European Expansion in the World  
In a context marked by trading needs and the renewal of science and philosophy, European kingdoms financed voyages of exploration. European expansion is presented as the establishment of an initial form of world economy. The explorations had effects on the peoples who occupied North America at the time.

The Mariners' Museum - Exploration through the Ages
http://ww2.mariner.org/exploration/index.php
This online exhibition contains biographies, maps, timelines and downloadable documents on exploration from the ancient world to the 18thC.

The European Voyages of Exploration - The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/index.html

This tutorial developed by the Applied History Research Group at the University of Calgary, focuses on Portugal and Spain during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, their motivations, their actions, and the inevitable consequences of their colonisation. It also examines the geographical, technological, economic, political, and cultural patterns of that era.

British Empire - The Rise of the British Empire - North America
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/empire/g1/cs1/default.htm

North America covers a very large area, from the Arctic areas of Newfoundland to the tropical lands of the Caribbean. Despite this, by the late 1700s British traders, soldiers, sailors, administrators and settlers could be found all over this huge area. So what drove English, Scots, Irish and Welsh men and women to travel across the Atlantic? Look at the background and the sources in this case study and see what you can discover about their motives.

For an animated version of the process of British expansion worldwide, consider viewing all or part of this Map as History presentation:  British Empire: Trade Routes and Construction

American Journeys - Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement: A Digital Library and Learning Center
http://www.americanjourneys.org/index.asp

American Journeys contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later.

Conquistadors
http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/

Companion site to the PBS series The Conquistadors.

Conquistadors Online Learning Adventure
http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/home.htm

An educational resource for middle and high school classrooms to learn about the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World – and the legacy of their contact with Native Americans. There are extensive lesson plans for teachers and in-depth online content for students.

• The diary of Christopher Columbus

Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html

First Voyage of Columbus: Meeting the Islanders (1492) - Athena Review  Vol. 1, no.3
http://www.athenapub.com/coluvoy1.htm

• Galileo

The Galileo Project
http://galileo.rice.edu/

The Galileo Project is a source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). The aim of the site is to provide hypertextual information about Galileo and the science of his time to viewers of all ages and levels of expertise.

• Kepler

Johannes Kepler - His Life, His Laws and Times
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/johannes.html

Short bio, explanation of Kepler's work and links to other resources from NASA's Kepler Mission website.

The Galileo Project - Science - Kepler
http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/kepler.html

Provides a more detailed biography and an image of Kepler's model to explain the relative distances of the planets from the Sun in the Copernican System.

• Newton

BBC History - Historic Figures - Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml

Provides a detailed biography with links to other resources.

The Newton Project - Newton's Life and Work at a Glance
http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=15

This section of the site has comprehensive timeline of Newton's life. Site contains manuscripts and archives of personal and scientific material.

• Cartier

The Virtual Museum of New France - The Explorers - Jacques Cartier
http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/explore/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/jacques-cartier

Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada - Jacques Cartier: New Land for the French King
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/lac-bac/
explorers/www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/explorers/h24-1330-e.html

• Cabot (Giovanni Caboto)

Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada - John Cabot: The English King's Italian Navigator
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/lac-bac/
explorers/www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/explorers/h24-1310-e.html

John Cabot - Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/cabot.html

Modern History Sourcebook: John Cabot (c.1450-1499): Voyage to North America, 1497
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497cabot-3docs.html

Translations of three documents that contain all the evidence from contemporary witnesses whose information may have come from John Cabot himself.

• Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan and the First Circumnavigation of the World - Age of Exploration - The Mariners' Museum
http://www.mariner.org/education/ferdinand-magellan-and-first-circumnavigation-world

Provides a detailed description of the first recorded trip around the globe and a map of the voyage.

Modern History Sourcebook: Ferdinand Magellan's Voyage Round the World, 1519-1522
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1519magellan.html

Translation of an account from the paper-book of a Genoese pilot," who came in the said ship, who wrote all the voyage as it is here."

• Vasco da Gama

The European Voyages of Exploration - The Sea-Route to India & Vasco Da Gama
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/vasco.html

Modern History Sourcebook: Vasco da Gama: Round Africa to India, 1497-1498
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497degama.htm

Translation of Vasco da Gama's account of his first expedition to India in 1498.

• The Prince (Machiavelli)

Nicolo Machiavelli: The Prince
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/machiavelli.html

Full text version online, written c.1505, translation by W. K. Marriot.

Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) - The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/machiave.htm

Short biography and description of The Prince.

• The Book of Marco Polo (Marco Polo)

Marco Polo and His Travels
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/marcopolo.shtml

Medieval Sourcebook: Marco Polo

Preamble and excerpts from The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, trans. and ed. by Henry Yule, 3rd ed. revised by Henri Cordier (London: John Murray, 1903)

The Glories Of Kinsay [Hangchow] (c. 1300)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/polo-kinsay.html

On the Tartars
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/mpolo44-46.html

• Tears of the Indians (Bartolomé de Las Casas)

Viewers and the Viewed - Cultural Readings: Colonization & Print in the Americas
http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/kislak/viewers/black.html

Provides a historical context for the writing of Bartolomé de Las Casas, includes images of actual manuscripts.

Exploring Borderlands - Bartolomé de las Casas (c. 1474-1566) - American Passages: A Literary Survey - Annenberg CPB
http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit02/authors-2.html

Biography, images and links to on-site artifacts.

• The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (Copernicus)

Modern History Sourcebook: Nicolas Copernicus: From The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1543copernicus2.html

Includes a short preamble and a translated excerpt of the text.

Nicholas Copernicus' De revolutionibus
http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/bjmanus/revol/titlpg_e.html

Electronic reproduction of the actual manuscript including images.

• Tenochtitlan

Spaniards in Tenochtitlan
http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/cortes/cortes_e00.html

The Conquest of the Aztec Empire: Hernán Cortés http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/aztec.html

Imperial city of the Aztecs: Mexico-Tenochtitlan - Common Place Special Issue - Early Cities of the Americas
http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-04/mexico-city/

Precolumbian Art and Art History - Tenochtitlan
https://webspace.utexas.edu/jgk1102/tenochtitlan.htm