On his way, his small flotilla crossed a part of ocean swarming with fish, what is now known as the Grand Banks. Failing to find them again, he returned to England. ![]() This time, however, he traveled some way to the south in search of Japan or China. With five ships this time, he again set sail and again landed on the shores of the New World. Upon his return to England, Cabot announced his discoveries and immediately found backing for a larger expedition the next year. ![]() What is known for certain is that he realized he had discovered a new continent, that he was the first European to land in North America since the Vikings, and that he claimed the territories he found for England. The exact place of his landing is not known convincing cases have been put forth for virtually every reasonable location between Maine and Labrador. Between England and Asia lay not only one ocean, but two, and a continent as well.Ĭabot set sail for Asia in the spring of 1497, making landfall on June 24 of that year. What none knew was that Cabot had made the same error as Columbus he believed what he read, and his reading said that the world was actually only 17,000 miles (27,359 km) around, not the 24,000 miles (38,624 km) we now know it to be. In exchange for promises of an import monopoly from the Crown, a group of Bristol merchants underwrote Cabot's voyage, and the King issued a letter of patent authorizingĬabot to claim any lands he found for England. Henry, who had barely missed the opportunity to sponsor Columbus's trip, jumped at the chance, provided Cabot could find some financial backing. He had been unsuccessful in convincing the Spanish and Portuguese to hire him, so he hoped to improve his luck in England.Īpproaching the English king, Henry VII, Cabot offered to find a northern route to the Orient, challenging the Spanish route blazed by Christopher Columbus (1451?-1506) a few years earlier. He moved to England for the same reason that he had moved to Spain-to be a part of the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the lands on the other side, presumed at that time to be parts of Asia. In 1494 John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto) moved his family to England from Valencia, Spain. In addition, Cabot's son, Sebastian (1476?-1557), became the first of many explorers who attempted to sail across the top of the world in an effort to find a Northwest Passage from Europe to the wealth of Asia. Although unsuccessful in his attempt to reach Asia, his landfall gave England a territorial claim in the New World that would be the basis for her eventual colonization of parts of that continent. In 1497 John Cabot (1450?-1499?), an Italian explorer sailing for England, reached land somewhere in the northern part of North America. After setting sail in May 1498 for a return voyage to North America, he disappeared and Cabot’s final days remain a mystery.John Cabot's Exploration of North America Overview John Cabot was a Venetian explorer and navigator known for his 1497 voyage to North America, where he claimed land in Canada for England.
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