Mariners' Museum and Park
Age of Exploration: Changing View of the World: The Development of Map Making
Read a summary of the history of map-making and the maps that were produced as a result of European exploration in the Americas. See examples of these maps and find out more about each one in this exhibit from the Mariners' Museum.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Age of Exploration
[Free Registration/Login Required] Learn about the exploration of the Americas. Site includes primary source documents, videos, essays, and lesson plans to help students research the exploration of the new land.
Library of Congress
Loc: Discovery and Exploration
This American Memory site documents the discovery and exploration of the Americas with both manuscripts and published maps, many of which date from the European Age of Discovery. The site includes 22 map titles and descriptions, as well...
EL Education
El Education: A Buccaneer's Guide to the Age of Exploration
A Buccaneer's Guide to the Age of Exploration depicts European world-wide exploration and exploitation through a collage-style book of text, hand-drawn and water-colored illustrations, maps, timelines, and diagrams. The book chronicles...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The First Europeans
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is...
The History Cat
The History Cat: Age of Exploration: The Columbian Exchange
A fascinating look at the exchanges that took place around the world after the Americas were discovered. This covered the gamut from diseases which wiped out 90% of the native peoples in North and South America, to farm animals, tools,...
University of Calgary
European Voyages of Exploration: Geography and Cartography
This site provides information on mapmaking and cartograohy of the early explorers. Includes pictures of maps.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Renaissance for Kids: Age of Exploration and Discovery
Kids learn about the Age of Exploration and Discovery of the European Renaissance including Henry the Navigator, Columbus, Portugal, and Spain.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Portuguese Exploration and Spanish Conquest
From a chapter on "Early Globalization: The Atlantic World, 1492-1650," this section describes the importance of Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic and Spanish exploration of the Americas.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: First European Exploration and Exploitation
Essay on the exploitation and decimation of indigenous peoples as a result of European exploration, settlement, and colonization in North and South America.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Exploration of the Americas
This collection uses primary sources to explain the early exploration of the Americas.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Ap Us History: Native Populations & European Exploration
AP U.S. History learning module explores the encounter and interactions between European explorers and Native populations in America. Complete set of resources, interactive material, assignments and assessment.
The British Museum
British Museum: Explore World Cultures: Iron Age
Learn about the art of the Iron Age in this historical overview and image gallery with detailed descriptions of each piece, from the collection of the British Museum.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Age of Exploration: Christopher Columbus
The story of Christopher Columbus, of how he became an explorer, his encounter with the Arawak people in the Caribbean, and the exaggerated tales he told the King and Queen of Spain when he returned to Europe.
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Exploration and Encounter: Map 3, Captain Cook and Hawaii, 1778
Map and primary source information provide first-hand account of exploration and encounters between Europeans and Hawaiians. Includes lesson plans for k-12, links to reference material and supplemental resources, and curators notes.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: European Paintings Collection Highlights
Explore a selection of the MFA's holdings of over 1,400 paintings from across Europe, featuring masterworks from the middle ages to the mid-twentieth century. Click on 'View All Works' to access the collection.
Other
Radford University: Prelude to European Settlement of Virginia
This site traces the early voyages of explorers from Portugal and Spain who were trying to find new resources.
Library of Congress
Loc: Portuguese Mapping the New World
The Library of Congress provides a discussion of the importance of Portugal in the "European Age of Discovery and Exploration." Includes links to related pages within this same Library of Congress site.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Pre Colonization European Society
The Church, disease, and large urban centers dictated societal structure in European societies before the colonization of the New World. Read more about Europe during the Middle Ages.
British Library
British Library: Discovering Literature: Travel, Trade and Exploration in the Middle Ages
Medieval Europeans were fascinated by the lands that lay beyond their own continent. This article looks at the real and imaginary travels of explorers and tradesmen through works including The Book of John Mandeville, The Travels of...
Library of Congress
Loc: Mediterranean World on the Eve of Conquest
The Library of Congress provides an essay on the reasons for exploration during the 15th century.
Virginia Tech
Digital History Reader: Demographic Catastrophe: Native Population
When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World he and his entourage brought with them not only the views of Europeans, but also diseases of Europeans. This was catastrophic to the natives in the Caribbean Islands and Meso-America as...
Library of Congress
Loc: Map Collections 1500 2002
This collection provides maps dating back to 1500 up to the present. The collection includes: cities, towns, discovery and exploration, conservation and environment, military battles, cultural landscapes, transportation, communication,...
Other
The Map as History: Europe's Colonial Expanision 1820 1939
European countries began exploring and seeking to dominate the rest of the world during the 15th and 16th centuries, thanks to their ability to control sea routes and to the discovery of the American continent. In the 19th century,...