Exploration
From Encyclopædia
Exploration is a quest for the unknown. Earliest records show
evidence of humanity's unquenchable curiosity about unknown places and peoples, and in more than 3,000 years of recorded history, men and women have explored most of the Earth's surface by land and sea. This article will survey that exploration. It will not include deep-sea, underground, and
space explorations, which are more recent and continue today.The concept of
world exploration is used in a European context: from the eastern Mediterranean in ancient times; from western
Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries; and from
Europe or areas of European culture in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Explorers have been motivated by curiosity, by a desire to find riches, and by the need to find a place for surplus populations. Some have explored by accident, others as a result of military campaigns, but most have explored by design. Colonization, often brought about by exploration, has frequently resulted in further exploration, and in modern
The Times quest for scientific knowledge has sometimes spurred explorations.ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL EXPLORATIONSThe early Egyptians, whose
civilization centered on the
Nile River, were aware of and used the Mediterranean Sea. The Assyrians, whose
civilization was based on the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers, followed those rivers to the Persian Gulf; they also went overland to the Mediterranean. The Minoans on the island of
Crete sent
ships at least as far as
Sicily before 1500 BC. The Phoenicians, from their base in what is now Lebanon, ranged throughout the Mediterranean, establishing trading posts at Carthage and Gades (now Cadiz, Spain). They also are thought to have made a 3-year voyage around
Africa, from east to west, about 600 BC. The Carthaginians certainly sailed beyond
Gibraltar to establish trading posts on the West African coast.By the 8th century BC the Greeks had moved into the Black Sea and also sailed widely on the Mediterranean, establishing colonies in Libya, on
Sicily, and at Massilia (Marseille, France). ALEXANDER THE GREAT of Macedonia marched to the east to defeat the Persians and then went farther into
Asia, finally reaching India in 326 BC. Pytheas, a Greek from Massilia, ventured westward beyond the Mediterranean about 325 BC. He visited the British Isles and tin
mines there and went farther north to a place he called Thule, probably
Norway or Baltic
territory.Roman
civilization, centered in
Italy, absorbed Greece and its colonies and
Egypt and, in 146 BC, destroyed Carthage. Carthage's colonies and trading posts were taken, and the Mediterranean became a Roman sea--the Mare Nostrum. The Romans were not active
Explorers, but they vastly expanded their empire and followed a trade route
Down the Red Sea and to India. This route, later extended to China, made possible the importation of various oriental luxuries for wealthy Romans.The fall of the Roman Empire brought a drastic decline in European trade with
Asia by both sea and land. A major revival of
interest in
Asia did not come until the period of the
Crusades, after AD 1096, when the Crusaders developed a liking for oriental goods. The Muslim
Arabs, against whom the crusaders were fighting, had sailed to India and China. The rise of the
Mongols in
Central Asia made possible relatively
safe travel for Europeans. Pope Innocent IV sent Giovanni da Pian del CARPINI eastward by land. Between 1245 and 1247 he reached Karakorum in Mongolia and returned with a travel account that aroused much
interest.The Polo family's travels in the 13th century did much to revive European
interest in distant points. Niccolo and Matteo Polo went from
Venice to Beijing (Peking) and back between 1260 and 1269. They returned to
Asia in 1271, taking Niccolo's young son Marco, by way of the overland
silk ROAD. They remained for 24 years, while Marco held responsible posts under Kublai Khan. The Polos returned to
Europe, mostly by sea, in 1295, and Marco POLO's account of his travels became widely known. IBN BATTUTA, a Muslim judge from
Tangier who traveled widely in the Islamic
world between 1325 and 1354, also reported on his travels.Centuries earlier the
Vikings had sailed from Scandinavia eastward through the Baltic to
Russia and southward to what are now the British Isles, France, and
Sicily. They also went westward across the North Atlantic, reaching Iceland about 870, where they found some Irish monks. From Iceland they moved farther west to Greenland in the 980s, after which voyages were made to
Vinland and other sites in North
America. Efforts to settle
Vinland failed, and eventually the Greenland colony died out. These Norse explorations seem to have had little effect on later explorations.AGE OF DISCOVERYThe great Age of Discovery is dated from 1415, when western Europeans, beginning with the Portuguese, began to venture into the
Atlantic Ocean,
Down the African coast and to the west. Prince
henry THE NAVIGATOR, a younger son of King John I of Portugal, devoted his life to the cause of exploration: to opening a sea route for trade with India and to locating
Prester John, the legendary Christian ruler, in
Africa. Although
henry never left Portugal, he sent
ships Down the African coast and worked to improve the
ships, their instruments, and maps. By his death in 1460, the Portuguese had rounded the bulge of West
Africa and reached the Guinea coast. The Portuguese crown continued to support exploration. In 1488, Bartolomeu DIAS finally rounded the southern tip of
Africa and reached the East African coast. Vasco da GAMA left Portugal in 1497 on an expedition around
Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Calicut in India; he opened a sea route, making possible further Portuguese advances into
Asia and a Portuguese overseas empire.Between the voyages of Dias and da Gama, a Genoese who had been in Portugal went to Spain and in 1492 persuaded ISABELLA I of Castile to fund a voyage to reach
Asia by sailing west. Christopher COLUMBUS had underestimated the distance; he thought it was about 4,800 km (3,000 mi). He sailed on Aug. 3, 1492, from Palos and landed on Oct. 12, 1492, in the Bahamas. From San Salvador (Watling Island) he sailed to and discovered
Cuba and
Hispaniola, before returning to Spain. In succeeding years, still searching for the Asian mainland, Columbus made three more voyages and discovered many of the Caribbean islands, the mainland of South
America, and
Central America. Other
Explorers soon sailed westward. Amerigo VESPUCCI, of
Florence, made two or more voyages, reached South
America, and had his name given to the New
world by a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemuller. The second Portuguese fleet to India, led by Pedro Alvares CABRAL, took too wide a tack in the South Atlantic and, blown even farther west by storms, reached Brazil in 1500.A Portuguese, Ferdinand MAGELLAN, sailing under the Spanish
flag, sought to prove the Spice Islands were on the Spanish side of the line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese spheres of
interest established (1494) by the Treaty of TORDESILLAS. He sailed west in 1519, found the Strait of Magellan near the tip of
America, crossed the Pacific, and was killed in the
Philippines. One of his captains, Juan Sebastian del CANO, brought his
ship, the Victoria, back to Spain, completing in 1522 the first
world circumnavigation.Other early
Explorers of the
Americas were John CABOT, a Genoese who sailed under commission from
henry VII of England, reaching Newfoundland in 1497. His son Seb?stian CABOT also served
henry VII, spent many years in Spanish service, and then returned to England to supervise exploration for the
Northeast Passage. A Florentine, Giovanni da VERRAZANO, sailed under French commission. He reached the Carolina coast in 1525 and, moving northward, sighted New York harbor and then sailed on to Maine. Jacques CARTIER, a Frenchman who served his own country, reached the lower St.
Lawrence River in 1534, and on a second voyage in 1535 got past Quebec's site and as far inland as what is now
Montreal. A third voyage helped to pave the way for Samuel de Champlain's expeditions.LATER MARITIME EXPLORATIONSIt was the search for a
Northwest Passage that brought Cartier into the St.
Lawrence River in 1534. Subsequent early attempts included the voyages of Sir Martin FROBISHER and John DAVIS, exploring west of Greenland in the 1570s and 1580s, that of
henry HUDSON reaching Hudson Bay in 1610, and that of
William BAFFIN, who sailed into
Baffin Bay in 1616. Not until the 19th century was another major effort mounted to find the
Northwest Passage.The search for a
Northeast Passage was begun in 1553 by the English Muscovy Company. Richard
chancellor reached the
White Sea and then went overland to
Moscow. A Dutchman, Willem BARENTS, discovered Spitsbergen in the 1590s and got to the Kara Sea. In 1607 and 1609,
henry Hudson was stopped by ice. Russians worked from the Pacific side. Semyon I. Dezhnev (c.1605-1673) went in 1648 from the Arctic coast of
Siberia through the Bering Strait to the Pacific, while Vitus BERING, a Dane sailing under the Russian
flag, explored the region in the 1720s.
