Question 1

True or false: Cabot discovered North America before Christopher Columbus.

Accepted Answer

False. Columbus reached the Bahamas in 1492; Cabot landed in Newfoundland in 1497, five years later.

Question 2

True or false: John Cabot was the first European to set foot on the mainland of North America.

Accepted Answer

False. Leif Erikson and Norse explorers reached North America around 1000 AD, centuries before Cabot.

Question 3

True or false: John Cabot's real name was Giovanni Caboto, an Italian explorer sailing for England.

Accepted Answer

True. He was born Giovanni Caboto in Genoa or Venice and later anglicized his name when serving under King Henry VII of England.

Question 4

True or false: John Cabot was granted a patent by King Henry VII of England to seek out new lands.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1496, Henry VII issued letters patent to Cabot, authorizing him to explore unknown regions on behalf of England, which led to his 1497 voyage.

Question 5

True or false: Cabot took a secret navigator's log that was lost for centuries until discovered in a Vatican archive.

Accepted Answer

False. No such log exists; Cabot's voyage records are sparse, with only a few letters and a map fragment surviving.

Question 6

True or false: The only primary source for Cabot's 1497 voyage is a letter from a Bristol merchant to a Spanish duke.

Accepted Answer

False. Multiple contemporary letters describe the voyage, including Lorenzo Pasqualigo's August 1497 letter and Raimondo de Soncino's dispatch. John Day's letter is an important source, but it is not the sole one.

Question 7

True or false: John Cabot's 1497 expedition made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland, which he believed was Asia.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1497, Cabot reached Newfoundland, claiming it for England. He thought he had reached the northeast coast of Asia.

Question 8

True or false: Cabot's 1497 voyage was funded by a monopoly granted by King Henry VII to exploit new lands.

Accepted Answer

False. The voyage was financed by Bristol merchants, not by the monopoly itself. Henry VII's letters patent granted exclusive trade rights in new lands, but no direct royal funding.

John Cabot Trivia Questions