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Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521) was a Spanish conquistador who led expeditions from Puerto Rico to the coast of Florida, giving the region its current name. He also served as the first governor of Puerto Rico and discovered the Gulf Stream...
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Juan de Grijalva
Juan de Grijalva (aka Grijalba, 1489-1527) was a Spanish conquistador who explored the eastern coast of Mexico in 1518. His notable achievements included a demonstration that the Yucatán Peninsula was just that and not, as previously thought...
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Map of the World by Juan de la Cosa
A map of the world drawn by Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450-1510). Made in 1500 on leather-backed parchment. (National Naval Museum of Madrid)
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Juan Fernández Islands
A map of the Juan Fernández Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The islands famously hosted the marooned mariner Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) from 1704 to 1709. Selkirk inspired the title character of Daniel Defoe's celebrated novel...
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Fortifications, San Juan de Ulúa
A portion of the 16-17th century fortifications at San Juan de Ulúa, an island opposite the port of Veracruz, Mexico, once a major port on the Spanish Main. The rings in the walls were for ships to tie themselves to.
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Viking Age Swords
Three Viking Age swords dated to between c. 750-950 CE are shown here. They were found in the river Meuse near Den Bosch, Aalburg and Wessem, in the Netherlands. They now belong to the collections of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden...
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John Hawkins
Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595 CE) was an Elizabethan mariner, merchant and naval administrator who has the inglorious (if not wholly accurate) record of being England's first slave trader. In the 1560s CE Hawkins trafficked slaves from West...
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Adelantado
Adelantado was an office awarded by the Spanish Crown to conduct military campaigns in the medieval period but then repurposed during the Age of Exploration to grant an individual the right to privately fund expeditions of discovery and conquest...
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El Dorado
El Dorado ('Gilded Man' or 'Golden One') referred to the legendary kings of the Muisca (Chibcha) people who populated the northern Andes of modern-day Colombia from 600 to 1600. The name derives from the coronation ritual when the new king...
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Francisco Pizarro on Isla del Gallo
A 1902 painting by Juan Lepiani showing the conquistador Francisco Pizarro on Isla del Gallo on his second expedition to Peru in 1527. Recalled by the governor of Cuba, Pizarro ignored his orders and asked his men who would volunteer to proceed...