's explorations lead to the fall of the Inca empire in South America. He grew up very poor and was motivated by the chance of becoming rich and finding gold in the new world. He also treated native people very cruelly.

# data[].attributes.body
Hernando de Soto was actually a crew-member on Pizarro's expedition of South America. Later in his life he explored North America and "discovered" the Mississippi river, he also enslaved and killed Native Americans that he encountered.