 | Pero de Barcelos | unknown | 1498 | | 1501 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese navigator who explored the coasts of North America with João Fernandes Labrador, h... |
| Joao Fernandes Lavrador | 1453 | 1498 | | 1501 | 1501 ca |
| | a Portuguese explorer of the late 15th century. He was the first modern explorer in the coasts of... |
| Nicolau Coelho | 1460 ca | 1490 | | 1502 | 1502 |
| | an expert Portuguese navigator and explorer during the age of discovery. He participated in the d... |
| Miguel Corte-Real | 1448 | 1502 | | 1502 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese explorer who charted about 600 miles of the coast of Labrador. In 1501, he disappear... |
| Goncalo Coelho | unknown | 1501 | | 1504 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese explorer who belonged to a prominent family in northern Portugal. He commanded two e... |
 | Christopher Columbus | 1451, Oct | 1473 | | 1505 | 1506, May 20 |
| | an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspice... |
| Ludovico di Varthema | 1470 ca | 1502 | | 1507 | 1517 |
| | an Italian traveller, diarist and aristocrat known for being the first non-Muslim European to ent... |
| Diogo de Azambuja | 1432 | 1450 | | 1509 | 1518 |
| | a Portuguese noble. He was a knight of the Order of Aviz in the service of the Infante Dom Pedro,... |
 | Jean Cousin | unknown | 1480 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a 15th-century French Normand navigator who was said to have discovered the New World in 1488, fo... |
| Pedro Alvares Cabral | 1467 | 1484 | | 1509 | 1520 |
| | a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of B... |
| Diogo Dias | unknown | 1490 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of ... |
| Andre Goncalves [1] | unknown | 1490 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | A Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalv... |
 | Alonso de Ojeda | 1465/66/68 | 1490 | | 1509 | 1515 |
| | a ruthless and cunning explorer who first sailed to the New World on Columbus’ second voyage in... |
| Luis Pires | unknown | 1490 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese explorer who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil, being one... |
| Amerigo Vespucci | 1454, Mar 9 | 1497 | | 1509 | 1512, Feb 22 |
| | an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and... |
| Lourenco de Almeida | 1480 ca | 1500 | | 1509 | 1508, Mar |
| | a Portuguese explorer and military commander. He was born in Martim, Kingdom of Portugal, the son... |
| Pero de Ataide | 1450 ca | 1500 | | 1509 | 1504, Feb/Mar |
| | a Portuguese sea captain in the Indian Ocean active in the early 1500s. He was briefly captain of... |
| Vasco de Ataide | unknown | 1500 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese sailor whose ship was a part of Pedro Álvares Cabral 1500 expedition to India. His ... |
| Joao da Nova | 1460 ca | 1500 | | 1509 | 1509, Jul |
| | a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal. He is credited ... |
| Sebastian de Ocampo | unknown | 1500 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a Spanish navigator and explorer. He is believed to have been the first navigator to have circumn... |
| Diogo Fernandes Pereira | unknown | 1500 | | 1509 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese 16th-century navigator, originally from Setúbal, Portugal. Diogo Fernandes was the... |
| Francisco de Almeida | 1450 ca | 1490 | | 1510 | 1510, Mar 1 |
| | a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King Joh... |
| Pero de Alenquer | 1480 ca | 1500 | | 15109 | 1514 ca
|
| | a 15th-century Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Pêro was born in Alenquer, and accompan... |
| Afonso de Albuquerque | 1453 ca | 1471 | | 1515 | 1515, Dec 16 |
| | a Portuguese general, a "great conqueror," a statesman, and an empire builder. He is generally co... |
| Juan Diaz de Solis | 1470 | 1500 | | 1516 | 1516 |
| | In 1500 and 1508, Diaz de Solis joined Vincente Pinzón on two voyages exploring along the coast ... |
 | Antony Welser | unknown | 1500 | | 1518 | 1518 |
| | One of the first Europeans to use the sea route to India discovered by Vasco de Gama. |
| Diego Velasquez de Cuellar | 1465 | 1490 | | 1519 | 1524, Jun 12 |
| | a Spanish conquistador. He first visited the New World with the crew of Christopher Columbus' sec... |
| Antonio de Abreu | 1480 ca | 1500 | | 1519 | 1514 ca |
| | a 16th-century Portuguese navigator and naval officer. He participated under the command of Afons... |
| Vasco Nunez de Balboa | 1475 ca | 1500 | | 1519 | 1519, Jan 12/21 |
| | a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus o... |
| Binot Paulmier de Gonneville | unknown | 1500 | | 1519 | unknown |
| | French navigator of the early 16th century, was widely believed in 17th and 18th century France t... |
| Duarte Fernandes | unknown | 1500 | | 1519 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese diplomat and the first European to establish diplomatic relations with Thailand, whe... |
| Fernao de Loronha | 1470 ca | 1500 | | 1519 | 1540 ca |
| | a prominent 16th-century Portuguese merchant of Lisbon He was the first charter-holder (1502–15... |
| Francisco del Puerto | unknown | 1510 | | 1519 | unknown |
| | a cabin boy of the expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís to the Río de la Plata. His last name seem... |
| Ferdinand Magellan | 1480 | 1495 | | 1521 | 1521 |
| | a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, ... |
| Duarte Barbosa | 1480 ca | 1500 | | 1521 | 1521, May 1 |
| | a Portuguese writer and Portuguese India officer between 1500 and 1516–1517, with the post of s... |
| Jorge Alvares | unknown | 1510 | | 1521 | 1521, Jul 8 |
| | credited as the first European explorer to have reached China and Hong Kong by sea. Álvares made... |
| Francisco Serrao | unknown | 1511 | | 1521 | 1521 |
| | a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Ferdinand Magellan. His 1512 voyage was the first known Eur... |
| Vasco da Gama | 1460s | 1480 | | 1524 | 1524, Dec 24 |
| | a Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia f... |
| Goncalo Alvares | unknown | 1490 | | 1524 | 1524 |
| | a Portuguese explorer who actively participated in the age of discovery starting from the second ... |
| Gomes de Sequeira | unknown | 1525 | | 1525 | unknown |
| | a Portuguese explorer in the early 16th century. It has been suggested by some historians that Go... |
| Juan Sebastian Elcano | 1476 | 1509 | | 1526 | 1526, Aug 4 |
| | a Basque explorer who completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. After Ferdinand Magellan... |
| Garcia Jofre de Loaisa | 1490 | 1525 | | 1526 | 1526, Jul 20 |
| | Commanded a 16th-century voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean and ordered by King Charles I ... |
| Giovanni da Verrazzano | 1485 | 1508 | | 1528 | 1528 |
| | an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of King Francis I of France. He is renowned ... |
| Cristovao Jacques | 1480 ca | 1500 | | 1529 | 1530+ |
| | a Portuguese noble of Aragonese descent. In 1516, in command of two caravels, he was in charge of... |
| Panfilo de Narvaez | 1470 | 1510 | | 1529 | 1528 |
| | Explorer |
| Alonso de Salazar | unknown | 1520 | | 1529 | 1526, Sep 5 |
| | the Spaniard, born in Las Encartaciones who discovered the Marshall Islands on August 21, 1526. D... |
| Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron | unknown | 1526 | | 1529 | unknown |
| | one of the Spanish explorers in the Pacific Ocean. It is unknown the exact date and place of his ... |
| Gonzalo Guerrero | unknown | 1510 | | 1530 | 1530 ca |
| | a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatán Peninsula and was taken as a sl... |
| Diego de Almagro | 1475 ca | 1510 | | 1538 | 1538, Jul 8 |
| | a Spanish conquistador and a companion and later rival of Francisco Pizarro. He participated in t... |
| Hernan Ponce de Leon | unknown | 1510 | | 1539 | unknown |
| | a Spanish conquistador who participated in the discovery of Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua in ... |
| Francisco Alvares | 1465 | 1515 | | 1539 | 1536~1541 |
| | a Portuguese missionary and explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese e... |
| Pedro de Alvarado | 1485 ca | 1510 | | 1541 | 1541, Jul 4 |
| | a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Jua... |
| Francisco de Orellana | 1490/1511 | 1540 | | 1542 | 1546, Nov |
| | a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the entire length... |
| Jacques Cartier | 1491, Dec 31 | 1534 | | 1543 | 1557, Sep 1 |
| | a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. Jacques Cartier was... |
| Ruy López de Villalobos | 1500 ca | 1520 | | 1544 | 1544, Apr 4 |
| | a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain... |
| Martim Afonso de Sousa | 1500 ca | 1530 | | 1545 | 1571, Jul 21 |
| | a Portuguese fidalgo, explorer and colonial administrator. Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander... |
| Bartholomeus Welser VI | 1512, Oct 26 | 1540 | | 1546 | 1546, May |
| | the son of Bartholomeus V. Welser (the elder), he journeyed to Venezuela to join an expedition by... |
| Hernan Cortes | 1485 | 1504 | | 1547 | 1547, Dec 2 |
| | a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought... |
| Inigo Ortiz de Retes | 1505 ca | 1538 | | 1548 | unknown |
| | a 16th-century Spanish maritime explorer, who navigated the northern coastline of the Pacific–M... |
| Francisco Xerez | 1495 | 1514 | | 1549 | 1565 ca |
| | a Spanish explorer-turned-historian, the personal secretary of conquistador Francisco Pizarro. He... |
| Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca | 1490 ca | 1520 | | 1549 | 1557 ca |
| | a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. D... |
 | James Alday | 1516 | 1540 | | 1549 | 1576 ca |
| | a 16th-century English navigator, explorer and privateer. He participated in raids against the Sp... |
| Lourenço Marques | unknown | 1540 | | 1549 | unknown |
| | a 16th-century Portuguese trader and explorer. Marques explored the area that is now Maputo Bay i... |
| Sebastian de Belalcazar | 1479/80/95 | 1507 | | 1551 | 1551 |
| | a Spanish conquistador. He entered Nicaragua with Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524 during... |
| Fernao Pires de Andrade | unknown | 1510 | | 1552 | 1552 |
| | a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and official diplomat under the explorer and Portuguese Malacc... |
| Francis Xavier | 1506, Apr 7 | 1534 | | 1552 | 1552, Dec 3 |
| | a Navarrese Roman Catholic missionary, born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese), Kingdom of N... |
 | Piri Reis | 1467 ca | 1481 | | 1553 | 1553 |
| | an Ottoman admiral, geographer, and cartographer. Piri began engaging in government-supported pri... |
| Pedro de Valdivia | 1497, Apr 17 | 1520 | | 1553 | 1553, Dec 25 |
| | a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army... |
| Pedro Mascarenhas | 1470 | 1512 | | 1555 | 1555, Jun 16 |
| | a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the islan... |
| Hans Staden | 1525 ca | 1547 | | 1555 | 1579 ca |
| | a German soldier and explorer who voyaged to South America in the middle of the sixteenth century... |
| Domingo Martinez de Irala | 1509 ca | 1530 | | 1556 | 1556 ca |
| | a Spanish Basque conquistador. He headed for the Americas in 1535 enrolled in the expedition of P... |
| Sebastian Cabot | 1474 ca | 1494 | | 1557 | 1557, Dec |
| | an Italian explorer, likely born in the Venetian Republic. He was the son of Italian explorer Joh... |
| Hernando de Alarcon | unknown | 1540 | | 1559 | unknown |
| | a Spanish navigator of the 16th century, noted for having led an early expedition to the Baja Cal... |
| Lope de Aguirre | 1510 ca | 1530 | | 1561 | 1561, Oct 27 |
| | a Basque Spanish conquistador in South America. Nicknamed El Loco ('the Madman'), he styled himse... |
| Miguel Lopez de Legazpi | 1502 ca | 1528 | | 1565 | 1572, Aug 20 |
| | a Basque Spanish navigator and governor who established the first Spanish settlement in the East ... |
| Pedro Menendez de Aviles | 1519, Feb 15 | 1565 | | 1565 | 1574, Sep 17 |
| | a Spanish admiral and explorer from the region of Asturias, Spain, who is remembered for planning... |
| Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesado | 1506/09 | 1535 | | 1573 | 1579, Feb 16 |
| | a Spanish explorer and conquistador in Colombia. He explored the northern part of South America. ... |
| Diogo Rodrigues | 1495 ca | 1507 | | 1577 | 1577, Apr 21 |
| | a Portuguese explorer of the Indian Ocean who sailed as an ordinary helmsman under the command of... |
| Thomas Doughty [1] | 1545 | 1577 | | 1578 | 1578, Jul 2 |
| | an English nobleman, soldier, scholar and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. His associati... |
| Juan Perez de Zurita | 1516 | 1536 | | 1579 | 1595 ca |
| | a Spanish Conquistador. In 1536 he began his military career. In 1548 he was in Granada and in 15... |
| Guillaume Le Testu | 1509 ca | 1560 | | 1579 | 1573 |
| | a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time ... |
 | Yermak Timofeyevich | 1537 ca | 1582 | | 1585 | 1585, Aug 5/6 |
| | a Cossack who started the Russian exploration and conquest of Siberia, in the reign of Tsar Ivan ... |
| Martin Frobisher | 1535 | 1585 | | 1585 | 1595 |
| | an English seaman and privateer (licensed pirate) who made three voyages to the New World to look... |
| Paulo Dias de Novais | 1510 ca | 1575 | | 1589 | 1589 |
| | a Portuguese colonizer of Africa in the 16th century and the first Captain-Governor of Portuguese... |
| John White | 1540 ca | 1580 | | 1589 | 1593 |
| | an English artist and early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among thos... |
| Pero Escobar | unknown | 1470 | | 159 | unknown |
| | a 15th-century Portuguese navigator who discovered São Tomé, Annobon, and Príncipe islands, to... |
| Thomas Cavendish | 1560 | 1587 | | 1592 | 1592 |
| | an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliber... |
| Sir Francis Drake | 1540 ca | 1563 | | 1596 | 1596, Jan 27/28 |
| | an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Drak... |
 | Willem Barentsz | 1550 ca | 1594 | | 1597 | 1597, Jun 20 |
| | a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. He went on three expeditions to the far nor... |
| Sir Robert Dudley [2] | 1574, Aug 7 | 1594 | | 1603 | 1649, Sep 6 |
| | an English explorer and cartographer. In 1594, he led an expedition to the West Indies, of which ... |
| Luis Vaez de Torres | 1565 ca | 1606 | | 1607 | unknown |
| | a 16th- and 17th-century maritime explorer of a Spanish expedition noted for the first recorded ... |
| Anthony Shirley | 1565 | 1590 | | 1609 | 1637 |
| | an English traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I caused the English House of Comm... |
| Matteo Ricci | 1552, Oct 6 | 1577 | | 1610 | 1610, May 11 |
| | an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. His 1602 m... |
| Henry Hudson | 1567 ca | 1607 | | 1611 | 1611 |
| | an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on beha... |
 | Tanaka Shosuke | unknown | 1610 | | 1614 | unknown |
| | an important Japanese technician and trader in metals from Kyoto during the beginning of the 17th... |
| Jacob Le Maire | 1585 ca | 1615 | | 1616 | 1616, Dec 22 |
| | a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615 and 1616. Eendracht rounded Cape Horn, pro... |
| Sir Walter Raleigh | 1554 ca | 1569 | | 1618 | 1618, Oct 29 |
| | an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy, and explorer. He i... |
| Pedro Paez | 1564 | 1589 | | 1622 | 1622, May 25 |
| | a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be th... |
| William Baffin | unknown | 1612 | | 1622 | 1622, Jan 23 |
| | an English navigator and explorer. In 1615, Baffin entered the service of the Company for the dis... |
| Willem Schouten | 1567 ca | 1615 | | 1625 | 1625 |
| | a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route ... |
| Adriaen Block | 1567 ca | 1590 | | 1627 | 1627, Aug |
| | a Dutch private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley... |
| Juan de Onate | 1550 | 1595 | | 1629 | 1626/1630 |
| | a Novohispanic Conquistador, explorer, and colonial governor of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México pro... |
| Willem Janszoon | 1570 ca | 1598 | | 1629 | 1630 |
| | a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies in the pe... |
| Nicolas de Cardona | unknown | 1610 | | 1629 | unknown |
| | a Spanish entrepreneur and adventurer with residence in Seville, who was involved in the explorat... |
| Etienne Brule | 1592 ca | 1610 | | 1633 | 1633, Jun ca |
| | the first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River in what is today Canada. Tak... |
| Antonio de Andrade | 1580 | 1600 | | 1634 | 1634, Mar 19 |
| | a Jesuit priest and explorer from Portugal. Engaged in missionary activity in India, was the firs... |
| Tomas de Cardona | unknown | 1611 | | 1639 | unknown |
| | a rich explorer, trader, and teacher of Spanish royal palace from the 17th century, who invested ... |
| Jean Nicolet | 1598 ca | 1610 | | 1642 | 1642, Nov 1 |
| | a French coureur des bois noted for exploring Green Bay of Lake Michigan, in what is now the U.S.... |
| Hendrik Brouwer | 1581 | 1606 | | 1643 | 1643, Aug 7 |
| | a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and the Dutch East Indies. He... |
| Andres de Urdaneta | 1498, Nov 30 | 1520 | | 165 | 1568, Jun 3 |
| | a Basque circumnavigator, explorer and Augustinian friar. As a navigator he achieved the "second"... |
| Myles Standish | 1584 ca | 1603 | | 1656 | 1656, Oct 3 |
| | an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military adviser for Plymouth Colony. He acc... |
| Antonio Raposo Tavares | 1598 | 1618 | | 1658 | 1658 |
| | Explored Paraguay River, part of the Andes mountain range, Grande River, Mamoré River, Madeira R... |
| Anthony Jenkinson | 1529 | 1550 | | 166 | 1610/1611 |
| | one of the first Britons to explore Muscovy and present day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and... |
| Pedro Fernandes de Queiros | 1565 | 1590 | | 169 | 1614 |
| | a Portuguese navigator best known for his involvement with Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pa... |
| Sebastián Vizcaíno | 1548 | 1580 | | 170 | 1624 |
| | a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain,... |
