Great seafarers and their discoveries

The time of the discoverers of new lands for Europeans was the end of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most curious and restless people were grouped in three countries: Portugal, Spain and Russia.

The most important discoveries of two centuries

In the late eighties of the fifteenth century, great seafarers from Portugal already searched the western and southern coasts of distant Africa, in 1492, Christopher Columbus swam to the Bahamas, Lesser Antilles and discovered America, and 1497 also became important for geographical discoveries: Vasco da Gama Discovered a sea route to India, circumambulating the African continent. And in 1498, Columbus, Vespucci and Omaha became pioneers of South America, which they studied for five years, as well as Central America.

Russian great navigators explored mainly the Arctic Ocean. They went all over the vast northern Asia, discovered the Yamal Peninsula and the Taimyr Peninsula, the Chukchi Peninsula, proved that America is not a continuation of Asia, coming from the Arctic to the Pacific through the Bering Strait. This expedition was headed by the great Russian navigator S. Dezhnev, as well as F. Popov. Since 1735, Khariton and Dmitry Laptev traveled through the Siberian seas, one of which was later named their name. The names of the great seamen are usually present on the map they composed.

The Dutchman V. Barents went around the New Earth and Spitsbergen. The Englishman H. Hudson with his associates opened Greenland, Baffin Earth, the Labrador Peninsula, the Hudson Bay. Frenchman S. Champilin discovered the northern Appalachians and all five North American Great Lakes. Spaniard L. Torres visited New Guinea. The Dutch V. Jansson and A. Tasman put on the map Australia, Tasmania and the islands of New Zealand.

Something about Columbus

A mysterious man remained for the descendants of Christopher Columbus. Of course, the photos were not invented yet. But there were portraits. On them we see a man with a wise eye and, seemingly, far from any adventurism. The whole person and the full of the troubles of the fate of Christopher Columbus are ambiguous, vague, it is possible to write a novel-epic, and even there can not contain all the vicissitudes of his life's path.

According to one of many versions, he was born on the island of Corsica in 1451. On this subject, there are still fierce scholarly arguments: the six cities of Italy and Spain swear that it is there that the birthplace of Columbus.

His whole life is a legend. One thing is clear - he lived in Lisbon, and before that he went a lot on ships across the Mediterranean. From there, from Portugal, the most important trips of Columbus began, which have not yet been made by the greatest seafarers of the world.

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 that sculptured beautiful statues, growing cotton already familiar to Europe and completely unknown potatoes and tobacco, which then conquered the whole world. Till now on this island the birthday of Christopher Columbus is a national holiday.

The pioneer of the tropical Atlantic strip, which first penetrated the Caribbean Sea, discovered South America and the isthmus of the Central, the Bahamian archipelago, the Small and Great Antilles, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the island of Trinidad, is all Christopher Columbus. Photo also reveals a handsome man, calmly looking from the portrait, without the slightest trace of anxiety on his face.

Let Europeans say that the way to North America before Columbus was broken by Vikings from Iceland from the eleventh century. In the Middle Ages, to go by sea across the ocean and for the tenth time is incredibly difficult and dangerous. And in any case, there are too many lands on two American continents, which nobody discovered before Columbus.

From couriers to great seafarers

Fernand Magellan was born in 1480 in northern Portugal and at the age of ten orphaned. In search of a piece of bread, I settled in the royal court - a messenger. And in the sea he came out for the first time at two-five, although the sea adored from childhood. Magellan was not in vain dreamed of great seafarers and their discoveries. He managed to get into the team of F. de Almeida, who first moved the ships under the flag of Spain to the East.

Magellan turned out to be a very capable student, quickly mastered the naval work in all professions. Remained in India, having lived in Mozambique, he finally became a captain. It was possible to return home.

Five years he persuaded the Portuguese ruler in all the benefits of the eastern expeditions, but the matter did not go well, and in 1517 Magellan enlisted in the service of King Charles, for the time being the first and the Spanish, but in the future - the emperor of the Roman Empire.

Trip around the world

In 1493, the Pope of Rome issued a bull that the newly opened lands to the east were Portuguese, and to the west - Spanish. Magellan led the expedition to the west to bring evidence that the islands where spices grow are Spanish.

And this trip, which has such a small and mercantile goal, turned into the world's first round-the-world trip. Far behind were the great seafarers, and their discoveries, which were called Magellan in children's dreams. Such a voyage was not undertaken yet by anyone, especially since the land was round, at that time not all travelers at first thought.

Magellan did not have time to present the world with proof of his assumptions, he died in this expedition - in the Philippines. Nevertheless, he died confident of his rightness. The remains of the team returned to Spain only in 1522.

The Cossack Ataman

Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev - Arctic seaman, Cossack ataman, explorer and discoverer of many geographical objects, was born in Pomor family, in Pinega, in 1605. Cossack service began private in Tobolsk, then he was transferred to Yeniseisk, and even later - to Yakutia. Everywhere he mastered new lands, rivers, even crossed the East Siberian Sea on a makeshift koche from the mouth of Indigirka to Alazeya. From there, he and his comrades on two self-made ships advanced to the East.

In the delta of Kolyma, they rose up the river and founded the town of Srednekolymsk. A few years later the expedition to the east continued - to the Bering Strait, which would not be Bering for another eighty years: Dezhnev passed the strait first. The most eastern point of the mainland is the cape, named after the discoverer Dezhnev. In addition, the island, the bay, the peninsula and the village bear his name. In the center of the city of Veliky Ustyug in the Vologda region he has a monument. Reliable was a man. Honest and hardworking. Hardy. Strong. He fought. Of thirteen wounds - three heavy. But always and in everything strove for peace.

Southern continent

By the seventeenth century Europeans saw the main outlines of the planet Earth. Nevertheless, the unexplored areas were huge. The most cunning colonialists sought to explore these territories. Historians never learned how the ordinary Dutch villager Abel Tasman became a sailor, but his travels brought the world invaluable discoveries.

Aristotle even before our era was confident in the existence of the unknown southern land. "Terra Australis incognita" ("Unknown Southern Land") - he said in his notes. This land and went to seek explorer Tasman on a sailing ship "Zehaan". In southern latitudes, nature is unfriendly. Icy wind and almost never have the sun. South and south-west sends monstrous storms. Such waves do not happen near the mainland, hence, the South land is somewhere not here. And Tasman, having thought about it, changed the previously laid out course. Ahead was complete uncertainty.

Right choice

After a course change, nature relented above the seafarers - the clouds were left in the side, and the sun quickly warmed the ship. Soon the land appeared. It so happened that Tasman landed on the island, which will be named after him, it is significantly south of the mainland. He simply missed Australia himself. Tasmania was inspected and mapped. Then the city will rise here. 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 can not offer anything.

Tasman went on. He was fortunate enough to discover the islands. Next was New Zealand. True, the local Maori met Tasman, as well as all subsequent travelers, unfriendly. More likely, even hostile. When trying to examine the new land, several crew members were killed. Therefore Tasman left this work to his descendants, and "Zehaan" immediately left home. He did not find a short trip to Chile. But he proved that Australia exists.