Europeans Did Not Reach South America in the 1400s

The premise is historically incorrect: no Europeans reached mainland South America in the 1400s.

Timeline

• 1492: Columbus reaches Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola (Caribbean—not South America)
• 1498 (Third Voyage): Columbus touches South American mainland at Paria Peninsula (Venezuela) and Orinoco Delta—first European on South America
• 1499–1500: Vespucci, Ojeda, Pinzón explore northern coast (Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil)
• 1500: Cabral lands in Brazil (Portuguese claim)

1400s European Context

• Prince Henry the Navigator (d. 1460) sponsored West African exploration
• Bartolomeu Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope (1488)
• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided world between Spain/Portugal
• All South America contact post-dates 1492

Pre-Columbian South America

In the 1400s, South America hosted:

• Inca Empire (rising, centered Cusco)
• Chimú, Chachapoya (Peru north coast/highlands)
• Muisca, Tairona (Colombia)
• Marajoara, Tapajós (Amazon)
• Diaguita, Mapuche (Chile/Argentina)
• Hundreds of other societies, languages, trade networks

European arrival in South America began in 1498, not the 1400s.