Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages

across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American
continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and
several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all
funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization
which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World."

Bartholomew Diaz

Bartholomew Diaz was a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household. More

importantly, he was also a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the
southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.
Some historians though, credit Herodotus' account of a Phoenician expedition
that achieved the feat under the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (610 –
595 BC).

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer, one of the
most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the
first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. For a short time in 1524, he was
the Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He obtained Spanish nationality

in order to serve the Spanish Crown, so that he could try to find a westward route
to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He thereby became the first European to lead
an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. This was also the first successful
attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. Although he did not complete the entire
voyage (he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines), Magellan
had earlier traveled eastwards to the Malay Peninsula. So he became one of the
first explorers to cross all of the meridians of the globe.

García Jofre de Loaísa

García Loaísa was a 16th century Spanish explorer ordered by king Charles I of
Spain to command an expedition to Asia, known as the Loaísa expedition, which
in 1525 was sent by the western route to colonize the Spice Islands in the East
Indies, thus crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 450 men were
aboard, including different kinds of trades and administrative staff, intended to
establish a permanent Spanish settlement in the Spanish East Indies. This was
the second attempt of the circumnavigation of the world.
Ruy Lopez de Villalobos

Ruy López de Villalobos was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from
Mexico (New Spain) to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East
Indies, which in 1543 were near to the Line of Demarcation of Portugal.

Miguel Lagazpi

Miguel López de Legazpi, also known as Adelantado or El Adelantado (The

Governor) and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who established
the first colony in the Philippine Islands in 1565.

Sources:

Wikipedia.org
Wikipilipinas.org