Zheng He - Known as the most famous Chinese explorer, Zheng He and The Ming Treasure Fleet lead 7 voyages on behalf of the Chinese Emperor. These voyages travelled through the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and along the east coast of Africa. His seven total voyages were diplomatic, military, and trading ventures, and lasted from 1405 – 1433.

The main objective of these voyages were to promote the Glory and Honour of the Ming Dynasty. 

Marco Polo - Marco Polo was a European explorer most known for the book The Travels of Marco Polo, which describes his voyage to and experiences in Asia. Polo travelled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295 and remaining in China for 17 of those years. Around 1292, he left China, acting as escort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia.

He is regarded as one of the first European explorers to official make contact with people from Asia and Journey to their Kingdoms

Vasco da Gama -  The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498.
Da Gama received a hero’s welcome back in Portugal, and was sent on a second expedition to India in 1502, during which he brutally clashed with Muslim traders in the region. Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy. His voyages established the deep connection between the Portuguese and Indians.

Christopher Columbus - The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did.

Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not really “discover” the New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of exploration and colonization of North and South America. This opened the gates to both The Columbian Exchange & The Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Columbian Exchange is considered one of the most dramatic and seminal periods in human history. The term refers to the exchanges that took place between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after Columbus' voyages.

 Some of these were obvious and deliberate exchanges, and others were unintended. The degree of the impact was exacerbated by the fact that Afro-Eurasia (Africa, Europe and Asia) and the Americas had had no lasting contact prior to c. 1492. This one of the most significant events in Human History - as these are goods we now trade all around the world until this day.

The Key Items/diseases that were Exchanged:

The Atlantic Slave Trade took place between the 16th and 19th Centuries across the Atlantic Ocean. 

The vast majority of slaves transported to The New World were Africans from the central and western parts of the continent, sold by Africans to European slave traders who then transported them to the colonies in North and South America.

The numbers were so great that Africans who came by way of the slave trade became the most numerous Old-World immigrants in both North and South America before the late eighteenth century. More information on this can be found Here.

The 13th Amendment, adopted on December 18, 1865, officially abolished slavery in The United States but also freed Black peoples' status in the post-war South remained precarious, and significant challenges awaited during the Reconstruction period.