These explorers trivia questions cover the Age of Discovery: Portugal sails south and east, Columbus, the line and the Americas, Ferdinand Magellan and the first voyage around the world, and the northern routes, Siberia and the southern land.
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Trivia questions for Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet
The Magellan round is the longest of the four: the Armada of Molucca, its crew of about 270, Guam, Samar and Cebu, and the Victoria coming home with 18 or 19 men.
Portugal, Spain and the far north
Portugal sails south and east runs from 1418 to Japan in 1543. The last round follows Barentsz, Yermak and the search for a southern land. Each round plays on its own, and the question sheet prints with a separate answer key.
Questions and answers
Which easy explorers trivia questions open a round well?
Of which country was Magellan a native? By which other name is the Age of Discovery known? Who funded the plan of Columbus in 1492? The answers are Portugal, the Age of Exploration and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain.
Which explorers are in the pack?
Da Gama, Albuquerque, Columbus, Vespucci, Cabral, Balboa, Cabot, Magellan, Barentsz, Yermak and Moskvitin are asked or named, with the mapmakers Waldseemüller and Ribeiro.
Where were the answers checked?
All answers were compared on October 3, 2026 with the English Wikipedia article Age of Discovery or Ferdinand Magellan, linked under the question. The conquests that followed the voyages and the slave trade are left out.
A Lisbon merchant won a trade monopoly in 1469 on condition that he explore the coast. How far each year?Answer: 100 miles. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
At which Indian port did the fleet of Vasco da Gama arrive on May 20, 1498?Answer: Calicut. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
The Banda Islands were then the only source in the world of which spice?Answer: Nutmeg. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
In 1469 exploration was granted to a Lisbon merchant in exchange for a trade monopoly. Who was he?Answer: Fernão Gomes. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
In which year did the Portuguese begin to explore the Atlantic coast of Africa systematically?Answer: 1418. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
In which year did the Portuguese reach Japan?Answer: 1543. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Under whose sponsorship did the Portuguese explore the coast of Africa from 1418?Answer: Prince Henry the Navigator. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What did the Chinese call the largest junks of the Ming voyages in the Indian Ocean?Answer: Treasure ships. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which Genoese merchant sailor became the first admiral of the Portuguese Navy in 1317?Answer: Manuel Pessanha. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which king of Spain also became king of Portugal in 1580?Answer: Philip II. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which Ming emperor sponsored the long voyages in the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1421?Answer: Yongle. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who reached Sierra Leone in 1460?Answer: Pedro de Sintra. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who took Malacca, then the center of Asian trade, for Portugal in 1511?Answer: Afonso de Albuquerque. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who was the first European envoy to the Kingdom of Siam?Answer: Duarte Fernandes. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Whose travel overland to Ethiopia showed that the riches of the Indian Ocean could be reached from the Atlantic?Answer: Pero da Covilhã. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Columbus, the line and the Americas 15
Between about which years did the Age of Discovery run?Answer: 1450 and 1620. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
By which other name is the Age of Discovery known?Answer: The Age of Exploration. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
How long before Columbus had the Norse explored the continent he reached?Answer: 500 years. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
The map of Martin Waldseemüller was the first to use which name?Answer: America. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
The mouth of which river did Vespucci discover in July 1499?Answer: The Amazon. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Under the treaty of 1494, which side of the line did the Spaniards receive?Answer: Everything to the west. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What did the first fleet to enter the estuary of the Amazon name the river?Answer: Saint Mary's River of the Freshwater Sea. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What did the fleet of Cabral name the mountain it saw on April 21, 1500?Answer: Monte Pascoal. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What was the Italian name of John Cabot, who led the English expedition of 1497?Answer: Giovanni Caboto. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which king rejected the project of Columbus in 1485 and again in 1488?Answer: John II of Portugal. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which pope ratified the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the newly found lands between Portugal and Spain?Answer: Julius II. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which world map of 1529 outlines the east coast of North America almost perfectly?Answer: The map of Diogo Ribeiro. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who confirmed in 1513 that another ocean lay beyond the Americas?Answer: Balboa. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who funded the plan of Columbus in 1492 to sail west to the Indies?Answer: The Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Whom did King Ferdinand urge in 1512 to seek new lands, as a reward for exploring Puerto Rico?Answer: Juan Ponce de León. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Ferdinand Magellan and the first voyage around the world 20
About how many men made up the crew of the fleet of Magellan?Answer: 270. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
About what share of the crew of Magellan were Spaniards?Answer: 60 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
By which name was the Pacific sometimes called until the 18th century?Answer: The Sea of Magellan. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
From which Spanish port did Magellan lead the fleet into the Atlantic?Answer: Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
How many survivors of the expedition of Magellan returned to Spain in 1522?Answer: 18 or 19. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
How many years passed between the return of the first ship around the world and the next such voyage?Answer: 58. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
In March 1505 Magellan enlisted in the fleet that carried the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Who was the viceroy?Answer: Francisco de Almeida. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Of which country was Ferdinand Magellan a native?Answer: Portugal. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Of which order was Magellan made a Commander?Answer: The Order of Santiago. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
On which date did the fleet of Magellan leave Spain?Answer: September 20, 1519. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
On which island did the fleet of Magellan make landfall on March 6, 1521?Answer: Guam. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
What was the fleet of five ships that Magellan commanded called?Answer: The Armada of Molucca. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
When did the fleet of Magellan reach the Pacific?Answer: By the end of November 1520. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which island of the eastern Philippines did the fleet of Magellan sight on March 16, 1521?Answer: Samar. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which king approved the plan of Magellan to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west?Answer: Charles I of Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which port did the fleet of Magellan reach on April 7, 1521?Answer: Cebu. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which ship deserted the fleet of Magellan in the strait and returned to Seville in May 1521?Answer: San Antonio. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which ship returned to Spain in September 1522 and completed the voyage around the world?Answer: Victoria. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which treaty of 1529 formalized the division of the East between Spain and Portugal?Answer: The Treaty of Zaragoza. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Who sailed with Magellan and published his diary of the voyage around 1524, after returning to Venice?Answer: Pigafetta. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Northern routes, Siberia and the southern land 18
A Latin translation of the Geographia of which ancient writer reached Italy by 1400?Answer: Ptolemy. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
By when had the compass spread to Europe?Answer: The late 12th or early 13th century. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
The idea of a great southern continent had its roots in a notion of which ancient thinker?Answer: Aristotle. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
On which island did the Portuguese explorer Fagundes found a fishing colony between 1520 and 1521?Answer: Cape Breton Island. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What does Terra Australis Ignota mean?Answer: The unknown land of the south. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
What is the peace called that allowed safe trade routes from the Middle East to China from 1206 on?Answer: The Pax Mongolica. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which animal did the Dutch crew meet for the first time at Williams Island in 1594?Answer: A polar bear. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which Cossack leader began his voyage into the depths of Siberia in 1581?Answer: Yermak. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which Dutch cartographer left Texel on June 5, 1594 to look for a passage above Siberia?Answer: Willem Barentsz. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which sea did the first Russians to reach the Pacific discover in 1639?Answer: The Sea of Okhotsk. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which ship sailed from Banten to the coast of western New Guinea on November 18, 1605?Answer: Duyfken. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Which war began with the revolt of the Dutch against Philip II of Spain in 1568?Answer: The Eighty Years' War. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who became the first Russian to reach the Amur River, in 1644?Answer: Vassili Poyarkov. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who claimed in 1576, sailing from Chile, to have discovered the Southern Continent?Answer: Juan Fernández. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who drew the first Russian map of the Far East in 1642?Answer: Kurbat Ivanov. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who first proposed, in 1525, the idea of a northern link between the Atlantic and the Pacific?Answer: The Russian diplomat Gerasimov. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Who led the first Russians to reach the Pacific Ocean, in 1639?Answer: Ivan Moskvitin. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery
Whom did Pope Innocent IV send to the Great Khan in the 1240s, on a journey to Mongolia and back?Answer: Giovanni da Pian del Carpine. Source: Wikipedia: Age of Discovery