World Explorers | Science and Technology | Saving My TOEFL Academics 1
　　Christopher Columbus has long been called the “discoverer” of the New World，although Vikings had visited NorthAmerica fi ve centuries earlier. Columbus attempted to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a route to Asia but achieved fame by making landfall in the Americas instead.Columbus’s explorations had a profound impact on the world.They led directly to the opening of the Western Hemisphere to European colonization; to large-scale exchanges of plants， animals， cultures， and ideas between the two worlds; and， on adarker note， to the deaths of millions of indigenous American peoples from war， World Explorers forced labor， and disease.Ferdinand Magellan， Portuguese-born Spanish explorer and navigator， was the leader of the fi rst expedition to circumnavigate the world. Magellan set out to reach the East Indies by sailing westward from Europe， which no one was sure could be done. He intended to return by the same route， but after his death his crews found that the prevailing winds required them to keep sailing west， around the world. James Cook conducted three expeditions to the Pacifi c Ocean， ranging from the Antarctic ice fi elds to the BeringStrait and from the coasts of North America to Australia and New Zealand. Although best known as the discoverer