Great geographical discoveries- an era in the history of the world that began in the 15th century and lasted until the 17th century.

During era of the great geographical discoveries Europeans discovered new lands and sea routes to Africa, America, Asia and Oceania in search of new trading partners and sources of goods that were in great demand in Europe.

Historians usually relate the "Great Discoveries" to the pioneering long-distance sea voyages of Portuguese and Spanish travelers in search of alternative trade routes to the "India" for gold, silver and spices.

Sasha Mitrahovich 22.12.2017 08:07

The main reasons for the great geographical discoveries

1. Depletion of precious metals resources in Europe; overpopulation in the Mediterranean
2. With the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. the overland routes by which oriental goods (spices, fabrics, jewelry) got to Europe were captured by the Ottoman Turks. They blocked the former trade routes of Europeans with the East. This necessitated the search for a sea route to India.
3. Scientific and technological progress in Europe (navigation, weapons, astronomy, printing, cartography, etc.)
4. The desire for wealth and fame.
5. In open lands, Europeans founded colonies, which became a source of enrichment for them.

Sasha Mitrahovich 22.12.2017 08:07

Great geographical discoveries. Briefly

• 1492 Columbus discovers America
• 1498 Vasco da Gama discovers a sea route to India around Africa
• 1499-1502 - Spanish discoveries in the New World
• 1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland and the Labrador Peninsula
• 1500 - discovery of the mouth of the Amazon by Vicente Pinson
• 1519-1522 - the first circumnavigation of Magellan, the discovery of the Strait of Magellan, Mariana, Philippine, Moluccas
• 1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean
• 1513 - Discovery of Florida and the Gulf Stream
• 1519-1553 - discoveries and conquests in South America by Cortes, Pizarro, Almagro, Orellana
• 1528-1543 - Spanish discoveries of the interior of North America
• 1596 - discovery of the island of Svalbard by Willem Barents
• 1526-1598 - Spanish discoveries of the Solomon, Caroline, Marquesas, Marshall Islands, New Guinea
• 1577-1580 - the second round-the-world voyage of the Englishman F. Drake, the discovery of the Drake Strait
• 1582 - Yermak's campaign in Siberia
• 1576-1585 - British search for a northwestern passage to India and discovery in the North Atlantic
• 1586-1629 - Russian campaigns in Siberia
• 1633-1649 - the discovery by Russian explorers of the East Siberian rivers to the Kolyma
• 1638-1648 - discovery by Russian explorers of Transbaikalia and Lake Baikal
• 1639-1640 - Ivan Moskvin's exploration of the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk
• The last quarter of the 16th - the first third of the 17th century - the development of the eastern shores of North America by the British and French
• 1603-1638 - French exploration of the interior of Canada, discovery of the Great Lakes
• 1606 - Independently from each other, the discovery of the northern coast of Australia by the Spaniard Kyros, the Dutchman Janson
• 1612-1632 - British discoveries of the northeast coast of North America
• 1616 - discovery of Cape Horn by Schouten and Le Mer
• 1642 Tasman discovers the island of Tasmania
• 1643 Tasman discovers New Zealand
• 1648 - opening of the Dezhnev Strait between America and Asia (Bering Strait)
• 1648 - Fyodor Popov discovers Kamchatka

Sasha Mitrahovich 22.12.2017 08:07

In the photo: Portrait of Vasco Nunez de Balboa by an unknown artist.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Europeans continued to "discover" the Earth; researchers attribute this time to the first period of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries. The main role was then played by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, who rushed to the unexplored lands of America, Africa and Asia.

In 1513 in America, the Spaniards built their first settlements, moving steadily from east to west. They were attracted by stories about the mythical Eldorado, immersed in gold and precious stones.

In September, the enterprising conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa, with 190 Spanish soldiers and many Indian guides, advanced from the city of Santa Maria la Antigua, which he had founded three years earlier. For about fifteen years he had been looking for luck in America, skillfully combining "carrot and stick" in relations with the local population. He could caress and bestow, or he could in anger and hunt down an objectionable Indian with dogs that inspired indescribable horror on the natives.

For more than three weeks, the detachment literally "waded" through the mountains, covered with thickets of lianas and ferns, suffering from fever in the swampy lowlands and repelling the attacks of militant local residents. Finally, having overcome the Isthmus of Panama, from the top of Mount Balboa he saw the boundless expanse of the sea. Entering the water with a drawn sword in one hand and a Castilian banner in the other, the conquistador declared these lands to be the possessions of the Castilian crown.

Having received a pile of pearls and gold from the natives, Balboa was convinced that he had found a fabulous country from the stories of Eldorado. He called the sea he reached "South".

So Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. continued.

By the way, when Balboa in 1510 persuaded the first Spanish colonists to follow him deep into the mainland, among the latter was Francisco Pizarro, who later became famous. Then Pizarro did not want to go with the future discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. Pizarro's finest hour came twenty years later. In 1532, he conquered Peru, the Inca empire, becoming the owner of an unprecedented amount of gold.

Sasha Mitrahovich 22.12.2017 08:14

Throughout modern history, the world familiar to Europeans (that is, for them, in general, the “world”) has become larger and larger. In 1642, this "world" was replenished with another territory - it was called New Zealand. This ended.

New Zealand discovered by Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman was a very inquisitive and purposeful person. How else to explain the miraculous transformation of a child from a poor Dutch family into a real "sea wolf", a famous navigator, discoverer of new lands? Self-taught, born in 1603, at the age of thirty (that is, quite serious) he entered the service of the Dutch East India Company as a simple sailor, and already in 1639 commanded a ship sent to establish trade contacts with Japan.

Dutch merchants in those days dreamed of expanding their sphere of influence, this was the golden age of the Dutch bourgeoisie. There were rumors about a mysterious land south of Australia, full of untold riches; it was called the Southern Continent. To search for this mainland and sent the Dutch East India Campaign of Tasman. He did not find the mythical mainland, but he discovered New Zealand. So often happened in that era - remember how Columbus accidentally discovered America.

Two ships left Batavia in August 1642. Rounding Australia from the south and heading east, on November 24, Tasman discovered an island later named after him (Tasmania), and on December 13, a new land: it was the South Island of New Zealand. Dropping anchor in the bay, he met the natives. The meeting was not without tragedy - the Maori warriors killed four Europeans, for which the bay received from Tasman the gloomy nickname of Killer Bay.

Everything that we now know was once discovered by people - pioneers. Some crossed the ocean for the first time and found a new land, someone became the discoverer of space, someone was the first to dive in a bathyscaphe into the world's deepest cavity. Thanks to the ten pioneers below, today we know the world for what it really is.

• Leif Eriksson/Leifur Eiriksson is the first European of Icelandic origin who, according to some scholars, was the first to visit the continent of North America. Around the 11th century, this Scandinavian sailor lost his course and landed on some coast, which he later called "Vinland". Documentary, of course, there is no evidence of exactly in which part of North America he moored. Some archaeologists claim that they were able to discover Viking settlements in Newfoundland, Canada.

• Sacajawea, or Sacagawea / Sakakawea, Sacajawea is a girl of Indian origin, on whom Maryweather Lewis and his partner William Clark completely relied on during their expedition, the path of which ran through the entire American continent. The girl walked with these researchers more than 6473 kilometers. On top of that, the girl had a newborn baby in her arms. During this journey in 1805, Sacagawea found her lost brother. The girl is mentioned in the movie "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum 2".

• Christopher Columbus / Christopher Columbus - a navigator of Spanish origin who discovered America, but due to the fact that he and his expedition were looking for a sea route to India, Christopher believed that the lands he had discovered were Indian. In 1492, his expedition discovered the Bahamas, Cuba and a number of other islands in the Caribbean. Christopher set sail for the first time at the age of 13.

• Amerigo Vespucci is the man after whom the continent America was named. Although, in fact, Columbus made this discovery, it was American Vespucci who documented the “find”. In 1502, he explored the shores of South America, and it was then that the well-deserved fame and honor came to him.

• James Cook / James Cook - a captain who managed to sail much further into southern waters than any of his contemporaries. Cook owns a proven fact about the falsity of the northern route through the Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is known that Captain James Cook made 2 round-the-world expeditions, mapped the islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as Australia, for which he was subsequently eaten by the natives. That's how gratitude is.

• William Beebe is a 20th century naturalist explorer. In 1934, he descended 922 meters on a bathysphere and told people that "the world under water is no less strange than on another planet." Although how does he know how to live on other planets?

• Chuck Yeager is a general in the US Air Force. In 1947, the first one broke the sound barrier. In 1952, Chuck flew at twice the speed of sound. Chuck Yeager, in addition to setting speed records, was a trainer for pilots of such space programs as Apollo, Gemini and Mercury.

• Louise Arne Boyd / Louise Boyd is also known to the world under the nickname "Ice Woman". She got this nickname thanks to her explorations of Greenland. In 1955, she flew over the North Pole and was the first woman to do so in an airplane. She also has the discovery of an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean.

• Yuri Gagarin / Yuri Gagarin - April 12, 1961, the first of all people living on our planet, was in space. His first flight lasted as much as 108 minutes. It was a real achievement in astronautics.

• Anousheh Ansari is the first female space tourist. She made her flight in September 2006. To her achievements, one can add the fact that she was the first of all those who have been in orbit to blog on the Internet from space.

The era of great geographical discoveries is of great importance in the history of mankind. Most familiar goods and foodstuffs simply would not exist in our market today without these two centuries.

background

The Age of Discovery refers to the period from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century AD. The term came about because of the active exploration and expansion that took place over two hundred years. At this time, the countries of Western Europe and the Moscow kingdom significantly expanded their possessions by including new territories.

Sometimes lands were bought, less often they simply settled down, more often they had to be conquered.

Today, scholars believe that the main reason that caused the surge of such expeditions was the rivalry in finding a shortcut to India. At the end of the Middle Ages, the opinion spread in the countries of Western Europe that this was a very rich state.

After the Portuguese began to bring spices, gold, fabrics and jewelry from there, Castile, France and other countries began to look for alternative routes. The crusades no longer brought due financial satisfaction, so there was a need to open new markets.

Portuguese expeditions

As we said earlier, the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries began with the first expeditions of the Portuguese. They, exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa, reached the Cape of Good Hope and ended up in the Indian Ocean. So the sea route to India was opened.

Prior to this, several important events occurred that led to such an expedition. In 1453 Constantinople fell. Muslims captured one of the most important Christian shrines. From now on, the way was blocked for European merchants to the east - to China and India.

But without the ambitions of the Portuguese crown, perhaps the era of great geographical discoveries would not have begun. King Afonso V began searching for Christian states in southern Africa. At that time, there was an opinion that beyond the lands of Muslims, beyond Morocco, forgotten Christian peoples begin.

So the islands of Cape Verde were discovered in 1456, and a decade later they began to explore the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Today there is the Ivory Coast.

1488 marked the beginning of the Age of Discovery. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Storms (later renamed the Cape of Good Hope by the King) and anchored on the Pacific coast.

Thus, a bypass route to India was opened. The only problem for the Portuguese was that the journey took a year. For the rest of the monarchs, the discovery became a thorn in the side, since, according to the papal bull, it was Portugal that monopolized it.

Discovery of America

Many believe that the Age of Discovery began with the discovery of America. However, this was already the second stage.

The fifteenth century was a rather difficult stage for the two parts of modern Spain. Then they were separate kingdoms - Castile and Aragon. The first, in particular, at that time was the most powerful Mediterranean monarchy. It included the territories of southern France, southern Italy, several islands and part of the coast of North Africa.

However, the process of reconquista and the war with the Arabs significantly removed the country from geographical research. The main reason that the Castilians began to finance Christopher Columbus was the confrontation with Portugal that had begun. This country, due to the opening of the route to India, received a monopoly on maritime trade.

In addition, there was a skirmish over the Canary Islands.

By the time Columbus was tired of persuading the Portuguese to equip an expedition, Castile was ready for such an adventure.

Three caravels reached the Caribbean. During the first campaign, San Salvador, part of Haiti and Cuba were discovered. Later, several ships of workers and soldiers were transported. Initial plans for mountains of gold failed. Therefore, the systematic colonization of the population began. But we will talk about this later, when we talk about the conquistadors.

Indian Ocean

After the return of the first expedition of Columbus, the diplomatic solution of the division of spheres of influence begins. To avoid conflict, the Pope issues a document that defines the Portuguese and Spanish possessions. But Juan II was dissatisfied with the decree. According to the bull, he was losing the newly discovered lands of Brazil, which were then considered the island of Vera Cruz.

Therefore, in 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between the Castilian and Portuguese crowns. The frontier was two hundred and seventy leagues from Cape Verde. Everything that was to the east went to Portugal, to the west - to Spain.

The era of great geographical discoveries continued with expeditions in the Indian Ocean. In May 1498 Vasco da Gama's ships reached the southwestern coast of India. Today it is the state of Kerala.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, Sri Lanka were discovered. The Portuguese gradually developed new markets.

Pacific Ocean

As we mentioned earlier, the era of great geographical discoveries began with the search for a sea route to India. However, after the ships of Vasco da Gama reached its coast, European expansion began to the countries of the Far East.

Here, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese discovered the markets of the Philippines, China and Japan.

At the other end of the Pacific Ocean at this time, Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and becomes the first Spaniard to see "another sea."

The next inevitable step was the development of new spaces, which led to the first circumnavigation of the Magellan expedition in 1519-1522.

conquistadors

The navigators of the era of great geographical discoveries were not only engaged in the development of new lands. Often the pioneers were followed by waves of adventurers, entrepreneurs, immigrants in search of a better life.

After Christopher Columbus first set foot on the coast of one of the Caribbean islands, thousands of people crossed to the New World. The main reason was the misconception that they had reached India. But after the expectations of the treasures did not come true, the Europeans began to colonize the territories.

Juan de León, setting out from Costa Rica, discovered the coast of Florida in 1508. Hernán Cortes, on the orders of Velazquez, left Santiago de Cuba, where he was mayor, with a flotilla of eleven ships and five hundred soldiers. He needed to conquer the natives of Yucatan. There, as it turned out, there were two fairly powerful states - the Aztec and Mayan empires.

In August 1521, Cortes captures Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, and renames it Mexico City. From now on, the empire became part of Spain.

New trade routes

The Age of Discovery presented Western Europe with unexpected economic opportunities. New sales markets were opened, territories appeared from where treasures and slaves were imported for next to nothing.

The colonization of the western and eastern coasts of Africa, the Asian coast of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific territories allowed the once small states to become world empires.

Open to European traders Japan, Philippines, China. The Portuguese even got their first colony there - Macau.

But the most important thing was that in the course of expansion to the west and east, the expeditions began to meet. Ships sailing from present-day Chile reached the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Thus, it was finally proved that our planet has the shape of a ball.

Gradually, sailors mastered the movement of the trade winds, the Gulf Stream. New models of ships appeared. As a result of colonization, plantation farms were formed, where they used the labor of slaves.

Australia

The era of great geographical discoveries was marked not only by the search for a way to India. In short, humanity began to get acquainted with the planet. When most of the coasts became known, there was only one question left. What lurks in the south so massive that the northern continents do not outweigh it?

According to Aristotle, there was a certain continent - incognita terra australis ("unknown southern land").

After several erroneous reports, finally in 1603 the Dutchman Janszon landed in present-day Queensland.

And in the forties of the seventeenth century, Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand.

Conquest of Siberia

The era of great geographical discoveries was marked not only by the exploration of America, Africa and Australia. The table of trophies and the map of Baikal's environs speak of important discoveries made by Russian Cossacks.

So, in 1577, the ataman Yermak, who was financed by the Stroganovs, went to the east of Siberia. During the campaign, he inflicts a heavy defeat on the Siberian Khan Kuchum, but eventually dies in one of the battles.

However, his work was not forgotten. Since the seventeenth century, after the end of the Time of Troubles, systematic colonization of these lands begins.

The Yenisei is being explored. Lena, Angara. In 1632 Yakutsk was founded. Subsequently, it will become the most important transit point on the way to the east.

In 1639, the expedition of Ivan Moskvitin reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Kamchatka began to develop only in the eighteenth century.

The results of the era of the great geographical discoveries

The importance of the era of the great geographical discoveries is difficult to overestimate.

First, there was a revolution in food. Plants such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, pineapples and others came to Western Europe. There is a culture of drinking coffee and tea, people are attached to smoking.

Precious metals from the New World quickly flooded the markets of "old Europe". Along with the emergence of a large number of colonies, the era of imperialism begins.

In the countries of Western Europe, there is a decline of some trading houses and the rise of others. The Netherlands owes its rise to the era of geographical discoveries. Antwerp in the sixteenth century became the main transshipment port on the route of goods from Asia and America to other European countries.

Thus, in this article we have dealt with the course of geographical discoveries for two hundred years. We talked about different directions of expeditions, learned the names of famous sailors, as well as the time of discovery of some coasts and islands.

Good luck and new discoveries to you, dear readers!

They are always attracted by the horizon line, an endless strip that goes into the distance. Their faithful friends are ribbons of roads leading to the unknown, mysterious and mysterious. They were the first to push the boundaries, opening up new lands to humanity and the amazing beauty of metrics. These people are the most famous travelers.

Travelers who made the most important discoveries

Christopher Columbus. He was a red-haired guy with a strong build and slightly above average height. From childhood he was smart, practical, very proud. He had a dream - to go on a journey and find a treasure of gold coins. And he made his dreams come true. He found a treasure - a huge mainland - America.

Three-quarters of Columbus' life was spent sailing. He traveled on Portuguese ships, managed to live in Lisbon and the British Isles. Stopping for a short time in a foreign land, he constantly drew geographical maps, made new travel plans.

It still remains a mystery how he managed to plan the shortest route from Europe to India. His calculations were based on the discoveries of the 15th century and on the fact that the Earth is spherical.

Gathering 90 volunteers in 1492-1493, on three ships he set off on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean. He became the discoverer of the central part of the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser Antilles. He owns the discovery of the northeast coast of Cuba.

The second expedition, which lasted from 1493 to 1496, already consisted of 17 ships and 2.5 thousand people. He discovered the islands of Dominica, the Lesser Antilles, the island of Puerto Rico. After 40 days of sailing, having arrived in Castile, he notified the government of the opening of a new route to Asia.

After 3 years, having collected 6 ships, he led an expedition across the Atlantic. In Haiti, because of the denunciation of the envious of his successes, Columbus was arrested and shackled. He received liberation, but he kept the chains all his life, as a symbol of betrayal.

He was the discoverer of America. Until the end of his life, he mistakenly believed that it was connected to Asia by a thin isthmus. He believed that it was he who opened the sea route to India, although history later showed the fallacy of his delusions.

Vasco da Gama. He was lucky to live in the era of the great geographical discoveries. Perhaps that is why he dreamed of traveling and dreamed of becoming a discoverer of uncharted lands.

He was a nobleman. The family was not the most noble, but had ancient roots. As a young man, he became interested in mathematics, navigation and astronomy. Since childhood, he hated secular society, playing the piano and French, which noble nobles tried to "shine".

Decisiveness and organizational skills made Vasco da Gama close to Emperor Charles VIII, who, having decided to create an expedition to open a sea route to India, appointed him the main one.

At his disposal were provided 4 new ships specially built for the voyage. Vasco da Gama was supplied with the latest navigational instruments and provided naval artillery.

A year later, the expedition reached the shores of India, stopping in the first city of Calicut (Kozhikode). Despite the cold meeting of the natives and even military clashes, the goal was achieved. Vasco da Gama became the discoverer of the sea route to India.

They discovered the mountainous and desert regions of Asia, made bold expeditions to the Far North, they "wrote" history, glorifying the Russian land.

Great Russian travelers

Miklouho-Maclay was born into a noble family, but experienced poverty at the age of 11, when his father died. He has always been a rebel. At the age of 15, he was arrested for participating in a student demonstration and imprisoned for three days in the Peter and Paul Fortress. For participation in student unrest, he was expelled from the gymnasium with a further ban on admission to any higher institution. After leaving for Germany, he received his education there.

The famous naturalist Ernst Haeckel became interested in the 19-year-old guy, inviting him to his expedition to study marine fauna.

In 1869, having returned to St. Petersburg, he enlisted the support of the Russian Geographical Society and went to study New Guinea. It took a year to prepare the expedition. He sailed to the shore of the Coral Sea, and when he stepped on the ground he did not even guess that the descendants of this place would call his name.

Having lived for more than a year in New Guinea, he not only discovered new lands, but also taught the natives how to grow corn, pumpkin, beans and fruit trees. He studied the life of the natives in Java, the Louisiades and the Solomon Islands. He spent 3 years in Australia.

He died at 42. Doctors diagnosed him with severe deterioration of the body.

Afanasy Nikitin is the first Russian traveler to visit India and Persia. Returning back, he visited Somalia, Turkey and Muscat. His notes "Journey Beyond Three Seas" have become valuable historical and literary aids. He simply and truthfully outlined medieval India in his notes.

A native of a peasant family proved that even a poor person can make a trip to India. The main thing is to set a goal.

The world has not revealed all its secrets to man. Until now, there are people who dream of opening the veil of unknown worlds.

Notable modern travelers

He is 60, but his soul is still full of thirst for new adventures. At the age of 58, he climbed to the top of Everest, conquered the 7 greatest peaks together with climbers. He is fearless, purposeful, open to the unknown. His name is Fedor Konyukhov.

And let the era of great discoveries be long behind us. It doesn't matter that the Earth has been photographed thousands of times from space. Let travelers and discoverers discover all the places of the globe. He, like a child, believes that there is still a lot of unknown things in the world.

He has 40 expeditions and ascents to his credit. He crossed the seas and oceans, was at the North and South Poles, made 4 round-the-world voyages, crossed the Atlantic 15 times. Of these, once on a rowboat. He made most of his travels alone.

Everyone knows his name. His programs had millions of viewers. He is the great man who gave this world the unusual beauty of nature, hidden from view in the bottomless depths. Fedor Konyukhov visited different places on our planet, including the hottest place in Russia, which is located in Kalmykia. The site has Jacques-Yves Cousteau, perhaps the most famous traveler in the world

Even during the war, he continued his experiments and studies of the underwater world. He decided to devote the first film to sunken ships. And the Germans, who occupied France, allowed him to engage in research activities and filming.

He dreamed of a ship that would be equipped with modern technology for filming and observation. He was helped by a complete stranger who gave Cousteau a small military minesweeper. After repair work, it turned into the famous ship "Calypso".

The crew of the ship were researchers: a journalist, a navigator, a geologist, a volcanologist. His assistant and companion was his wife. Later, 2 of his sons also took part in all expeditions.

Cousteau is recognized as the best specialist in underwater research. He received an offer to head the famous Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. He not only studied the underwater world, but also engaged in activities to protect the marine and ocean habitats.
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The era of the great geographical discoveries is the period of human history from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 17th centuries.
Conditionally divided into two parts:
Spanish-Portuguese discoveries the end of the 15th century and the entire 16th century, which include the discovery of America, the discovery of a sea route to India, Pacific expeditions, the first circumnavigation
Anglo-Dutch-Russian discoveries end of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century, which includes English and French discoveries in North America, Dutch expeditions to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Russian discoveries throughout North Asia

A geographical discovery is a visit by a representative of a civilized people to a new part of the earth previously unknown to cultural mankind or the establishment of a spatial connection between already known parts of the land.

Why did the era of great geographical discoveries begin?

• The growth of European cities in the 15th century
• Active development of trade
• Active development of crafts
• Depletion of European mines of precious metals - gold and silver
• The discovery of printing, which led to the spread of new technical sciences and knowledge of antiquity
• Distribution and improvement of firearms
• Discoveries in navigation, the advent of the compass and the astrolabe
• Advances in cartography
• The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks, which interrupted the economic and trade relations of Southern Europe with India and China

Geographic knowledge before the beginning of the Age of Discovery

In the Middle Ages, Normans discovered Iceland and the shores of North America, European travelers Marco Polo, Rubruk, Andre from Longjumeau, Veniamin Tudelsky, Afanasy Nikitin, Karpini and others established land connections with the countries of Far Asia and the Middle East, the Arabs explored the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea , the shores of the Red Sea, the western shores of the Indian Ocean, the roads connecting Eastern Europe through Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Iranian Highlands - with India

Beginning of the Age of Discovery

The beginning of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries can be considered the activities of the Portuguese navigators of the 15th century and the inspirer of their achievements, Prince Henry the Navigator (03/04/1394 - 11/13/1460)

At the beginning of the 15th century, the geographical science of Christians was in a deplorable state. The knowledge of the great scientists of antiquity has been lost. The impressions from traveling alone: ​​Marco Polo, Carpini, Rubruk - did not become public and contained many exaggerations. Geographers and cartographers in the manufacture of atlases and maps used rumors; discoveries made by chance were forgotten; lands found in the ocean were lost again. The same applied to the art of navigation. The skippers did not have maps, instruments, knowledge of navigation, they were terribly afraid of the open sea, huddled close to the shores.

In 1415, Prince Henry became Grand Master of the Portuguese Order of Christ, a powerful and wealthy organization. With its funds, Heinrich built a citadel on the isthmus of Cape Sagres, from where until the end of his days he organized sea expeditions to the west and south, created a nautical school, attracted the best mathematicians, astronomers from Arabs and Jews, collected information wherever and from where he could about distant countries and voyages , seas, winds and currents, bays, reefs, peoples and shores, began to build more advanced and larger ships. The captains went out to sea for them, not only inspired to search for new lands, but also well prepared theoretically.

Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century

• Madeira island
• Azores
• the entire west coast of Africa
• mouth of the Congo River
• Cape Verde
• Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, was discovered by the expedition of Bartalomeu Dias in January 1488.

Great geographical discoveries. Briefly

• 1492 —
• 1498 Vasco da Gama discovers a sea route to India around Africa
• 1499-1502 - Spanish discoveries in the New World
• 1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland and the Labrador Peninsula
• 1500 - discovery of the mouth of the Amazon by Vicente Pinson
• 1519-1522 - the first circumnavigation of Magellan, the discovery of the Strait of Magellan, Mariana, Philippine, Moluccas
• 1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean
• 1513 - Discovery of Florida and the Gulf Stream
• 1519-1553 - discoveries and conquests in South America by Cortes, Pizarro, Almagro, Orellana
• 1528-1543 - Spanish discoveries of the interior of North America
• 1596 - discovery of the island of Svalbard by Willem Barents
• 1526-1598 - Spanish discoveries of the Solomon, Caroline, Marquesas, Marshall Islands, New Guinea
• 1577-1580 - the second round-the-world voyage of the Englishman F. Drake, the discovery of the Drake Strait
• 1582 - Yermak's campaign in Siberia
• 1576-1585 - British search for a northwestern passage to India and discovery in the North Atlantic
• 1586-1629 - Russian campaigns in Siberia
• 1633-1649 - the discovery by Russian explorers of the East Siberian rivers to the Kolyma
• 1638-1648 - discovery by Russian explorers of Transbaikalia and Lake Baikal
• 1639-1640 - Ivan Moskvin's exploration of the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk
• The last quarter of the 16th - the first third of the 17th century - the development of the eastern shores of North America by the British and French
• 1603-1638 - French exploration of the interior of Canada, discovery of the Great Lakes
• 1606 - Independently from each other, the discovery of the northern coast of Australia by the Spaniard Kyros, the Dutchman Janson
• 1612-1632 - British discoveries of the northeast coast of North America
• 1616 - discovery of Cape Horn by Schouten and Le Mer
• 1642 Tasman discovers the island of Tasmania
• 1643 Tasman discovers New Zealand
• 1648 - opening of the Dezhnev Strait between America and Asia (Bering Strait)
• 1648 - Fyodor Popov discovers Kamchatka

Ships of the Age of Discovery

In the Middle Ages, the sides of the ships were sheathed with planks, with the top row of boards overlapping the bottom. This is a durable upholstery. but the ships become heavier from this, and the edges of the plating belts create unnecessary resistance to the hull. At the beginning of the 15th century, the French shipbuilder Julien proposed to sheathe ships end-to-end. The boards were riveted to the frames with copper stainless rivets. The joints were glued with resin. This sheathing was called "caravel", and the ships began to be called caravels. Caravels, the main ships of the Age of Discovery, were built at all shipyards in the world for another two hundred years after the death of their designer.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the flute was invented in Holland. "Fliite" in Dutch means "flowing, flowing". These ships could not be overwhelmed by any of the largest shafts. They, like corks, took off on a wave. The upper parts of the sides of the flute were bent inward, the masts were very high: one and a half times the length of the hull, the yards were short, the sails were narrow and easy to maintain, which made it possible to reduce the number of sailors in the crew. And, most importantly, the flutes were four times longer than wide, which made them very fast. In flutes, the sides were also installed end-to-end, the masts were made up of several elements. Flutes were much more capacious than caravels. From 1600 to 1660, 15,000 flutes were built and plowed the oceans, replacing caravels

Mariners of the Age of Discovery

• Alvise Cadamosto (Portugal, Venice, 1432-1488) - Cape Verde Islands
• Diego Can (Portugal, 1440 - 1486) - West coast of Africa
• Bartalomeu Dias (Portugal, 1450-1500) - Cape of Good Hope
• Vasco da Gama (Portugal, 1460-1524) - the way to India around Africa
• Pedro Cabral (Portugal, 1467-1526) - Brazil
• Christopher Columbus (Genoa, Spain, 1451-1506) - America
• Nunez de Balboa (Spain, 1475-1519) - Pacific Ocean
• Francisco de Orellana (Spain, 1511-1546) - Amazon River
• Fernando Magellan (Portugal, Spain (1480-1521) - first circumnavigation of the world
• John Cabot (Genoa, England, 1450-1498) - Labrador, Newfoundland
• Jean Cartier (France, 1491-1557) east coast of Canada
• Martin Frobisher (England, 1535-1594) - polar seas of Canada
• Alvaro Mendanya (Spain, 1541-1595) - Solomon Islands
• Pedro de Quiros (Spain, 1565-1614) - Tuamotu archipelago, New Hybrids
• Luis de Torres (Spain, 1560-1614) - the island of New Guinea, the strait that separates this island from Australia
• Francis Drake (England, 1540-1596) - second circumnavigation of the world
• Willem Barents (Netherlands, 1550-1597) - the first polar navigator
• Henry Hudson (England, 1550-1611), explorer of the North Atlantic
• Willem Schouten (Holland, 1567-1625) - Cape Horn
• Abel Tasman (Holland, 1603-1659) - Tasmania, New Zealand
• Willem Janszon (Holland, 1570-1632) - Australia
• Semyon Dezhnev (Russia, 1605-1673) - the Kolyma River, the strait between Asia and America