The end of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became the time of the discoverers of new lands for Europeans. The most inquisitive and restless people grouped in three countries: Portugal, Spain and Russia.
The most important discoveries of two centuries
At the end of the eighties of the fifteenth century, the great navigators from Portugal had already searched both the western and southern coasts of distant Africa, in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed to the Bahamas, Lesser Antilles and discovered America, and 1497 also became important for geographical discoveries: Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India, rounding the African continent. And in 1498, Columbus, Vespucci and Omeja became the discoverers of South America, which they studied for five years, as well as Central America.
Russian great navigators explored mainly the Arctic Ocean. They went around the entire vast northern Asia, discovered the Yamal and Taimyr Peninsulas, the Chukchi Peninsula, proved that America is not a continuation of Asia, leaving the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. This expedition was led by the great Russiannavigator S. Dezhnev, as well as F. Popov. Since 1735, Khariton and Dmitry Laptev traveled along the Siberian seas, one of which was later named after them. The names of great navigators are usually on the map they compiled.
Dutchman V. Barents bypassed Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard. The Englishman G. Hudson and his associates discovered Greenland, Baffin Island, the Labrador Peninsula, Hudson Bay. The Frenchman S. Champillin discovered the northern Appalachians and all five North American Great Lakes. The Spaniard L. Torres visited New Guinea. The Dutch V. Janszon and A. Tasman mapped Australia, Tasmania and the islands of New Zealand.
Something about Columbus
Christopher Columbus remained a mysterious man for posterity. Photo, of course, has not been invented yet. But the portraits remained. On them we see a man with a wise look and, it would seem, far from any adventurism. The whole personality and the fate of Christopher Columbus, full of unrest, are ambiguous, vague, you can write an epic novel about this, and even there you can’t fit all the vicissitudes of his life path.
According to one of the many versions, he was born on the island of Corsica in 1451. Fierce scholarly disputes still continue on this topic: six cities in Italy and Spain swear that it is there that Columbus's homeland.
His whole life is a legend. One thing is clear - he lived in Lisbon, and before that he sailed a lot on ships in the Mediterranean. From there, from Portugal, the most important travels of Columbus began, which the greatest navigators have not yet made.peace.
Cuba Island and others
In 1492 he set foot on the island of Cuba. There, Columbus found one of the most cultured peoples of Latin America, who built huge buildings, sculpted beautiful statues, grew cotton already familiar to Europe and completely unknown potatoes and tobacco, which then conquered the whole world. Until now, on this island, the birthday of Christopher Columbus is a national holiday.
The pioneer of the tropical zone of the Atlantic, the first to penetrate the Caribbean Sea, discover South America and the isthmuses of Central, map the Bahamas, the Lesser and Greater Antilles, the islands of the Caribbean, the island of Trinidad - this is all Christopher Columbus. The photo, however, reveals a handsome man, looking calmly from the portrait, without the slightest trace of unrest on his face.
Let the Europeans claim that the path to North America before Columbus was blazed by the Vikings from Iceland since the eleventh century. In the Middle Ages, going by sea across the ocean for the tenth time was incredibly difficult and dangerous. And in any case, there are too many lands in the two American continents that no one had discovered before Columbus.
From ship messengers to great navigators
Fernand Magellan was born in 1480 in northern Portugal and was orphaned at the age of ten. In search of a piece of bread, he got a job in the royal court - a messenger. And he went to sea for the first time at twenty-five, although he adored the sea since childhood. It was not in vain that Magellan dreamed of the great navigators and their discoveries. Himmanaged to get into the team of F. de Almeido, who for the first time moved ships under the flag of Spain to the East.
Magellan turned out to be a very capable student, he quickly mastered the sea business in all professions. Staying in India, living in Mozambique, he finally became a captain. You could return to your homeland.
For five years he convinced the Portuguese ruler of all the benefits of the eastern expeditions, but things did not go well, and in 1517 Magellan entered the service of King Charles, so far the first and Spanish, but in the future - the emperor of the Roman Empire.
Trip around the world
In 1493, a bull was issued by the Pope stating that the newly discovered lands to the east were Portuguese, and to the west - Spanish. Magellan led an expedition to the west to bring evidence that the spice islands belonged to Spain.
And this trip, having such a small and mercantile goal, turned into the world's first trip around the world. Far behind were the great navigators and their discoveries, which called Magellan in children's dreams. No one has yet undertaken such a voyage, especially since the earth is round, not all travelers assumed at that time.
Magellan did not have time to provide the world with evidence of his assumptions, he died on this expedition - in the Philippines. However, he died confident in his innocence. The rest of the team returned to Spain only in 1522.
Cossack chieftain
Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev - Arctic navigator, Cossack chieftain, explorer and discoverer of many geographical objects, was born in a Pomeranian family, on Pinega, in 1605. Cossack service began as a private in Tobolsk, then he was transferred to Yeniseisk, and even later - to Yakutia. Everywhere he developed new lands, rivers, even crossed the East Siberian Sea on a makeshift koch from the mouth of the Indigirka to Alazeya. From there, with his comrades, he moved to the East on two makeshift ships.
In the Kolyma Delta they went up the river and founded the city of Srednekolymsk. A few years later, the expedition to the east continued - to the Bering Strait, which for about eighty years will not be Bering: Dezhnev was the first to cross the Strait. The easternmost point of the mainland is a cape named after the discoverer Dezhnev. In addition, the island, bay, peninsula and village bear his name. In the center of the city of Veliky Ustyug in the Vologda region, a monument was erected to him. He was a reliable person. Honest and hardworking. Hardy. Strong. Fought. Of the thirteen wounds, three are serious. But always and in everything he strove for peace.
South mainland
By the seventeenth century, Europeans saw the main outlines of the planet Earth. However, the unexplored areas were vast. The most cunning colonialists sought to explore these territories. Historians have never figured out how an ordinary Dutch peasant, Abel Tasman, became a sailor, but his travels brought invaluable discoveries to the world.
Aristotle even before our era was sure of the existence of an unknown southernearth. "Terra australis incognita" ("Unknown Southern Land"), he marked in his notes. It was this land that the navigator Tasman set off to look for on the sailing ship Zehaan. In the southern latitudes, nature is inhospitable. Icy wind and almost never sun. The south and southwest sends monstrous storms. Such waves do not happen near the mainland, which means that the southern land is somewhere not here. And Tasman, on reflection, changed the previously laid course. There was complete uncertainty ahead.
The right choice
After changing course, nature took pity on the sailors - the clouds remained aside, and the sun quickly warmed the ship. Soon the ground appeared. It so happened that Tasman landed on the island that will be named after him, this is much south of the mainland. He simply missed Australia itself. Tasmania was surveyed, mapped. Then there will be a city. And at that time there was nothing more to do there - the climate is unpleasant, the rocks are gloomy, the nature is wild, the local population cannot offer anything.
Tasman went on. He was incredibly lucky to discover the islands. New Zealand was next. True, the local Maori met Tasman, like all subsequent travelers, unfriendly. Rather, even hostile. While trying to survey the new land, several crew members were killed. Therefore, Tasman left this work to posterity, and "Zehaan" immediately departed home. He did not find a shortcut to Chile. But proved that Australia exists.
