South America: Did you mean...?

In 2020, it will be 400 years since a group of colonists set sail for America on the ship the Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony there. Today we know these migrants as: the Pilgrims. What many people don’t know, is that the...

The Spanish Main refers, in its widest sense, to the Spanish Empire in the Americas from Florida in the north to the northern coast of Brazil in the south, including the Caribbean. The term was initially more limited and referred only to...

In this interview, World History Encyclopedia talks to author and scholar Gordon Campbell all about his new book Norse America: The Story of a Founding Myth published by Oxford University Press. Kelly (WHE): Thanks for joining me today...

Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE, also known as Cristoffa Corombo in Ligurian and Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) was a Genoese explorer (identified as Italian) who became famous in his own time as the man who discovered the New World...

Let's retrace here the colonization by Europeans, from the discovery by Christopher Columbus until the end of the Seven Years’ War.

This lecture is a brief introduction to the early history of the Pennsylvania Colony. The Pennsylvania Colony was founded in 1681 by William Penn, a Quaker convert who converted a debt owed to his family by the king into a charter for a proprietary...

Check out this enormous prehistoric mound site near Tuscaloosa, Alabama! Built during the Mississippian Period, these mounds have been standing here for hundreds of years, even before the arrival of Columbus. Make sure to check out more Mike...

Vinland (Old Norse Vínland, 'Wine Land') is the name given to the lands explored and briefly settled by Norse Vikings in North America around 1000 CE, particularly referring to Newfoundland, where a Viking site known as L'Anse aux Meadows...

Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Living an extraordinary life of adventure, Alvarado participated in separate expeditions to Mexico, Central America, South America...

The Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, led by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), successfully crossed 8,000 km (5,000 miles) of the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands on a balsa-wood raft. The aim of the expedition was to demonstrate...