| Explorer (sponsoring country) | Destination and result |
| Giovanni da Verrazano (France) | The Atlantic coast of North America from North Carolina to Canada, to search for a Northwest Passage, 1524. Unsuccessful. |
| Jacques Cartier (France) | St. Lawrence River, 1535. Established colony in 1541, but it did not succeed. |
| Martin Frobisher (England) | In 1576, in another attempt to find a Northwest Passage, sailed to northern Canada, where he retrieved worthless “ore” that he thought was gold, causing the English to lose interest in the region and explore farther south. |
| Sir Humphrey Gilbert (England) | Led expeditions to Newfoundland in 1578 and 1583 to found colonies; vanished at sea. |
| Sir Walter Raleigh (England) | Organized expedition in 1585 to settle Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. More than one hundred settlers were sent to colonize Roanoke in 1587. The colonists disappeared between 1587 and 1590, leaving only the word Croatoan (whose meaning is unknown) carved in a tree. |