Many people believe that the drive to explore is part of what makes us human. From pre-history to modern times, our ancestors have crossed great distances on foot, in boats and vehicles, and on the backs of animals to find new lands. They established trade, exchanged ideas, and ran into unimagined obstacles and rewards along the way. Not only do we explore geographically; we explore ideas, art, music, science, space, emotions, ways of communicating, and life itself. Exploration is a way of learning that spans all time periods and all cultures. People are attracted to things they don’t know about and have never seen. They also seek knowledge and the resources they need to survive.
So why do people explore? What do they hope to discover? Is exploration driven by curiosity? Is exploring about finding “what’s out there” and is making a discovery to the benefit of all? Or has exploration and discovery taught us that as long as we say “we saw it first”, whether it is a species of bird, a medicine, or a continent, it is ours to keep and use as we wish?
When we look specifically at the history of the Pacific Northwest, these kinds of Read More
So why do people explore? What do they hope to discover? Is exploration driven by curiosity? Is exploring about finding “what’s out there” and is making a discovery to the benefit of all? Or has exploration and discovery taught us that as long as we say “we saw it first”, whether it is a species of bird, a medicine, or a continent, it is ours to keep and use as we wish?
When we look specifically at the history of the Pacific Northwest, these kinds of Read More
Many people believe that the drive to explore is part of what makes us human. From pre-history to modern times, our ancestors have crossed great distances on foot, in boats and vehicles, and on the backs of animals to find new lands. They established trade, exchanged ideas, and ran into unimagined obstacles and rewards along the way. Not only do we explore geographically; we explore ideas, art, music, science, space, emotions, ways of communicating, and life itself. Exploration is a way of learning that spans all time periods and all cultures. People are attracted to things they don’t know about and have never seen. They also seek knowledge and the resources they need to survive.
So why do people explore? What do they hope to discover? Is exploration driven by curiosity? Is exploring about finding “what’s out there” and is making a discovery to the benefit of all? Or has exploration and discovery taught us that as long as we say “we saw it first”, whether it is a species of bird, a medicine, or a continent, it is ours to keep and use as we wish?
When we look specifically at the history of the Pacific Northwest, these kinds of questions can guide us, helping us to see ”exploration” and “discovery” in different contexts and from different perspectives. If we look at exploration as a broad phenomenon, we can reflect on the positive and negative of past exploration, what exploration in science is doing, and how technology has opened new paths for exploration. See what you can discover.
So why do people explore? What do they hope to discover? Is exploration driven by curiosity? Is exploring about finding “what’s out there” and is making a discovery to the benefit of all? Or has exploration and discovery taught us that as long as we say “we saw it first”, whether it is a species of bird, a medicine, or a continent, it is ours to keep and use as we wish?
When we look specifically at the history of the Pacific Northwest, these kinds of questions can guide us, helping us to see ”exploration” and “discovery” in different contexts and from different perspectives. If we look at exploration as a broad phenomenon, we can reflect on the positive and negative of past exploration, what exploration in science is doing, and how technology has opened new paths for exploration. See what you can discover.
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
Humans have always been explorers. Some of the most significant explorations and discoveries took place long before Europeans were setting sail.
The indigenous peoples of North America are thought to have come from Asia some 13,000 years ago on a land bridge that joined the continents while the ocean levels were low due to an ice age. The Ancient Egyptians recorded exploration expeditions in the middle of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2400 BCE). During the 11th Dynasty, a force of 3,000 men travelled from the Nile to the Red Sea with plans to build sea craft and travel to “Punt”, the land of a trading partner that was probably at the southern tip of the African continent. In the late 7th century BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho commissioned sailors to sail around Africa.
The Polynesians were navigating the seas of the South Pacific 4,500 years ago. Long before the time of contact with European sailors, they had charted the islands from Hawaii to New Zealand and maintained inter-island trade and travel. A priest named Tupaia from the Society Islands drew a chart for Captain Cook detailing more than 70 islands, and was taken on board Cook’s ship t Read More
The indigenous peoples of North America are thought to have come from Asia some 13,000 years ago on a land bridge that joined the continents while the ocean levels were low due to an ice age. The Ancient Egyptians recorded exploration expeditions in the middle of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2400 BCE). During the 11th Dynasty, a force of 3,000 men travelled from the Nile to the Red Sea with plans to build sea craft and travel to “Punt”, the land of a trading partner that was probably at the southern tip of the African continent. In the late 7th century BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho commissioned sailors to sail around Africa.
The Polynesians were navigating the seas of the South Pacific 4,500 years ago. Long before the time of contact with European sailors, they had charted the islands from Hawaii to New Zealand and maintained inter-island trade and travel. A priest named Tupaia from the Society Islands drew a chart for Captain Cook detailing more than 70 islands, and was taken on board Cook’s ship t Read More
Humans have always been explorers. Some of the most significant explorations and discoveries took place long before Europeans were setting sail.
The indigenous peoples of North America are thought to have come from Asia some 13,000 years ago on a land bridge that joined the continents while the ocean levels were low due to an ice age. The Ancient Egyptians recorded exploration expeditions in the middle of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2400 BCE). During the 11th Dynasty, a force of 3,000 men travelled from the Nile to the Red Sea with plans to build sea craft and travel to “Punt”, the land of a trading partner that was probably at the southern tip of the African continent. In the late 7th century BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho commissioned sailors to sail around Africa.
The Polynesians were navigating the seas of the South Pacific 4,500 years ago. Long before the time of contact with European sailors, they had charted the islands from Hawaii to New Zealand and maintained inter-island trade and travel. A priest named Tupaia from the Society Islands drew a chart for Captain Cook detailing more than 70 islands, and was taken on board Cook’s ship to serve as a pilot. In the north eastern Pacific, skilled Chinese and Japanese seafarers may have made the voyage to the Pacific Northwest as early as the 3rd century.
Marco Polo (1254-1324), the son of a Venetian merchant, travelled east over land, crossing Central Asia to reach China. Polo, who worked for the Mongol Khan, returned to Venice by a sea route after 17 years. His tales were transcribed while Polo was imprisoned during war with the Genoese. Although the stories were popular, some Medieval European readers thought Polo’s book of fantastic tales was fable rather than the accounts of a great explorer.
The indigenous peoples of North America are thought to have come from Asia some 13,000 years ago on a land bridge that joined the continents while the ocean levels were low due to an ice age. The Ancient Egyptians recorded exploration expeditions in the middle of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2400 BCE). During the 11th Dynasty, a force of 3,000 men travelled from the Nile to the Red Sea with plans to build sea craft and travel to “Punt”, the land of a trading partner that was probably at the southern tip of the African continent. In the late 7th century BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho commissioned sailors to sail around Africa.
The Polynesians were navigating the seas of the South Pacific 4,500 years ago. Long before the time of contact with European sailors, they had charted the islands from Hawaii to New Zealand and maintained inter-island trade and travel. A priest named Tupaia from the Society Islands drew a chart for Captain Cook detailing more than 70 islands, and was taken on board Cook’s ship to serve as a pilot. In the north eastern Pacific, skilled Chinese and Japanese seafarers may have made the voyage to the Pacific Northwest as early as the 3rd century.
Marco Polo (1254-1324), the son of a Venetian merchant, travelled east over land, crossing Central Asia to reach China. Polo, who worked for the Mongol Khan, returned to Venice by a sea route after 17 years. His tales were transcribed while Polo was imprisoned during war with the Genoese. Although the stories were popular, some Medieval European readers thought Polo’s book of fantastic tales was fable rather than the accounts of a great explorer.
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
Every time period and every culture has explorers, but who we think are the “Great Explorers” often depends on where we live – many cultures like to include their own historic figures among the list of the greatest explorers.
Abu ’Abdallah Ibn Battuta (1304-c. 1369) was a Muslim scholar from Morocco. In 1325, he set off on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. He made his way by land and sea through most of the Islamic lands of the time, including Spain, Anatolia, Persia, India, and China. As an authority in Islamic religious law, he was not on an official mission of trade, power, or conquest but rather personal travels. He returned to Morocco after almost 30 years and his Journey or Rihla was recorded by a scholar he met in Spain.
Muslim merchants from Arabia and East Africa continued to travel east via the Monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese, learning about the Muslim trade networks from the Moors of nearby northern Africa, began to consider how they might reach the riches of the east by sailing around the Read More
Abu ’Abdallah Ibn Battuta (1304-c. 1369) was a Muslim scholar from Morocco. In 1325, he set off on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. He made his way by land and sea through most of the Islamic lands of the time, including Spain, Anatolia, Persia, India, and China. As an authority in Islamic religious law, he was not on an official mission of trade, power, or conquest but rather personal travels. He returned to Morocco after almost 30 years and his Journey or Rihla was recorded by a scholar he met in Spain.
Muslim merchants from Arabia and East Africa continued to travel east via the Monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese, learning about the Muslim trade networks from the Moors of nearby northern Africa, began to consider how they might reach the riches of the east by sailing around the Read More
Every time period and every culture has explorers, but who we think are the “Great Explorers” often depends on where we live – many cultures like to include their own historic figures among the list of the greatest explorers.
Abu ’Abdallah Ibn Battuta (1304-c. 1369) was a Muslim scholar from Morocco. In 1325, he set off on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. He made his way by land and sea through most of the Islamic lands of the time, including Spain, Anatolia, Persia, India, and China. As an authority in Islamic religious law, he was not on an official mission of trade, power, or conquest but rather personal travels. He returned to Morocco after almost 30 years and his Journey or Rihla was recorded by a scholar he met in Spain.
Muslim merchants from Arabia and East Africa continued to travel east via the Monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese, learning about the Muslim trade networks from the Moors of nearby northern Africa, began to consider how they might reach the riches of the east by sailing around the African continent. In 1419, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal established a navigational school in Sagres. It was located on the southwestern tip of Europe, looking out from the Algarve coast to the limitless but promising Atlantic Ocean. There, cartographers, astronomers, shipwrights, and others could gather to develop a plan for setting off on extended voyages into the unknown. Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) eventually sailed around Africa on a direct path to India.
As ships improved and information about the globe grew, explorers sailed further and further from home. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) managed a successful return journey across the Atlantic in 1492. Sailing on behalf of Spain, he reached North America, although he believed that he had found a western route to Asia.
Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) also sailed on behalf of Spain, leading an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan died in 1521 in the Philippines, and it was Juan Sebastian de Elcano (1480-1526) who returned to Spain with the few surviving crewmembers in 1522, completing the expedition.
Abu ’Abdallah Ibn Battuta (1304-c. 1369) was a Muslim scholar from Morocco. In 1325, he set off on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. He made his way by land and sea through most of the Islamic lands of the time, including Spain, Anatolia, Persia, India, and China. As an authority in Islamic religious law, he was not on an official mission of trade, power, or conquest but rather personal travels. He returned to Morocco after almost 30 years and his Journey or Rihla was recorded by a scholar he met in Spain.
Muslim merchants from Arabia and East Africa continued to travel east via the Monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese, learning about the Muslim trade networks from the Moors of nearby northern Africa, began to consider how they might reach the riches of the east by sailing around the African continent. In 1419, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal established a navigational school in Sagres. It was located on the southwestern tip of Europe, looking out from the Algarve coast to the limitless but promising Atlantic Ocean. There, cartographers, astronomers, shipwrights, and others could gather to develop a plan for setting off on extended voyages into the unknown. Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) eventually sailed around Africa on a direct path to India.
As ships improved and information about the globe grew, explorers sailed further and further from home. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) managed a successful return journey across the Atlantic in 1492. Sailing on behalf of Spain, he reached North America, although he believed that he had found a western route to Asia.
Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) also sailed on behalf of Spain, leading an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan died in 1521 in the Philippines, and it was Juan Sebastian de Elcano (1480-1526) who returned to Spain with the few surviving crewmembers in 1522, completing the expedition.
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
Dr. Anthony Welsh - Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Victoria, speaking about 17th century Venetian traveller Ambrosia Bembo
I’ve been working for several years now, on an Italian traveler who came from the city of Venice, who traveled to the Middle East, Iran, and Western India between the years of 1671 and 1675. His name was Ambrosia Bembo, and he came from a very famous Venetian family, and he undertook his travels when he was a very young man. He was about 20 years old when he left Venice. Initially he went to visit his uncle who was the Venetian consul in Alepo, in present day Syria. And he spent about a year with him before he decided to undertake what was in those days, an enormous and dangerous journey from Alepo, through southern Turkey, through Iraq, then by boat from Bosphorus to the west coast of India and then back again. I could say a few words about his travels - In India he spent most of his time at institutions, at mission houses operated by Christian missionaries in western India. So his travels are in that regard a tremendous source of information about one of the major classes of travelers, namely missionaries in the 17th century. After spending his year on the west coast of India, Bembo returned and traveled through Iran, and spent a number of weeks in 2 major cities, one Shiraz, the other Isfahan, which were filled with some of the greatest architectural treasures in Iranian history. He was very appreciative of the physical beauty of these cities, and in fact provided us with very fine line drawings of these cities, so that we have a much better idea of what they looked like in the 17th century.
Maritime Museum of British Columbia
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
For centuries, Europeans called what are now known as North and South America the “New World.” Europeans realized that there were more landmasses on the planet than the old world continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa when captains began to bring home news and details of their cross-Atlantic journeys between the 1400s and the 1700s.
As successive voyages contributed to knowledge of these lands, the map began to show the uncharted sections as “Terra Incognita”, unknown lands. The “New World” existed, but its size and details could only be learned from the tales of a small group of mariners sent to gather information. “New”, “incognita/unknown”, and “unclaimed” seemed to take on similar meanings.
The kind of thinking that labelled the Americas the “New World” reveals many things. It must have been a very exciting prospect as sailors and kings alike considered the possibilities of land, animals, resources, and trade routes that might be open to them. It did not occur to most Europeans taking part in this kind of exploration that this was not a “new world” to the c Read More
As successive voyages contributed to knowledge of these lands, the map began to show the uncharted sections as “Terra Incognita”, unknown lands. The “New World” existed, but its size and details could only be learned from the tales of a small group of mariners sent to gather information. “New”, “incognita/unknown”, and “unclaimed” seemed to take on similar meanings.
The kind of thinking that labelled the Americas the “New World” reveals many things. It must have been a very exciting prospect as sailors and kings alike considered the possibilities of land, animals, resources, and trade routes that might be open to them. It did not occur to most Europeans taking part in this kind of exploration that this was not a “new world” to the c Read More
For centuries, Europeans called what are now known as North and South America the “New World.” Europeans realized that there were more landmasses on the planet than the old world continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa when captains began to bring home news and details of their cross-Atlantic journeys between the 1400s and the 1700s.
As successive voyages contributed to knowledge of these lands, the map began to show the uncharted sections as “Terra Incognita”, unknown lands. The “New World” existed, but its size and details could only be learned from the tales of a small group of mariners sent to gather information. “New”, “incognita/unknown”, and “unclaimed” seemed to take on similar meanings.
The kind of thinking that labelled the Americas the “New World” reveals many things. It must have been a very exciting prospect as sailors and kings alike considered the possibilities of land, animals, resources, and trade routes that might be open to them. It did not occur to most Europeans taking part in this kind of exploration that this was not a “new world” to the civilizations inhabiting the two continents and nearby islands since their own exploratory journeys across the ocean and the Bering Land Bridge from Asia 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
As successive voyages contributed to knowledge of these lands, the map began to show the uncharted sections as “Terra Incognita”, unknown lands. The “New World” existed, but its size and details could only be learned from the tales of a small group of mariners sent to gather information. “New”, “incognita/unknown”, and “unclaimed” seemed to take on similar meanings.
The kind of thinking that labelled the Americas the “New World” reveals many things. It must have been a very exciting prospect as sailors and kings alike considered the possibilities of land, animals, resources, and trade routes that might be open to them. It did not occur to most Europeans taking part in this kind of exploration that this was not a “new world” to the civilizations inhabiting the two continents and nearby islands since their own exploratory journeys across the ocean and the Bering Land Bridge from Asia 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
An antique globe, courtesy of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia
Maritime Museum of British Columbia
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
We are often impressed by a person who is the “first” to do something. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are renowned as the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953. Christopher Columbus is famous for his success as the first to reach the Americas in 1492. Magellan’s expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in the 16th century. This desire to be “first” is at the forefront of exploration, but being first is a matter of perspective. Columbus and the leaders of 15th century Europe did not know about the Vikings who established a settlement in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, 500 years before Columbus arrived.
Captain Malaspina speculated about how the indigenous people of North America first arrived by migrating on rafts and via a land bridge. However, most European explorers did not consider that the presence of First Nations communities meant that someone had definitely arrived before them! Primacy (and therefore the right to claim territory and resources) was a matter that only included other European powers. This has had a great impact on how we are taught history. Accounts of discovery that are written down are Read More
Captain Malaspina speculated about how the indigenous people of North America first arrived by migrating on rafts and via a land bridge. However, most European explorers did not consider that the presence of First Nations communities meant that someone had definitely arrived before them! Primacy (and therefore the right to claim territory and resources) was a matter that only included other European powers. This has had a great impact on how we are taught history. Accounts of discovery that are written down are Read More
We are often impressed by a person who is the “first” to do something. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are renowned as the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953. Christopher Columbus is famous for his success as the first to reach the Americas in 1492. Magellan’s expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in the 16th century. This desire to be “first” is at the forefront of exploration, but being first is a matter of perspective. Columbus and the leaders of 15th century Europe did not know about the Vikings who established a settlement in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, 500 years before Columbus arrived.
Captain Malaspina speculated about how the indigenous people of North America first arrived by migrating on rafts and via a land bridge. However, most European explorers did not consider that the presence of First Nations communities meant that someone had definitely arrived before them! Primacy (and therefore the right to claim territory and resources) was a matter that only included other European powers. This has had a great impact on how we are taught history. Accounts of discovery that are written down are the only ones many cultures are willing to believe.
Some researchers have presented other views of history. Norwegian Tor Heyerdahl set out to prove his theory that prehistoric cultures and ancient civilizations had contact via ocean-going vessels, and that they travelled, populating new regions of the globe. In 1947, he and his crew made the journey from Peru to Polynesia aboard the Kon-Tiki. In 1970, he successfully sailed the reed ship RA II from Morocco to Barbados to show it was possible that Africans could have reached the Americas in ancient craft. Not everyone agrees with such theories, but testing them is a form of exploration in itself.
Captain Malaspina speculated about how the indigenous people of North America first arrived by migrating on rafts and via a land bridge. However, most European explorers did not consider that the presence of First Nations communities meant that someone had definitely arrived before them! Primacy (and therefore the right to claim territory and resources) was a matter that only included other European powers. This has had a great impact on how we are taught history. Accounts of discovery that are written down are the only ones many cultures are willing to believe.
Some researchers have presented other views of history. Norwegian Tor Heyerdahl set out to prove his theory that prehistoric cultures and ancient civilizations had contact via ocean-going vessels, and that they travelled, populating new regions of the globe. In 1947, he and his crew made the journey from Peru to Polynesia aboard the Kon-Tiki. In 1970, he successfully sailed the reed ship RA II from Morocco to Barbados to show it was possible that Africans could have reached the Americas in ancient craft. Not everyone agrees with such theories, but testing them is a form of exploration in itself.
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
A View of Mount Everest
Maritime Museum of British Columbia
© 2007 Maritime Museum of British Columbia
Learning Objectives
The learner will:- construct, interpret, and use graphs, tables, grids, scales, legends, and various types of maps
- locate and describe major world landforms, bodies of water, and political boundaries on maps
- locate and describe current and historical events on maps
