The Exploration of the World’s Oceans
Voyages of Exploration: from the Atlantic to the Pacific
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Voyages of Exploration: from the Atlantic to the PacificIntro While some Europeans sought opportunities in the Americas, other continued to seek a western route to Asian markets The Spanish military commander Vasco Nunez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1513 while searching for gold in Panama In the early 16th century, no one knew how much ocean lay between the Americas and Asia Ferdinand Magellan The recon of the Pacific Ocean basin began with the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) While sailing in the service of Portugal, Magellan had visited ports throughout the Indian Ocean basin and had traveled east as far as the spice islands of Maluku Believed that the spice islands and east Asia were close to the west coast of the Americas Portugal had little interest in another route to India since they already had one Thus, he traveled for Spain on his Pacific expedition The Circumnavigation Started in 1519 and made his way to the eastern coast of South America in search of a strait Found one in the south, and then sailed for four months until reaching Guam Many sailors fell to scurvy Resorted to eating hides soaked in saltwater When he made his way to the Philippines, he became embroiled in a local conflict that killed 40 of his men The survivors continued on to the spice islands of Maluku where they received cloves Rather than brave the Pacific again, they sailed through the Indian ocean, completing the first circumnavigation of the world Returning with 18 of 280 men Exploration of the Pacific Took European explorers three centuries to chart the Pacific ocean Spanish merchants built on info from Magellan’s expedition and established a trade route between the Philippines and Mexico, but stopped exploring the ocean basin itself English navigators ventured into the Pacific in search of a northwest passage from Europe to Asia It does exist, but it is in the Arctic Circle and ice blocks most of it for much of the year It was only until the 20th century that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen traveled the Atlantic to the Pacific via the NW Passage While searching for a passage, English mariners established many of the details of Pacific geography Sir Francis Drake scouted the west coast of North America as far north as Vancouver Island BY the mid-18th century, French mariners had joined English seafarers in exploring the Pacific Ocean Russian expansion was mostly a land-based affair in early modern times By the 18th century Russians were also exploring the Pacific Ocean Commissioned the Danish navigator Vitus Bering to undertake to maritime expeditions (1725-30 and 1733-42) in search of a NE passage to Asian ports Bering sailed through the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Strait which separates Siberia from Alaska Recon’d northern Asia as far north as the Kamchatka peninsula Russian mariners scouted the western coast to northern California By 1800, had even scouted as far south as the Hawaiian Islands, even building a fort and trading there Captain James Cook One of the most important of the Pacific explorers was Captain James Cook (1728-1779) who led three expeditions into the Pacific and died in a scuffle with the indigenous peoples of Hawaii Charted eastern Australia and New Zealand, added New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Hawaii to European maps Probed the waters of the Arctic and spent months at a time in the tropical islands of Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii Showed deep interest in the customs of the indigenous peoples By the end of Cook’s voyages, European geographers had a reasonable understanding of the world’s ocean basins, their lands, and their peoples Trade and Conflict in Early Modern AsiaIntro The voyages of exploration taught European mariners how to sail to almost any coastline in the world and return safely Once they arrived at their destinations, they sought commercial opportunities In the eastern hemisphere they built a series of fortified trading posts offered foothold in regions where established commercial networks had held sway for centuries Even attempted to control the spice trade in the Indian Ocean but with limited success They mostly did not have the numbers of military power to impose their rule in the eastern hemisphere Spanish and Dutch forces established small island empires in the Philippines and Indonesia In a parallel effort involving expansion across land, Russian explorers established a presence in central Asian regions formerly ruled by the Mongols and in the tundra and forests of Siberia Laid the foundation for a vast European empire Commercial and political competition in both the eastern and the western hemispheres led to conflict between European peoples By the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, English military and merchants forces had gained an initiative over their rivals Enabled them to dominate world trade and build the vast British empire of the 19th century Download 93.26 Kb. Share with your friends:
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