Though he didn't produce much profit for the monarchs of Spain, Columbus opened a path to the new world for all of Europe.

French explorer Jacques Cartier named Canada after "kanata," the Huron-Iroquois word for settlement. Learn more about his search for a passage to East Asia and how he laid the original French claim for Canada in this video.

Hernando De Soto began his career in exploration at age 14 when he traveled to the West Indies. Find out how he became known as the first European to discover the Mississippi River in this video.

After establishing a colony in Mexico, Spanish nobleman Hernán Cortés rallied native allies and conquered the Aztec Empire. Learn more about what led him to destroy one of the greatest civilizations in human history in this video.