This timeline of European exploration lists major geographic discoveries and other firsts credited to or involving Europeans during the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, between the years AD 1418 and 1957. Despite several significant transoceanic and transcontinental explorations by European civilizations in the preceding centuries, the precise geography of the Earth outside of Europe was largely unknown to Europeans before the 15th century, when technological advances (especially in sea travel) as well as the rise of colonialism, mercantilism, and a host of other social, cultural, and economic changes made it possible to organize large-scale exploratory expeditions to uncharted parts of the globe. The Age of Discovery arguably began in the early 15th century with the rounding of the feared Cape Bojador and Portuguese exploration of the west coast of Africa, while in the last decade of the century the Spanish sent expeditions far across the Atlantic, where the Americas would eventually be reached, and the Portuguese found a sea route to India. In the 16th century, various European states funded expeditions to the interior of both North and South America, as well as to their respective west and east coasts, north to California and Labrador and south to Chile and Tierra del Fuego. In the 17th century, Russian explorers conquered Siberia in search of sables, while the Dutch contributed greatly to the charting of Australia. The 18th century witnessed the first extensive explorations of the South Pacific and Oceania and the exploration of Alaska, while the 19th was dominated by exploration of the polar regions and excursions into the heart of Africa. By the early 20th century, the poles themselves had been reached.
15th century
1402 - Castilian colonization of the Canary Islands began with the expedition of the French explorers Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, nobles and vassals of Henry III of Castile, to Lanzarote 1418 – Portuguese explorers João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discover Porto Santo Island in the Madeira archipelago. 1419 – Gonçalves and Vaz discover the main island of Madeira. 1431 – Diogo de Silves discovers the Azores. 1434 – Gil Eanes passes Cabo de Não and becomes the first confirmed person to sail beyond Cape Bojador and return alive. 1444 – Dinis Dias reaches the mouth of the Senegal River. 1446 – The Portuguese reach the mainland peninsula of Cape Verde and the Gambia River. 1456 – Alvise Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes discover the Cape Verde Islands, 560 kilometres (350 mi) west of the Cape Verde peninsula. 1460 – Pêro de Sintra reaches Sierra Leone. 1470 – Cape Palmas is passed. 1472 – Fernão do Pó lands on the island of Bioko. 1473 – Lopo Gonçalves is the first European sailor to cross the Equator. 1474–75 – Ruy de Sequeira discovers São Tomé and Príncipe. 1482 – Diogo Cão reaches the Congo River, where he erects a padrão ("pillar of stone"). 1485–86 – Cão reaches Cape Cross, where he erects his last padrão. 1487–92 – Pêro da Covilhã travels to Arabia, to the mouth of the Red Sea, and then eastward by sail to the Malabar Coast (visiting Calicut and Goa on the Indian subcontinent). He later sails south along the east coast of Africa, visiting the trading stations of Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Sofala; on his return journey he visits Mecca and Medina before reaching Ethiopia in search of the mythical Prester John. 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias rounds the "Cape of Storms" (Cape of Good Hope), at the southernmost tip of the African continent. 1492 – Under the patronage of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus explores the Bahamas, Cuba, and "Española" (Hispaniola), which are only later recognized as part of the New World. 1493–94 – On his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus reaches Dominica and Guadeloupe, among other islands of the Lesser Antilles, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. 1497 – Under the commission of Henry VII of England, Italian explorer John Cabot explores Newfoundland. 1497–98 – Vasco da Gama sails to India and back. 1498 – On his third voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus reaches mainland South America. 1499 – Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda explores the South American mainland from about Cayenne (in modern French Guiana) to Cabo de la Vela (in modern Colombia), reaching the mouth of the Orinoco River and entering Lake Maracaibo. 1499 – Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci explores the mouth of the Amazon River and reaches 6°S latitude, in present-day northern Brazil. 1499 – João Fernandes Lavrador, together with Pêro de Barcelos, sight Labrador. 1499 – Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real reach and map Greenland.
16th century
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