Traveling always attracted people, but before they were not only interesting, but also extremely difficult. The territories were not studied, and, setting off, everyone became an explorer. Which travelers are the most famous and what exactly did each of them discover?
James Cook
The famous Englishman was one of the best cartographers of the eighteenth century. He was born in the north of England and by the age of thirteen he began to work with his father. But the boy was unable to trade, so he decided to go sailing. In those days, all the famous travelers of the world went to distant lands by ship. James became interested in maritime affairs and moved up the career ladder so quickly that he was offered to become a captain. He refused and went to the Royal Navy. Already in 1757, the talented Cook began to control the ship. His first achievement was the compilation of the fairway of the river. He discovered the talent of a navigator and cartographer. In the 1760s he studied Newfoundland, which attracted the attention of the Royal Society and the Admiralty. He was entrusted with a journey through the Pacific Ocean, where he reached the shores of New Zealand. In 1770, he accomplished what other famous travelers had not sought before, he discovered a new mainland. In 1771, Cook returned to England as Australia's famous pioneer. His last journey was an expedition in search of a passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Today, even schoolchildren know the sad fate of Cook, who was killed by the natives, cannibals.
Christopher Columbus
Famous travelers and their discoveries have always had a significant impact on the course of history, but few have turned out to be as famous as this person. Columbus became the national hero of Spain, decisively expanding the map of the country. Christopher was born in 1451. The boy quickly succeeded because he was diligent and studied well. Already at age 14 he went to sea. In 1479, he met his love and began life in Portugal, but after the tragic death of his wife went with his son to Spain. Having received the support of the Spanish king, he went on an expedition, the purpose of which was to find a way to Asia. Three ships sailed west from Spain. In October 1492, they reached the Bahamas. So America was discovered. Christopher mistakenly decided to call the locals the Indians, believing that he had reached India. His report changed history: two new continents and many islands discovered by Columbus became the main destination of the colonialists' travels over the next several centuries.
Vasco da Gama
The most famous traveler in Portugal was born in the city of Sines on September 29, 1460. From a young age, he worked in the Navy and became famous as a confident and fearless captain. In 1495, King Manuel came to power in Portugal, who dreamed of developing trade with India. For this, the sea route was necessary, in search of which Vasco da Gama had to go. There were more famous sailors and travelers in the country, but for some reason the king chose him. In 1497, four ships sailed south, circled and sailed to Mozambique. There I had to stay for a month - half of the team at that time was sick with scurvy. After the break, Vasco da Gama got to Calcutta. In India, he established trade relations for three months, and a year later returned to Portugal, where he became a national hero. The discovery of the sea route, which made it possible to get to Calcutta past the eastern coast of Africa, was his main achievement.
Nikolay Miklukho-Maclay
Famous Russian travelers also made many important discoveries. For example, the same Nikolai Mikhlukho-Maklai who was born in 1864 in the Novgorod province. He could not graduate from St. Petersburg University, since he was expelled for participating in student demonstrations. After continuing his education, Nikolai went to Germany, where he met Haeckel, a naturalist who invited Miklouho-Maclay to his scientific expedition. So the world of wanderings was opened for him. His whole life was devoted to travel and scientific work. Nikolai lived in Sicily, in Australia, studied New Guinea, embodying the project of the Russian Geographical Society, visited Indonesia, the Philippines, the Malacca Peninsula and Oceania. In 1886, the naturalist returned to Russia and proposed to the emperor to establish a Russian colony overseas. But the project with New Guinea did not receive royal support, and Miklouho-Maclay became seriously ill and soon died, without completing his work on a travel book.
Fernan Magellan
Many famous sailors and travelers lived in the era of the Great Magellan is no exception. In 1480, he was born in Portugal, in the city of Sabroza. Going to serve at the court (at that time he was only 12 years old), he learned about the confrontation between his native country and Spain, about travels to the East Indies and trade routes. So for the first time he became interested in the sea. In 1505, Fernand hit the ship. Seven years after that, he plowed the sea, participated in expeditions to India and Africa. In 1513, Magellan went to Morocco, where he was wounded in battle. But this did not moderate the craving for travel - he planned an expedition for spices. The king rejected his request, and Magellan went to Spain, where he received all the necessary support. Thus began his journey around the world. Fernan thought that from the west the path to India could be shorter. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reached South America and discovered the strait, which would later be called by his name. became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. On it, he reached the Philippines and almost reached the goal - the Moluccas, but died in battle with local tribes, wounded by a poison arrow. However, his journey opened Europe a new ocean and the understanding that the planet is much larger than scientists thought before.
Roald Amundsen
The Norwegian was born at the very end of the era in which many famous travelers became famous. Amundsen was the last of the mariners who tried to find undiscovered land. From childhood, he was distinguished by perseverance and self-confidence, which allowed him to conquer the South geographical pole. The beginning of the journey is connected with 1893, when the boy left the university and got a job as a sailor. In 1896, he became a navigator, and the next year went on his first expedition to the Antarctic. The ship was lost in the ice, the team was sick with scurvy, but Amundsen did not give up. He took command, cured people, remembering his medical education, and brought the ship back to Europe. After becoming a captain, in 1903 he went in search of the Northwest Passage near Canada. Famous travelers before him never did anything like this - in two years the team crossed the path from the east of the American mainland to its west. Amundsen became known throughout the world. The next expedition was a two-month trip to the South Plus, and the last venture was the search for Nobile, during which he went missing.
David Livingston
Many famous travelers are associated with navigation. he became a researcher of land, namely the African continent. The famous Scot was born in March 1813. At age 20, he decided to become a missionary, met Robert Moffet, and wished to go to African villages. In 1841, he came to Kuruman, where he trained local residents in farming, served as a doctor and taught literacy. There he learned the Bechuan language, which helped him travel to Africa. Livingston studied in detail the life and customs of the locals, wrote several books about them and went on an expedition in search of the origins of the Nile, in which he fell ill and died of a fever.
Amerigo Vespucci
The most famous travelers of the world most often came from Spain or Portugal. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Italy and became one of the famous Florentines. He received a good education and learned to be a financier. Since 1490, he worked in Seville, at the Medici sales office. His life was connected with sea voyages, for example, he sponsored the second expedition of Columbus. Christopher inspired him with the idea of \u200b\u200btrying himself as a traveler, and already in 1499, Vespucci went to Suriname. The purpose of the voyage was to study the coastline. There he opened a settlement called Venezuela - little Venice. In 1500, he returned home, bringing 200 slaves. In 1501 and 1503 Amerigo repeated his travels, speaking not only as a navigator, but also as a cartographer. He discovered the bay of Rio de Janeiro, the name of which he gave himself. Since 1505, he served the king of Castile and did not participate in campaigns, he only equipped other people's expeditions.
Francis Drake
Many famous travelers and their discoveries have benefited humanity. But there are some among them who have left a bad memory on their own, because their names were connected with rather cruel events. Not an exception was the English Protestant, from the age of twelve sailing on a ship. He captured the locals in the Caribbean, selling them into slavery to the Spaniards, attacked ships and fought with Catholics. Perhaps no one could catch up with Drake in the number of captured foreign ships. His campaigns were sponsored by the Queen of England. In 1577, he went to South America to defeat the Spaniards. During the trip, he found Tierra del Fuego and the Strait, which was later named in his honor. Rounding Argentina, Drake sacked the port of Valparaiso and two Spanish ships. When he reached California, he met aborigines who presented the British gifts of tobacco and bird feathers. Drake crossed the Indian Ocean and returned to Plymouth, becoming the first native of Great Britain to have traveled around the world. He was admitted to the House of Commons and awarded the title of Sir. In 1595 he died in the last campaign on the Caribbean.
Athanasius Nikitin
Few famous travelers to Russia have reached the same heights as this native of Tver lands. Athanasius Nikitin became the first European to visit India. He traveled to the Portuguese colonialists and wrote "Walking Over Three Seas" - a most valuable literary and historical monument. The success of the expedition was ensured by the career of a merchant: Athanasius knew several languages \u200b\u200band knew how to negotiate with people. On his journey, he visited Baku, lived in Persia for about two years, and reached India by ship. Having visited several cities of an exotic country, he went to Parvat, where he stayed for a year and a half. After Raichur province, he headed to Russia, paving the route through the Arabian and Somali peninsulas. However, Athanasius Nikitin never reached home, as he fell ill and died near Smolensk, but his notes survived and made the merchant world-famous.
Great Britain could become a sea hegemon. However, the short-sighted policies of the early Stuarts did not allow this: Kings James I and Charles I considered the fleet to be just a luxury, and not a means of asserting the power of their power.
Fig. 1 - English king Charles I Stuart (1625-1649 gg.)
Fig. 2 - Jacob I , the first of the Stuarts on the English throne
The revival of the British fleet is associated with the name Roberta Blake (1599-1657) . This former cavalryman, thanks to his energetic and efficient activities, earned the universal respect of sailors and officers.
He expelled bribe takers and embezzlers from the fleet, began to take care of the combat readiness of the ships, and attached great importance to the moral and combat qualities of soldiers and officers.
Under him, the coast of Great Britain was cleared of pirates, several victories were won over Spanish and French squadrons.
The British again realized their sea power and were ready to fight for sea hegemony.
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In 1805, Napoleon decided to destroy a powerful rival with the help of a landing on the British Isles.
A strong army was assembled in Boulogne, which was waiting for the approach of the combined Spanish-French fleet.
However, Admiral Nelson did not allow this squadron to arrive on purpose: he met her at Cape Trafalgar.
There was the largest naval battle in history ( battle of trafalgar , October 21, 1805)
The age-old struggle of two powers (England and France) for naval hegemony ended during the revolutionary wars of 1792-1815.
In 1798, the British fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson won a number of victories over the French in the Mediterranean Sea, thanks to which Malta, the Ionian Islands, Egypt passed under the authority of the English king. Great Britain regained the glory of a leading maritime power.
The island situation and the fact that the British Isles in the west and north look directly into the Atlantic Ocean made the British imagine that the very situation of the country inevitably made them always a sea nation. Their ancestors arrived on these islands on ships, and then were conquered by a nation of sea robbers. But we must remember that England is not Norway, where narrow strips of convenient land force people to seek food at sea. England at the time of the Plantagenets was not the mistress of the seas, and at that time it could hardly be called a maritime state. True, in the Middle Ages England sometimes during the war a fleet appeared, but it again gradually melted, as soon as the world was established. The constant complaints of robberies in the English Channel show how weak England enjoyed even in its own waters. It was rightly noted that the Middle Ages did not know standing armies; they did not know a permanent fleet; exceptions are only some Italian city states. In those days, fleets are created and fall: when war breaks out, the government gives permission to all merchant ships to act as privateers, and merchant ships become not only privateers, but also pirates. Although under the Plantagenets the English nation was more war-loving than subsequently, its ambition was aimed more at waging a land war than a naval one. Then the glory of the English army completely overshadowed the glory of the English fleet; we remember the victories at Crescy and Poitiers, but forgot the victory at Sluice. The fact is that the maritime grandeur of England is of a much more recent origin than most of us imagine. It originates from the time of the civil wars of the seventeenth century and the exploits of Robert Black. His pursuit of Prince Rupert through the Strait of Gibraltar along the eastern coast of Spain is considered the first, after the Crusades, appearance of the English fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Of course, England had heroic sailors even before Black - Francis Drek, Richard Grenville and John Hawkins (John Hawkins), but Elizabeth's fleet was still an infant fleet, and the heroes themselves were not much different from filibusters. Until the Tudors, we find only the germ of the fleet.
In the 15th century, English history, with the exception of the short reign of King Henry V, reveals the weakness of England at sea, and until that time the insignificance of the fleet is a constant phenomenon, and its success is an exception: this continues until the reign of Edward IV (1461-1483), in whom for the first time the idea of \u200b\u200ba permanent fleet appeared.
In the field of discoveries and other events at sea, the glory of England was created in modern times. True, she took part in the grandiose discovery of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but she can not claim to be a leader in it, although she made a promising start then: the first ship to hit the shores of the continent of America was a ship from Bristol; English sailors saw America about a year earlier than Columbus himself saw it. At that time, it seemed that England would compete with Spain. True, the commander of Cape was not an Englishman, but Columbus was not a Spaniard either. Then England again lags behind. Henry VII was extremely stingy; Henry VIII fell into the whirlpool of the Reformation. In the first generation of great sailors, English names are not found. Frobicher, Chancellor and Francis Drake appear in the ocean when Columbus has been resting in his grave for half a century. Until the days of the Spanish Armada, England could not claim a high place among the peoples glorious by sea wars, the discovery and settlement of new countries. This place went to Spain not so much as it deserved, but as the happy whim of fate that sent Columbus to it; in all fairness, the glory belongs to Portugal, which had every right to complain about the brilliant intervention of Columbus. She could reproach him that, since the goal was to discover India, she was on the right track and made a discovery, but he was mistaken and did not reach the goal.
After these two nations, but much lower than them, you can put England and France, of which the championship, it seems to me, belonged to the latter. This circumstance is somewhat hidden in English stories due to the natural desire of the authors to expose national exploits in the brightest possible light. Only later, when the sea dominance of England had already begun, no nation could compete with it, since it boldly decided to challenge Spain with the primacy that it had used for most of the century. But even at the end of the sixteenth century, when a significant part of the American mainland was already divided into Spanish vice-kingdoms, and Portugal sent its governors to the Indian Ocean, when Spanish missionaries had already visited Japan, when the famous Portuguese poet had lived and written an epic poem for sixteen years a country that until then seemed fabulous - even then the British were still new to the maritime industry and had no settlements.