Age of Exploration

By Myra Barot
  • 1550 BCE

    The beginning

    Phoenician galley sailings
    The Phoenicians (1550 BCE–300 BCE) traded throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Asia Minor though many of their routes are still unknown today. The presence of tin in some Phoenician artifacts suggests that they may have traveled to Britain. According to Virgil's Aeneid and other ancient sources, the legendary Queen Dido was a Phoenician from Tyre who sailed to North Africa and founded the city of Carthage.
  • 1280

    The Polynesians

    Polynesians were a maritime people, who populated and explored the central and south Pacific for around 5,000 years, up to about 1280 when they discovered New Zealand. The key invention to their exploration was the outrigger canoe, which provided a swift and stable platform for carrying goods and people. 2011 studies at Wairau Bar in New Zealand show a high probability that one origin was Ruahine Island in the Society Islands.
  • 1311

    The Chinese Exploration

    The Chinese explorer, Wang Dayan (fl. 1311–1350) made two major trips by ship to the Indian Ocean. During 1328–1333, he sailed along the South China Sea and visited many places in Southeast Asia and reached as far as South Asia, landing in Sri Lanka and India, and he even went to Australia. Then in 1334–1339, he visited North Africa and East Africa. Later, the Chinese admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) made seven voyages to Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand.
  • 1452

    European Exploration

    The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, is one of the most important periods of geographical exploration in human history. It started in the early 15th century and lasted until the 17th century. In that period, Europeans discovered and/or explored vast areas of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Portugal and Spain dominated the first stages of exploration, while other European nations followed, such as England, Netherlands, and France.
  • 1460

    Vasco Da Gama

    Explorers of routes from Europe towards Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, include Vasco da Gama (1460–1524), a navigator who made the first trip from Europe to India and back by the Cape of Good Hope, discovering the ocean route to the East; Pedro Alvarez Cabral (c. 1467/68–c.1520) who, following the path of Gama, claimed Brazil .
  • 1492

    Discovery of America

    Explorations of the Americas began with the initial discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), who led a Castilian (Spanish) expedition across the Atlantic, discovering America. After the discovery of America by Columbus, a number of important expeditions were sent out to explore the Western Hemisphere. This included Juan Ponce de Leon (1474–1521), who discovered and mapped the coast of Florida.
  • 1526

    Ferdinand Magellan

    Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), was the first navigator to cross the Pacific Ocean, discovering the Strait of Magellan, the Tuamotu's and Mariana Islands, and achieving a nearly complete circumnavigation of the Earth, in multiple voyages, for the first time. Juan Sebastian Elcano (1476–1526), completed the first global circumnavigation.

  • Russian Exploration

    In 1607 the settlement of Turukhansk was founded on the northern Yenisei River, near the mouth of Lower Tunguska, and in 1619 Yeniseysky Ostrogoth was founded on the mid-Yenisei at the mouth of the Upper Tunguska.In the early 17th century the eastward movement of Russians was slowed by the internal problems in the country during the Time of Troubles.

  • Impact of it

    European overseas expansion led to the contact between the Old and New Worlds producing the Colombian Exchange named after Columbus. It started the global silver trade from the 16th to 18th centuries and led to direct European involvement the Chinese porcelain trade. It involved the transfer of goods unique to one hemisphere to another. Europeans brought cattle, horses, and sheep to the New World, and from the New World Europeans received tobacco, potatoes and maize.

  • Space Exploration

    Sputnik 1 1957 First artificial satellite. USSR Salyut 1 1971 First space station. USSR
    Pioneer 10 1972 First human made object that had been sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun (by NASA). USA Cassini Huygens 2005 First soft landing on Titan (Moon of Saturn). Rosetta 2014 First man-made probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet. European Space Agency
    2015 Lettuce was the first food eaten that was grown in space. USA & Japan