Exploration of North America
Name ______________________
Test is on____________________
1. Christopher Columbus was an Italian who explored for the
king and queen of Spain.
2. Columbus was searching for a short cut to the East Indies,
but he discovered a new world – or, at least, a world that was
new to Europeans. The area became known as the West Indies.
3. Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who founded
Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth.
4. Hernando De Soto was an explorer from Spain. He was
searching for gold but found the Mississippi River instead.
5. The legend of El Dorado (the city of gold) was passed around
among explorers for more than a hundred years.
6. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was an explorer who headed
the last major expedition in the search of the Seven Cities of
Cibola.
7. The Seven Cities of Cibola were mythical North American
towns supposedly so wealthy that the streets were paved with
gold.
8. Coronado and his men were the first Europeans to see the
Grand Canyon.
9. Conquistador is the Spanish word for “conqueror.”
10. Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded a colony at St Augustine,
Florida.
11. St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in
the United States.
12. A presidio is a fort.
13. In the Southwest the Spaniards built religious communities
called missions.
14. A Spanish priest named Father Junipero Serra set up several
missions in California. Many of the missions became important
cities. San Diego and San Francisco are examples.
(OVER)
15. Native people were taught skills that helped keep the mission
going. Examples are carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, potters,
and basket weavers.
16. The native people in many of the missions were angry about the
loss of their freedom and the destruction of their culture.
17. Pope’ was a Pueblo healer. He led a rebellion to drive out the
Spaniards.
18. John Cabot was an explorer whose expedition was the first
European expedition to see the North American continent.
19. Henry Hudson was an explorer who discovered the Hudson
Bay and the Hudson Strait.
20. Hudson searched for the Northwest Passage in his ship called
the Half Moon.
21. Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer.
22. Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover what
is now known as the Great Lakes. He founded the city of
Quebec, which is the oldest city in Canada.
23. Champlain called this area New France.
24. New France was extended to include all the land in the
Mississippi River Valley that Robert Cavalier claimed for
France. Cavalier was also named Sieur de LaSalle.