Giovanni da verrazano explorer route map
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Voyage to the Northeast
One of the great quests of the 16th century was to find a northwest passage—a shortcut from Europe to Asia. Such a route would go through or above the lands of the New World. No one ever found it because there isn’t one. But the search gave European mapmakers and scientists a lot of information about the North American coastline.
One example was a search that reached the coast 500 years ago. Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano convinced the king of France to sponsor a search for the northwest passage. The expedition set sail in January of 1524. It reached the coast in March, near Cape Fear, North Carolina.
Verrazzano sailed south for a while, but stopped before he reached Florida, which was claimed by Spain. He then headed north. Over the next few months, he cruised past present-day New York, New England, and toward Canada.
During that time, he and his crew became the first Europeans to see what are now known as New York Harbor, Block Island, and N
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Verrazzano: A Bridge to the New World
Lesson Plan - Get It!
- If you lived in Europe in the 1600s, would you want to go exploring the New World?
- What would your goals and expectations be?
There are many reasons why European explorers wanted to go on these exciting, but dangerous, expeditions. Click on the reason below that would be most important to you.
Explorers faced dangerous seas, pirates, hostile natives — even mutinies from their own crews! — to sail to the New World. Giovanni Verrazzano was one of them.
Image bygd F. Allegrini, via Wikimedia Commons, is in the public domain.
Verrazzano was born in 1485. (You will sometimes find his named spelled with one "z," but two is the more authentic version.) He grew up in Italy, but moved to France in his early twenties and became a navigator on a French merchant ship. A navigator is someone who helps styra the ship. During this time, there were wars between France and Spain, an
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Giovanni da Verrazzano
Florentine explorer of North America for France (1485–1528)
"Verrazzano" redirects here. For other uses, see Verrazano (disambiguation).
Giovanni da Verrazzano | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1485 Val di Greve, Republic of Florence |
| Died | 1528 (aged 42–43) Unclear; possibly Guadeloupe |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | Janus Verrazanus, Jehan de Verrazane |
| Occupation | Explorer |
| Parent(s) | Piero Andrea di Bernardo da Verrazzano (Father), Fiammetta Cappelli (Mother) |
Giovanni da Verrazzano (VERR-ə-ZAH-noh, -ət-SAH-,[1][2][3][4]Italian:[dʒoˈvannida(v)verratˈtsaːno]; often misspelled Verrazano in English;[5] 1485–1528) was an Italian[6] (Florentine) explorer[7][8] of North America, who led most of his later expeditions, including the one to America, in the service of King Francis I of France.
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