John Cabot

John Cabot was the first European explorer to visit the mainland of North America after the Vikings. I will be summarizing his life.

Early Life

Cabot was born in 1450 in Italy; he was the son of a spice merchant, and grew up with Italian sea men, so he learned navigation and sailing at a young age when he was in Venice

He married at twenty four, and had three boys. He became a citizen of Venice in 1476, but moved to England in 1488, apparently because he had some issues with money, and was being chased.

Cabot was very interested by expeditions and voyages of early explorers who had gotten sudden riches, such as Christopher Columbus. He wanted to go exploring too, to gain wealth.

Expeditions 

He met up with King Henry the 7th of England (who funded his voyage), who gave him permission to seek out and discover some new lands for England to colonize. In 1479 Cabot set out for his first voyage, on a ship called the Matthew.

Fifty days on sea they landed in North America on the now Canadian province of Newfoundland; Cabot like Columbus thought he had landed in Asia; he then claimed this new land for England.

He sailed back to England and made another journey the following year. This journey was somewhat of a mystery since his entire fleet of five ships and three hundred men disappeared, including himself. Know one knows what happened on that expedition.

Conclusion  

Even though Cabot did not have a lot of time to explore thanks to his disappearance, he still gave England a claim to the New World.