During travels, expeditions sometimes discover new, previously unknown geographical objects - mountain ranges, peaks, rivers, glaciers, islands, bays, straits, sea currents, deep depressions or elevations on the seabed, etc. These are geographical discoveries.
In ancient times and the Middle Ages, geographical discoveries were usually made by the peoples of the most economically developed countries. Such countries included Ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, later - Portugal, Spain, Holland, England, France. In the XVII-XIX centuries. many major geographical discoveries were made by Russian explorers in Siberia and the Far East, navigators in the Pacific Ocean, in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Discoveries of particular importance were made in the 15th-18th centuries, when feudalism was replaced by a new social formation - capitalism. At this time, America was discovered, the sea route around Africa to India and Indochina, Australia, the strait separating Asia and the North. America (Bering), many islands in the Pacific Ocean, the northern coast of Siberia, sea currents in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was the era of the great geographical discoveries.
Geographical discoveries have always been made under the influence of economic factors, in pursuit of unknown lands, new markets. In these centuries, powerful maritime capitalist powers were formed, enriched by seizing discovered lands, enslaving and plundering the local population. The era of the great geographical discoveries in the economic sense is called the era of the primitive accumulation of capital.
The actual course of geographical discoveries in its most important stages developed in the following sequence.
In the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia), many discoveries were made in ancient times by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks (for example, during the military campaigns of Alexander the Great in Central Asia and India). On the basis of the information accumulated then, the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy in the II century. compiled a map of the world that covered the entire Old World, though far from accurate.
A significant contribution to the geographical discoveries on the east coast of Africa and in South and Central Asia was made by Arab travelers and merchants of the 8th-14th centuries.
In search of sea routes to India in the 15th century. Portuguese navigators bypassed Africa from the south, opening the entire western and southern coast of the mainland.
Having embarked on a voyage in search of a route to India across the Atlantic Ocean, the Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 reached the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, initiating the discoveries of the Spanish conquerors.
In 1519–1522 the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan and El Cano for the first time bypassed the Earth from east to west, opened the Pacific Ocean for Europeans (it was known to the local inhabitants of Indo-China and South America from ancient times).
Great discoveries in the Arctic were made by Russian and foreign sailors in the 15th-17th centuries. The British explored the coast of Greenland from 1576 to 1631 and discovered Baffin Island. Russian sailors in the XVI century. already hunted a sea animal near Novaya Zemlya, at the beginning of the 17th century. passed along the northern coast of Siberia, discovered the Yamal, Taimyr, Chukotsky peninsulas. S. Dezhnev in 1648 passed through the Bering Strait from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
in the southern hemisphere in the seventeenth century. the Dutchman A. Tasman discovered the island of Tasmania, and in the 18th century. Englishman J. Cook - New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. Cook's travels laid the foundation for knowledge about the distribution of water and land on Earth, completing the discovery of the Pacific Ocean.
In the XVIII century. and the beginning of the 19th century. expeditions have already been organized for special scientific purposes.
By the beginning of the XIX century. only the Arctic and Antarctic remained unexplored. The largest of the expeditions in the XVIII century. was supplied by the Russian government. These are the First (1725–1728) and Second (1733–1743) Kamchatka expeditions, when the northern tip of Asia was discovered - Cape Chelyuskin and many other objects in the North. In this expedition, V. Bering and A. I. Chirikov discovered Northwestern America and the Aleutian Islands. Many islands in the Pacific Ocean were discovered by Russian round-the-world expeditions, starting from swimming in 1803-1807. I. F. Kruzenshtern and Yu. F. Lisyansky. The last continent, Antarctica, was discovered in 1820 by F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev.
In the 19th century "white spots" disappeared from the interior of the continents, especially Asia. The expeditions of P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky and especially Ya. M. Przhevalsky for the first time studied in detail vast regions of Central Asia and northern Tibet, almost unknown until that time.
D. Livingston and R. Stanley traveled in Africa.
The Arctic and Antarctic remained unexplored. At the end of the XIX century. new islands and archipelagos were discovered in the Arctic, and separate sections of the coast in Antarctica. The American R. Piri reached the North Pole in 1909, and the Norwegian R. Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911. In the XX century. The most significant territorial discoveries have been made in Antarctica, and maps of its overglacial and underglacial relief have been created.
The study of Antarctica with the help of aircraft in 1928–1930. conducted by the American J. Wilkins, then the Englishman L. Ellsworth. In 1928–1930 and in subsequent years, an American expedition led by R. Byrd worked in the Antarctic.
Large Soviet complex expeditions began to study Antarctica in connection with the holding in 1957-1959. International Geophysical Year. At the same time, a special Soviet scientific station was established - "Mirny", the first inland station at an altitude of 2700 m - "Pionerskaya", then - "Vostok", "Komsomolskaya" and others.
The scale of the work of the expeditions was expanding. The structure and nature of the ice cover, the temperature regime, the structure and composition of the atmosphere, and the movement of air masses were studied. But the most important discoveries were made by Soviet scientists while surveying the coastline of the mainland. The bizarre outlines of more than 200 previously unknown islands, bays, capes and mountain ranges appeared on the map.
In our time, significant territorial discoveries on land are impossible. The search is in the oceans. In recent years, research has been carried out so intensively, and even with the use of the latest technology, that much has already been discovered and mapped, which are published in the form of an atlas of the World Ocean and individual oceans.
Now there are few "white spots" left at the bottom of the oceans, huge deep-water plains and trenches, vast mountain systems are open.
Does all this mean that geographical discoveries are impossible in our time, that “everything is already open”? Far from it. And they are still possible in many areas, especially the World Ocean, in the polar regions, in the highlands. But in our time, the very meaning of the concept of “geographical discovery” has changed in many ways. Geographical science now sets itself the task of identifying the interrelations in nature and economy, establishing geographical laws and regularities (see Geography).
Great geographical discoveries of European travelers of the late 15th century. - the middle of the 17th century. were the result of the rapid development of productive forces in Europe, the growth of trade with the countries of the East, the shortage of precious metals in connection with the development of trade and money circulation.
It is known that even in ancient times, Europeans visited the coast of America, traveled along the coast of Africa, etc. However, a geographical discovery is considered not only a visit by representatives of any civilized people to a previously unknown part of the Earth. This concept includes the establishment of a direct connection between the newly discovered lands and the centers of culture of the Old World. Only the discovery of America by H. Columbus laid the foundation for extensive ties between the open lands and Europe, the same goal was served by the travels of Vasco da Gama to the shores of India, the round-the-world trip of F. Magellan.
The great geographical discoveries became possible as a result of significant advances in the development of science and technology in Europe. At the end of the 15th century the doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth became widespread, knowledge in the field of astronomy and geography expanded. Navigational instruments were improved (compass, astrolabe), a new type of sailing vessel appeared - a caravel.
The Portuguese navigators were the first to start looking for new sea routes to Asia. In the early 60s. 15th c. they captured the first strongholds on the coast of Africa, and then, moving south along its western coast, discovered the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores. At that time, Prince Henry (Enrique), nicknamed the Navigator, became an indefatigable organizer of long-distance voyages, although he himself rarely set foot on a ship. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. The knowledge gained by the Portuguese as a result of their travels gave navigators of other countries valuable information about the ebb and flow, the direction of winds and currents, and made it possible to create more accurate maps on which latitudes, lines of the tropics and the equator were plotted. These maps contained information about previously unknown countries. Previously widespread ideas about the impossibility of sailing in equatorial waters were refuted, and the fear of the unknown, characteristic of people of the Middle Ages, gradually began to recede.
At the same time, the Spaniards rushed in search of new trade routes. In 1492, after the capture of Granada and the completion of the reconquista, the Spanish king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella accepted the project of the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) to reach the shores of India, sailing to the west. The Columbus project had many opponents, but it received the support of scientists from the University of Salaman, the most famous in Spain, and, no less significant, among the business people of Seville. On August 3, 1492, Columbus' flotilla sailed from Palosa, one of the best ports on the Atlantic coast of Spain, consisting of 3 ships - Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina, the crews of which numbered 120 people. From the Canary Islands, Columbus headed west. On October 12, 1492, after a month-long voyage in the open ocean, the fleet approached a small island from the group of the Bahamas, then named San Salvador. Although the newly discovered lands bore little resemblance to the fabulously rich islands of India and China, Columbus was convinced to the end of his days that he had discovered islands off the east coast of Asia. During the first trip, the islands of Cuba, Haiti and a number of smaller ones were discovered. In 1492, Columbus returned to Spain, where he was appointed admiral of all open lands and received the right to 1/10 of all income. Subsequently, Columbus made three more trips to America - in 1493-1496, 1498-1500, 1502-1504, during which part of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad and others were discovered; part of the Atlantic coast of Central and South America was surveyed. Although the open lands were very fertile and favorable for life, the Spaniards did not find gold there. Doubts arose that the newly discovered lands were India. The number of enemies of Columbus among the nobles grew, dissatisfied with the fact that he severely punished the expedition members for disobedience. In 1500, Columbus was removed from his post and sent in chains to Spain. He managed to restore his good name and make another trip to America. However, after returning from his last journey, he was deprived of all income and privileges and died in poverty.
The discoveries of Columbus forced the Portuguese to hurry. In 1497, the flotilla of Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) sailed from Lisbon to explore routes around Africa. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, he entered the Indian Ocean. Moving north along the coast, the Portuguese reached the Arab trading cities of Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi. With the help of an Arab pilot, on May 20, 1498, Vasco da Gama's squadron entered the Indian port of Calicut. In August 1499, his ships returned to Portugal. The sea route to the country of fabulous riches was opened. From now on, the Portuguese began to annually equip up to 20 ships for trade with India. Thanks to superiority in weapons and technology, they managed to oust the Arabs from there. The Portuguese attacked their ships, destroyed the crews, devastated the cities on the southern coast of Arabia. In India, they captured strongholds, among which the city of Goa became the main one. The spice trade was declared a royal monopoly, it gave up to 800% profit. At the beginning of the 16th century The Portuguese captured Malacca and the Moluccas. In 1499-1500. Spaniards and in 1500-1502. The Portuguese discovered the coast of Brazil.
In the 16th century Portuguese navigators mastered the sea routes in the Indian Ocean, reached the shores of China, and were the first Europeans to set foot on the land of Japan. Among them was Fernand Pinto, the author of travel diaries, which gave a detailed description of the newly discovered country. Prior to this, Europe had only fragmentary and confusing information about Japan from the Book of Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler of the 14th century, who, however, never reached the Japanese Islands. In 1550, their image with the modern name first appeared on the Portuguese navigation chart.
In Spain, after the death of Columbus, sending expeditions to new lands continued. At the beginning of the 16th century traveled to the western hemisphere Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) - a Florentine merchant who was in the service first of the Spanish and then of the Portuguese king, a famous navigator and geographer. Thanks to his letters, the idea that Columbus discovered not the coast of India, but a new mainland, gained popularity. In honor of Vespucci, this continent was named America. In 1515, the first globe with this name appeared, and then atlases and maps. Vespucci's hypothesis was finally confirmed as a result of Magellan's trip around the world (1519-1522). The name of Columbus remained immortalized in the name of one of the Latin American countries - Colombia.
The proposal to reach the Moluccas by rounding the American mainland from the south, expressed by Vespucci, interested the Spanish government. In 1513, the Spanish conquistador V. Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and went to the Pacific Ocean, which gave hope to Spain, which did not receive much benefit from the discoveries of Columbus, to find a western route to the shores of India. This task was destined to be fulfilled by the Portuguese nobleman Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521), who had previously been in the Portuguese possessions in Asia. He believed that the coast of India lay much closer to the newly discovered continent than it really was. On September 20, 1519, a squadron of five ships with 253 crew members, led by Magellan, who entered the service of the Spanish king, left the Spanish harbor of San Lucar. After And months of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Magellan reached the southern tip of America and passed through the strait (later called Magellanic), which separated the mainland from Tierra del Fuego. After three weeks of sailing through the strait, the squadron entered the Pacific Ocean, passing off the coast of Chile. On December 1, 1520, land was seen for the last time from ships. Magellan headed north and then northwest. For three months and twenty days, while the ships sailed across the ocean, he was calm, and therefore Magellan called him the Pacific. On March 6, 1521, the expedition approached the small inhabited islands (Marian Islands), after another 10 days it ended up near the Philippine Islands. As a result of the voyage of Magellan, the idea of the sphericity of the Earth was confirmed, it was proved that between Asia and America there is a huge body of water - the Pacific Ocean, that most of the globe is occupied by water, and not by land, that there is a single World Ocean.
April 27, 1521 Magellan died in a skirmish with the natives on one of the Philippine Islands. His companions continued sailing under the command of Juan Sebastian El Cano and reached the Moluccas and Indonesia. Almost a year later, the last of Magellan's ships set off for his native shores, taking on board a large cargo of spices. September 6, 1522 the ship "Victoria" returned to Spain; Of the entire crew, only 18 survived. "Victoria" brought so many spices that their sale made it possible not only to cover all the expenses of the expedition, but also to make a significant profit. For a long time no one followed the example of Magellan, and only in 1578-1580. The second-ever circumnavigation of the world was made by the English pirate Francis Drake, who robbed the Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast of America along the way.
In the 16th century - 1st half of the 17th century. the Spaniards explored the northern and western coasts of South America, penetrated into the interior regions and, in a bloody struggle, conquered the states (Maya, Aztecs, Incas) that existed in the Yucatan, present-day Mexico and Peru (see America's ancient and ancient civilizations). Here the Spanish conquerors, primarily Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, seized the huge treasures accumulated by the rulers and priests of these states. In search of the fabulous land of El Dorado, the Spaniards explored the basin of the Orinoco and Magdalena rivers, where rich deposits of gold, silver and platinum were also discovered. The Spanish conquistador Ximénez de Quesada conquered what is now Colombia.
In the 2nd half of the 16th century. - the beginning of the 17th century. the Spaniards made a number of Pacific expeditions from the territory of Peru, during which the Solomon Islands (1568), South Polynesia (1595), Melanesia (1605) were discovered.
Long before the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the idea of the existence of a “South Continent” arose, and in the course of the discoveries, the idea of the existence of a “South Continent”, of which the islands of Southeast Asia were considered a part, became especially popular. She expressed herself in geographical writings, and the mythical mainland was even mapped under the name "Terra australis incognita" - "Unknown southern land". In 1605, a Spanish squadron of 3 ships sailed from Peru under the command of P. Quiroz, who discovered a number of islands, one of which he mistook for the coast of the mainland. Leaving two ships to the mercy of fate, Quiros returned to Peru, and then sailed to Spain to secure the rights to rule new lands. But it soon turned out that he was wrong. The captain of one of the two abandoned ships, the Portuguese L. V. de Torres, continued sailing and found out that Kyros had discovered not the mainland, but a group of islands (New Hebrides). Sailing west, Torres passed along the southern coast of New Guinea through the strait, later named after him, and discovered Australia lying to the south. There is evidence that on the coast of the new mainland as early as the 16th century. the Portuguese landed and, shortly before Torres, the Dutch, but this was not known in Europe. Having reached the Philippine Islands, Torres reported the discovery to the Spanish government. However, fearing competitors and not having the strength and means to develop new land, the Spanish administration withheld information about this discovery.
In the 1st half of the 17th century. the search for the "Southern Continent" was conducted by the Dutch, who explored a significant part of the coast. In 1642, Abel Janszon Tasman (1603-1659), sailing from the coast of Indonesia to the west, bypassed Australia from the south, discovering an island called Tasmania. Only 150 years later, during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the British captured Manila, the center of Spanish possessions in the Philippines, and found news of the discovery of Torres in the Spanish archive. In 1768, the English navigator D. Cook explored the shores of Oceania and Australia and again passed through the Torres Strait. He subsequently acknowledged Torres' priority in opening up Australia.
In 1497-1498, English navigators reached the northeast coast of North America and discovered Newfoundland and Labrador. In the 16-17 centuries. the British and French continued to send expedition after expedition here; many of them sought to find a northwestern passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At the same time, searches were underway for a northeastern route to India - through the Arctic Ocean.
In the 16-17 centuries. Russian explorers explored the northern coast of the Ob, Yenisei and Lena and mapped the contours of the northern coast of Asia. In 1642, Yakutsk was founded, which became the base for expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. In 1648, Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev (c. 1605-1673), together with Fedot Popov, left the Kolyma on 6 ships and bypassed the Chukotka peninsula, proving that the Asian continent was separated from America by a strait. The outlines of the northeastern coast of Asia were refined and mapped (1667, "Drawing of the Siberian Land"). But Dezhnev's report on the opening of the strait lay in the Yakut archive for 80 years and was published only in 1758. In the 18th century. the strait discovered by Dezhnev was named after the Danish navigator in the Russian service, Vitus Bering, who in 1728 rediscovered the strait. In 1898, in memory of Dezhnev, a cape in the northeastern tip of Asia was named after him.
In the 15th-17th centuries. as a result of bold sea and land expeditions, a significant part of the Earth was discovered and explored. Paths were laid that connected distant countries and continents. The great geographical discoveries marked the beginning of the creation of the colonial system (see Colonialism), contributed to the formation of the world market and played an important role in the formation of the capitalist economic system in Europe. For the newly discovered and conquered countries, they brought mass extermination of the population, the planting of the most cruel forms of exploitation, the forcible introduction of Christianity. The rapid decline in the indigenous population of America led to the importation of African slaves and the widespread plantation slavery (see Slavery, Slave Trade).
America's gold and silver poured into Europe, causing there a frenzied rise in the prices of all commodities, the so-called price revolution. This primarily benefited the owners of manufactures, capitalists and merchants, since prices rose faster than wages. The “price revolution” contributed to the rapid ruin of artisans and handicraftsmen; in the countryside, nobles and wealthy peasants who sold food on the market benefited the most from it. All this contributed to the accumulation of capital.
As a result of the Great geographical discoveries, Europe's ties with Africa and Asia expanded, and relations with America were established. The center of world trade and economic life has moved from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean.
The era of the great geographical discoveries is the most important stage in the history of mankind. This is a time when the outlines of continents, seas and oceans are becoming more accurate, technical devices are being improved, and the leading countries of that time are sending sailors in search of new rich lands. In this lesson, you will learn about the sea expeditions of Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, as well as the discovery of new lands by them.
background
Among the reasons for the Great geographical discoveries are:
Economic
After the era of the Crusades, Europeans developed strong trade ties with the East. In the East, Europeans bought spices, fabrics, jewelry. In the XV century. overland caravan routes, along which Europeans traded with eastern countries, were captured by the Turks. The task of finding a sea route to India appeared.
Technological
The compass and the astrolabe (an instrument for measuring latitude and longitude) were improved.
New types of ships appeared - caravel, carakka and galleon. They were distinguished by their spaciousness and powerful sailing equipment.
Navigation charts were invented - portolans.
Now Europeans could make not only traditional coastal voyages (i.e., mainly along the coast), but also go far into the open sea.
Developments
1445- the expedition organized by Henry the Navigator reached the Green Cape (the western point of Africa). The island of Madeira, the Canary Islands, part of the Azores were discovered.
1453- Constantinople is captured by the Turks.
1471 The Portuguese reached the equator for the first time.
1488- Expedition Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost point of Africa - the Cape of Good Hope.
1492- Christopher Columbus discovered the islands of San Salvador, Haiti, Cuba in the Caribbean.
1497-1499- Vasco da Gama reached the Indian port of Calicut, rounding Africa. For the first time, a route was opened to the East across the Indian Ocean.
1519- Ferdinand Magellan goes on an expedition in which he discovers the Pacific Ocean. And in 1521 it reaches the Mariana and Philippine Islands.
Members
Rice. 2. Astrolabe ()
Rice. 3. Caravel ()
Successes have also been made in cartography. European cartographers began to draw maps with more accurate outlines of the coasts of Europe, Asia and North America. The Portuguese invented navigational charts. On them, in addition to the outlines of the coast, settlements were depicted, obstacles encountered on the way, as well as the location of ports. These navigation charts were called portolans.
The pioneers were Spaniards and Portuguese. The idea of conquering Africa was born in Portugal. However, the knightly cavalry was helpless in the sands. Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator(Fig. 4) decided to try the sea route along the west coast of Africa. The expeditions he organized discovered the island of Madeira, part of the Azores, the Canary Islands. In 1445, the Portuguese reached the western point of Africa - Cape Verde. Somewhat later, the coast of the Gulf of Guinea was discovered. A large amount of gold and ivory was found there. Hence the name - Gold Coast, Ivory Coast. At the same time, African slaves were discovered, which were traded by local leaders. Portugal became the first European country to sell live goods.
Rice. 4. Henry the Navigator ()
Already after the death of Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese reached the equator in 1471. In 1488 the expedition Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern end of Africa - Cape of Good Hope. Rounding Africa, this expedition entered the Indian Ocean. However, due to the rebellion of the sailors, Bartolomeu Dias was forced to return. His path continued Vasco da Gama (Fig. 5), which in 1497-1499. rounded Africa and after an 8-month voyage arrived in the Indian port of Calicut (Fig. 6).
Rice. 5. Vasco da Gama ()
Rice. 6. The opening of the sea route to India, the route of Vasco da Gama ()
Simultaneously with Portugal, the search for a new sea route to India began Spain, which at that time was ruled Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Christopher Columbus(Fig. 7) proposed a new plan - to reach India, moving west, across the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus shared the view that the earth is spherical. On August 3, 1492, Columbus on three caravels "Santa Maria", "Nina" and "Pinta" set off from Spain in search of India (Fig. 8). On October 12, 1492, a shot rang out on the Pinta caravel. This was the signal: the sailors had reached the island they named San Salvador, which in translation means "holy savior." Having explored the island, they went south and discovered two more islands: Haiti (then Hispaniola) and the island of Cuba.
Rice. 7. Christopher Columbus ()
Rice. 8. Route of Christopher Columbus ()
The first expedition of Columbus lasted 225 days and discovered caribbean sea. During the next three expeditions, Columbus discovered the coast of Central America and the northern coast of South America. However, the Spanish crown was not satisfied with the amount of gold that entered the country. Soon Columbus was turned away. He died in 1506 in poverty, confident that he had discovered a new sea route to India. The continent discovered by Columbus was originally called West Indies(Western India). Only later the mainland was given the name America.
The rivalry between Spain and Portugal led to the first division of the world in history. AT 1494 was concluded Treaty of Tordesillas, according to which a conditional meridian was drawn along the Atlantic Ocean somewhat west of the Azores. All newly discovered lands and seas to the west of it were to belong to Spain, and to the east to Portugal. However Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world corrected this document.
Back in 1513, the Spaniard Vasco de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. He called it then the South Sea. In the autumn of 1519, on five caravels with a team of 253 sailors, Fernand Magellan (Fig. 9) set off on his journey (Fig. 10). His goal was to find a way across the Atlantic Ocean to the Moluccas (Spice Islands). After a year of travel, Magellan's team entered a narrow strait, which was later named Strait of Magellan. After passing through it, Magellan's team managed to enter the previously unknown ocean. This ocean is called Quiet.
Rice. 9. Ferdinand Magellan ()
Rice. 10. The first round-the-world trip of Ferdinand Magellan ()
In March 1521, Magellan's team reached the Mariana Islands and then landed in the Philippines, where Magellan himself died in a skirmish with the locals. His team managed to reach the Moluccas. Three years later, only one ship with 17 sailors returned home. Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world proved that the Earth is spherical.
European exploration of the New World took the form conquests - conquests. Together with the conquest, the resettlement of colonists from Europe to the New World begins.
The great geographical discoveries changed the picture of the world. First, it has been proven that the Earth is spherical. A new continent, America, was also discovered, as well as a new ocean, the Pacific. The outlines of many continents, seas and oceans have been refined. The great geographical discoveries were the first step towards the creation of a world market. They shifted the trade routes. So, trading cities Venice and Genoa lost their key role in European trade. Their place was taken by ocean ports: Lisbon, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Seville. Due to the influx of precious metals into Europe from the New World, a price revolution took place. Prices for precious metals fell, while prices for products and raw materials for production rose.
The great geographical discoveries marked the beginning of the colonial redistribution of the world and the dominance of Europeans in Asia, Africa and America. The exploitation of slave labor and trade with the colonies allowed European trading circles to enrich themselves, which became one of the prerequisites for the formation of capitalism. Also, the colonization of America led to the destruction of the oldest American cultures. The great geographical discoveries were one of the causes of the food revolution in Europe. Previously unknown crops were introduced: corn, tomatoes, cocoa beans, potatoes and tobacco.
Bibliography
- Boytsov, M.A. Magellan's Way: Early Modern Times. History reading book. - M., 2006.
- Vedyushkin V.A., Burin S.N. Textbook on the history of modern times, grade 7. - M., 2013.
- Verlinden C., Mathis G. “Conquerors of America. Columbus, Cortes. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1997.
- Lange P.V. Like the sun ... The life of Ferdinand Magellan and the first circumnavigation of the world. - M.: Progress, 1988. ; Painter
- What discovery is Ferdinand Magellan famous for, and what continent was discovered by Christopher Columbus?
- Do you know any other famous navigators and the territories they discovered?
The process of disintegration of feudalism and the emergence of capitalist relations in Europe was accelerated by the opening of new trade routes and new countries in the 15th-16th centuries, which marked the beginning of the colonial exploitation of the peoples of Africa, Asia and America.
By the 16th century in Western Europe, commodity production and trade made significant progress, and the need for money, which was the universal medium of exchange, increased sharply. “The discovery of America,” says Engels about the causes of geographical discoveries, “was caused by a thirst for gold, which even before that drove the Portuguese to Africa ... because it developed so powerfully in the XIV and XV centuries. European industry and the corresponding trade required more means of exchange, which Germany - the great country of silver in 1450-1550. - could not give. Letter from Engels to K. Schmidt, October 27, 1890, K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Letters, 1953, p. 426.) By this time, the desire for luxury and the accumulation of treasures among the upper classes of European society also greatly increased. Under such conditions, the desire for enrichment, or, in the words of Marx, "the general thirst for money" ( "Archive of Marx and Engels", vol. IV, p. 225.) embraced in Europe both the nobles, and the townspeople, and the clergy, and kings.
One of the most tempting means of getting rich quick in 15th century Europe. there was trade with Asia, the importance of which after the Crusades increased more and more. The largest cities of Italy, primarily Venice and Genoa, rose on intermediary trade with the East. The East was a source of supply for Europeans with luxury goods. Spices brought from India and the Moluccas - pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg - became a favorite seasoning for food in rich houses, and a lot of money was paid for a grain of spices. Perfumes from Arabia and India, gold items from oriental jewelers, Indian and Chinese silk, cotton and wool fabrics, Arabian incense, etc. were in great demand in Europe. India, China, Japan were considered countries rich in gold and precious stones. The imagination of European money-seekers was struck by the stories of travelers about the fabulous riches of these distant countries; especially popular were the notes of the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, who visited in the XIII century. in China and in many other countries of the East. In his notes, Marco Polo reported such fantastic information about Japan unknown to Europeans: “Gold, I tell you, they have a great abundance; there is an extremely large amount of it here, and they do not take it out of here ... I will now describe to you the outlandish palace of the sovereign of the local people. To tell the truth, the palace here is large and covered with pure gold, just as our houses and churches are covered with lead ... I will also tell you that the floors in the chambers - and there are many of them - are also covered with pure gold two in thickness; and everything in the palace - both the halls and the windows - is covered with gold ornaments... There is an abundance of pearls here, it is pink and very beautiful, round, large... "The Europeans were promised great wealth and the seizure of trade routes in the seas of South Asia, along which East, there was a lively trade, which was in the hands of Arab, Indian, Malay and Chinese merchants.
However, the countries of Western Europe (with the exception of Italy) did not have direct trade relations with the eastern countries and did not benefit from eastern trade. The trade balance of Europe in its trade with the East was passive. Therefore, in the XV century. there was an outflow of metallic money from European countries to the East, which further increased the shortage of precious metals in Europe. In addition, in the XV century. in Europe's trade with Asian countries, new circumstances appeared that contributed to a fabulous increase in prices for oriental goods. The collapse of the Mongol state resulted in the termination of the caravan trade of Europe with China and India through Central Asia and Mongolia, and the fall of Constantinople and the Turkish conquests in Western Asia and the Balkan Peninsula in the 15th century. almost completely closed the trade route to the East through Asia Minor and Syria. The third trade route to the East - through the Red Sea - was the monopoly of the Egyptian sultans, who in the XV century. began to levy extremely high duties on all goods transported this way. In this regard, the decline of Mediterranean trade began, the centers of which were Italian cities.
Europeans in the 15th century attracted the wealth of not only Asia, but also Africa. At that time, the countries of Southern Europe through the Mediterranean Sea traded with the countries of North Africa, mainly with Egypt and with the rich and cultural states of the Maghreb - Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. However, until the end of the XV century. most of the African continent was unknown to Europeans; there were no direct ties between Europe and Western Sudan, isolated from the countries of the Mediterranean by the rugged Sahara desert and the part of the Atlantic Ocean unknown to Europeans.
At the same time, the cities of the coast of North Africa traded with the tribes of the interior regions of the Sudan and Tropical Africa, who exchanged ivory and slaves. Along the caravan routes across the Sahara, gold, slaves and other goods from the Western Sudan and from the Guinean coast were delivered to the cities of the Maghreb and fell into the hands of Europeans, arousing their desire to reach these unknown rich regions of Africa by sea.
“To what extent,” says Engels, “at the end of the 15th century, money undermined and corroded the feudal system from within, is clearly seen from the thirst for gold, which in this era took possession of Western Europe; the Portuguese were looking for gold on the African coast, in India, in the entire Far East; gold was the magic word that drove the Spaniards across the Atlantic to America; gold - that's what the white man first demanded, as soon as he set foot on the newly opened shore. F. Engels, The Peasant War in Germany, M. 1953, Applications, p. 155.) Thus, in Western Europe in the XV century. there was a need to search for new sea routes from Europe to Africa, India and East Asia.
But the distant and dangerous sea voyages undertaken from the end of the 15th century. with the aim of opening new routes to Africa and the East and to conquer new countries, became possible because by this time, as a result of the development of productive forces, important improvements had been introduced in the field of navigation and military affairs.
Sailing ships with a keel, introduced by the Normans as early as the 10th century, gradually became widespread in all countries and replaced the multi-tiered rowing Greek and Roman ships.
During the XV century. the Portuguese, during their voyages along the western coast of Africa, using the Genoese type of a three-masted sea vessel, created a new high-speed and light sailboat suitable for long-distance voyages - the caravel. Unlike coastal (coastal) navigation vessels, the caravel had three masts and was equipped with a large number of straight and slanting sails, thanks to which it could move even with an unfavorable wind direction. She had a very capacious hold, which made it possible to make large sea passages; the crew of the caravel was small. Significantly increased the safety of navigation due to the fact that the compass and nautical charts - portolans were improved; in Portugal, the astrolabe, borrowed from the Arabs, was improved - a goniometric tool with which the positions of the stars and latitude were calculated; at the end of the 15th century. tables of planetary movements were published to facilitate the calculation of latitude at sea.
The improvement of firearms was important.
A serious obstacle to the organization of sea voyages were geographical representations based on the teachings of the Greek geographer Ptolemy, which dominated medieval Europe. Ptolemy rejected the doctrine of the movement of the Earth and believed that the Earth stands motionless at the center of the universe; he admitted the idea of a spherical shape of the Earth, but argued that somewhere in the south Southeast Asia is connected to East Africa, the Indian Ocean is closed on all sides by land; thus, it is allegedly impossible to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and by sea to reach the shores of East Asia. According to the views prevailing in the Middle Ages, borrowed from ancient authors, the Earth was divided into five climatic zones, and it was believed that life was possible only in two temperate zones, at both poles there were completely lifeless regions of eternal cold, and at the equator there was a belt of terrible heat, where the sea boils and ships and people on them burn.
In the XV century. with the success of the Renaissance culture in Europe, these ideas began to be increasingly questioned. Even in the XIII century. Marco Polo and other travelers proved that in reality the eastern coast of Asia does not extend endlessly to the east, as Ptolemy thought, but is washed by the sea. On some maps of the XV century. Africa was depicted as a separate mainland tapering to the south. The hypothesis about the spherical shape of the Earth and a single ocean washing the land, expressed even by ancient scientists, was found in the 15th century. an increasing number of supporters. Based on this hypothesis, in Europe they began to express the idea of the possibility of reaching the eastern coast of Asia by sea, sailing from Europe to the west, across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1410 French Bishop Pierre d'Alli wrote the book "Picture of the World", in which he cited the statements of ancient and medieval scientists about the sphericity of the earth and argued that the distance from the coast of Spain to India across the ocean is small and can be covered with a fair wind in a few days.
At the end of the XV century. The idea of the possibility of a western route to India was especially ardently promoted by the Florentine physician and cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli. He depicted on the map the Atlantic Ocean, washing Europe in the east, and Japan, China and India in the west, and thus tried to show that the western route from Europe to the East was the shortest. “I know,” he wrote, “that the existence of such a path can be proved on the basis that the Earth is a sphere ...”
The Nuremberg merchant and astronomer Martin Beheim donated to his hometown the first globe he made with a characteristic inscription: “Let it be known that the whole world is measured out on this figure, so that no one doubts how simple the world is, and that everywhere you can travel by ship or pass as shown here ... "
Navigation and maritime geography among the peoples of Asia in the Middle Ages
The peoples of Asia - Indians, Chinese, Malays and Arabs - during the Middle Ages achieved significant success in the field of geographical knowledge, the development of navigation in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the art of navigation, which was important for the geographical discoveries of Europeans in Asia and Africa and their expansion to territories of these continents.
Long before the appearance of Europeans in the Indian Ocean, these peoples discovered and mastered the great South Asian sea route, which connected the countries of the most ancient culture in the East, from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. Along the western section of this route, from the Malabar coast of India to East Africa, Arabia and Egypt, Indian ships sailed in antiquity; their helmsmen skillfully used the monsoons - seasonal winds in the southern seas. In the first centuries of our era, Chinese, Indian and Malay merchants and sailors laid routes in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, the South China and Java Seas, establishing trade links between the countries of Southeast Asia. At the beginning of the 5th century the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Fa Xian traveled on a Malay ship from the Bengal coast to Shandong, visiting Ceylon, Sumatra and Java on the way; in the 7th century such journeys were frequent.
After the Arab conquests and the formation of the Caliphate, the leadership in trade and navigation in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the western Indian Ocean passed to the Arabs. In their hands were Aden, the island of Socotra and a number of cities on the east coast of Africa. Enterprising Arab merchants were intermediaries in South Asia's trade with Europe. Their ships sailed to India, Ceylon, Java, and China; Arab trading posts arose in many cities of South Asia; there were such trading posts in Canton and Quanzhou. The cities of the coast of medieval India flourished, through which the flow of goods transported along the sea routes of Asia passed. “Here,” one Chinese described the Indian city of Calicut at the beginning of the 15th century, “there is pepper, rose oil, pearls, incense, amber, corals ... colored cotton fabrics, but all this is imported from other countries ... and they buy gold here , silver, cotton fabrics, blue and white porcelain, beads, mercury, camphor, musk, and there are large warehouses where goods are stored ... "
However, maritime trade in Southeast Asia was mainly in the hands of the Chinese and Malays.
In the period from the X to the XV century. China has become a mighty maritime power; its seaside cities became centers of world trade. Canton at the beginning of the 14th century, according to one European traveler who visited it, was equal to three Venices. “There are not as many goods in all of Italy as there are in this city alone,” he notes. At that time, large quantities of silk, porcelain, art products were exported from China to other countries, and spices, cotton fabrics, medicinal herbs, glass and other goods were imported. In Chinese ports for long-distance voyages, large sea vessels were built, which had several decks, many rooms for the crew and merchants; the crew of such a ship usually numbered up to a thousand sailors and soldiers, which was necessary in case of a meeting with pirates, who were especially numerous in the waters of the Malay Archipelago. These ships were propelled by sails made of reed mats fixed on movable yards, which made it possible to change the position of the sails in accordance with the direction of the wind; when calm, these ships moved with the help of large oars. The geographical map was known to Chinese sailors even before our era. From the end of the XI century. a compass appeared on Chinese ships (the Chinese knew the property of a magnet in ancient times). “The helmsmen are aware of the outlines of the coast, and at night they determine the path by the stars, during the day - by the sun. If the sun is hidden behind clouds, then they use a south-pointing needle, ”says the navigation of Chinese sailors in one treatise of the beginning of the 12th century. Chinese sailors had a thorough knowledge of the monsoons in the southern seas, sea currents, shoals, typhoons, obtained by the centuries-old practice of Asian sailors. There was also an extensive geographical literature in China, containing descriptions of overseas countries with detailed information about the goods brought from them to China.
The naval power of medieval China was especially clearly manifested in the successful implementation of the largest naval expeditions to the Indian Ocean, undertaken by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty Chengzu in the period from 1405 to 1433. While the Portuguese had just begun their advance into the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the Chinese fleet in consisting of 60 to 100 different ships with a total crew of up to 25-30 thousand people made seven voyages to the west, visiting Indo-China, Java, Ceylon, the Malabar coast in India, Aden, Ormuz in Arabia; in 1418 Chinese ships visited the Somali coast of Africa. In the seas of the Malay Archipelago, this fleet defeated numerous pirate gangs that hindered the development of China's maritime trade with the countries of South Asia. All these expeditions were led by the great Chinese navigator Zheng He, who came from an humble family and was promoted to the emperor's court for his military merits. Zheng He's expeditions not only strengthened China's influence in South Asia and contributed to the growth of its economic and cultural ties, but also expanded the geographical knowledge of the Chinese: their participants studied, described and mapped the lands and waters they visited. “Countries beyond the horizon and at the edge of the earth have now become subject (to China - Ed.) And to the most western and northernmost edges, and perhaps even beyond their borders, and all paths have been traveled and distances have been measured,” - this is how he assessed the results of his voyages of Zheng He.
Maritime affairs were also highly developed among the Malays who inhabited the islands of the Malay Archipelago, which included the Moluccas - the birthplace of spices exported from here to all countries of the East. The cities of Java and Sumatra and Malacca were in the XIV-XV centuries. the largest centers of trade, navigation and geographical science in the East; the Javanese helmsmen were known as experienced sailors, and the charts drawn up by the Malays were highly valued in the ports of Asia for the accuracy and thoroughness of the information contained in them.
Another center of trade and navigation in the XV century. there were Arab cities on the East African coast - Kilva, Mombasa, Malindi, Sofala, the island of Zanzibar, etc. They carried on a lively maritime trade with all Asian countries, exporting ivory, slaves, and gold exchanged by neighboring tribes for handicrafts from Arabian cities. Arab sailors knew the sea routes well from the countries of the Red Sea to the Far East; there is evidence that around 1420, one Arab navigator passed from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, rounding the southern tip of Africa. "Arab pilots have compasses for guiding ships, instructions for observing and nautical charts," wrote Vasco da Gama. A special literature on navigation was created - descriptions of routes, sailing directions, marine guides - summarizing the most important achievements in the field of shipping and navigation over many centuries. In the second half of the XV century. one of the most experienced Arab pilots in the western Indian Ocean was Ahmed ibn Majid, who came from a family of hereditary sailors. He was the author of many writings on maritime affairs, widely known among the sailors of Asia; the largest of these was the "Book of useful data on the basics of marine science and its rules." It described in detail the routes along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf along Africa, to India, to the islands of the Malay Archipelago, to the shores of China and Taiwan, the methods of driving ships both during coastal navigation and on the high seas, instructions on the use of a compass and rhumbs, on astronomical observations, about seashores, reefs, monsoons and currents. Ibn Majid knew especially well the sea routes between Africa and the Malabar coast of India, which the Portuguese later took advantage of during their first voyage to India.
Opening of the sea route from Europe to India and the Far East
Portugal and Spain were the first European countries to undertake the search for sea routes to Africa and India. The nobles, merchants, clergy and royalty of these countries were interested in the search. With the end of the reconquista (in Portugal it ended in the middle of the 13th century, and in Spain at the end of the 15th century), the mass of small-scale nobles - hidalgos, for whom the war with the Moors was the only occupation - was left without work. These nobles despised all activities except war, and when, as a result of the development of a commodity-money economy, their need for money increased, many of them very soon found themselves in debt to the city usurers. Therefore, the idea of getting rich in Africa or in the eastern countries seemed to these knights of the reconquista, left without work and without money, especially fascinating. The ability to fight, acquired by them in the wars with the Moors, the love of adventure, the thirst for military booty and glory were quite suitable for a new difficult and dangerous business - the discovery and conquest of unknown trade routes, countries and lands. It was from the environment of poor Portuguese and Spanish nobles that they emerged in the 15th-16th centuries. brave sailors, cruel conquerors-conquistadors who destroyed the states of the Aztecs and Incas, greedy colonial officials. “They walked with a cross in their hands and with an insatiable thirst for gold in their hearts,” writes one contemporary about the Spanish conquistadors. Wealthy citizens of Portugal and Spain willingly gave money for sea expeditions, which promised them the possession of the most important trade routes, rapid enrichment and a dominant position in European trade. The Catholic clergy sanctified the bloody deeds of the conquistadors with a religious banner, since thanks to the latter they acquired a new flock at the expense of tribes and peoples newly converted to Catholicism and increased their land holdings and incomes. The royal authorities of Portugal and Spain were no less interested in opening up new countries and trade routes. The impoverished, feudalized peasantry and underdeveloped cities could not give the kings enough money to cover the expenses demanded by the absolutist regime; in the possession of the most important trade routes and colonies, the kings saw a way out of financial difficulties. In addition, numerous militant nobles who remained idle after the reconquista posed a serious danger to the king and cities, since they could easily be used by large feudal lords in the fight against the unification of the country and the strengthening of royal power. The kings of Portugal and Spain therefore sought to captivate the nobles with the idea of discovering and conquering new countries and trade routes.
The sea route connecting the Italian trading cities with the countries of North-Western Europe passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and skirted the Iberian Peninsula. With the development of maritime trade in the XIV-XV centuries. the importance of coastal Portuguese and Spanish cities increased. However, the expansion of Portugal and Spain was possible only towards the unknown Atlantic Ocean, because trade in the Mediterranean had already been captured by the powerful sea cities of the Republics of Italy, and trade in the North and Baltic Seas - by the union of German cities - the Hansa. The geographical position of the Iberian Peninsula, pushed far to the west into the Atlantic Ocean, favored this direction of the expansion of Portugal and Spain. When in the 15th century in Europe, the need to look for new sea routes to the East increased, least of all in these searches was the Hansa, which monopolized all trade between the countries of North-Western Europe, and equally Venice, which continued to profit from the Mediterranean trade.
As a result of these internal and external reasons, Portugal and Spain were pioneers in the search for new sea routes across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Portuguese were the first to enter the ocean routes. After the conquest by the Portuguese troops in 1415 of the Moroccan port of Ceuta - the fortress of the Mauritanian pirates, located on the southern coast of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Portuguese began to move south along the western coast of Africa to Western Sudan, from where gold dust, slaves and ivory were brought north by land . The Portuguese sought to penetrate further south from Ceuta, into the "sea of darkness", as the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, unknown to Europeans, was then called. Strong Arab states in Northwest Africa did not allow the Portuguese to expand eastward along the Mediterranean coast of Africa. The western part of the Mediterranean was actually in the hands of Arab pirates.
In the organization of expeditions of the Portuguese in the first half of the XV century. along the West African coast, the Portuguese prince Enrico, better known in history under the name of Henry the Navigator, took part. On the southwestern coast of Portugal, in Sagris, on a rocky promontory, protruding far into the ocean, an observatory and shipyards were built for the construction of ships, and a nautical school was founded. Sagrish became a maritime academy for Portugal. In it, Portuguese fishermen and sailors, under the guidance of Italian and Catalan sailors, were trained in maritime affairs, there they improved ships and navigational instruments, drew sea charts according to information brought by Portuguese sailors, and developed plans for new expeditions to the south. Since the Reconquest, the Portuguese have been familiar with Arabic mathematics, geography, navigation, cartography and astronomy. Heinrich drew funds for the preparation of travels from the income of the spiritual and knightly order of Jesus headed by him, and also received by organizing a number of trading companies on shares with wealthy nobles and merchants who hoped to increase their income through overseas trade.
At first, seafaring developed slowly in Portugal; it was difficult to find daredevils who would risk going into the "sea of darkness." But the situation improved significantly after the Portuguese captured the Azores in 1432 in the west, and in 1434 Zhil Eannish rounded Cape Bojador, south of which life was considered impossible in the Middle Ages; 10 years later, another Portuguese sailor sailed 400 miles south of this cape and brought gold and Negro slaves to Portugal, initiating the Portuguese slave trade. In the mid-40s, the Portuguese had already rounded Cape Verde and reached the coast between the Senegal and Gambia rivers, densely populated and rich in golden sand, ivory and spices. Following this, they penetrated deep into the mainland. Prince Henry the Navigator, objecting in words to the slave trade, in fact encouraged it in every possible way; his ships began to regularly go to West Africa to catch slaves and acquire golden sand, ivory and spices, exchanged with negroes for trinkets; usually the prince received a significant share of the brought booty.
The hope of plundering the entire African coast accelerated the Portuguese advance to the south. In the 60s and 70s, Portuguese sailors reached the coast of the Gulf of Guinea and crossed the equator; new characteristic names appeared on the Portuguese maps of Africa: "Pepper Coast", "Ivory Coast", "Slave Coast", "Gold Coast". In the early 80s, the sailor Diego Cao made three trips to the south of the Gold Coast, passed the mouth of the Congo River and set up his “padran” at the southern tropic - a stone pillar erected in an open area as a sign of its accession to the possessions of the King of Portugal. Finally, in 1487, Bartolomsu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope, rounded it and entered the Indian Ocean. However, the crew of his ships, tired of the difficulties of the journey, refused to continue sailing, and Diaz was forced to return to Lisbon without reaching the shores of India. But he maintained that from South Africa it was possible to go by sea to the shores of India. This was also confirmed by Pedro Covellano, who was sent in 1487 by the Portuguese king in search of the shortest route to India through the countries of North Africa and the Red Sea and visited the Malabar coast of India, the cities of East Africa and Madagascar; in his report to the king, sent from Cairo, he, according to a contemporary, reported that the Portuguese caravels, “which trade in Guinea, sailing from one country to another on a course to this island (Madagascar) and Sofala, can easily pass into these eastern sea and approach Calicut, for, as he learned, the sea is everywhere here.
To complete the search for a sea route to India, the Portuguese king Manoel sent an expedition led by one of his courtiers, Vasco da Gama, who came from poor nobles. In the summer of 1497, four ships under his command left Lisbon and, having circled Africa, passed along its eastern coast to Malindi, a rich Arab city that traded directly with India. The Portuguese entered into an "alliance" with the Sultan of this city, which allowed them to take with them the famous Ahmed ibn Majid as a pilot, under whose leadership they completed their voyage. On May 20, 1498, the ships of Vasco da Gama anchored near the Indian city of Calicut, one of the largest trading centers in Asia, “the pier of the entire Indian Sea,” as the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin, who visited India in the second half of the 15th century, called this city. With the permission of the local raja, they began to buy spices in the city. The Arab merchants, who held in their hands all the overseas trade of the city, saw this as a threat to their monopoly and began to restore the rajah and the population of the city against the Portuguese. The Portuguese had to hastily leave Calicut and head back. In September 1499, Vasco da Gama returned to Lisbon. By the end of a two-year difficult voyage, less than half of the crew had survived.
The return to Lisbon of Portuguese ships loaded with spices from India was solemnly celebrated.
With the opening of the sea route to India, Portugal began to take over the entire maritime trade of South and East Asia. The Portuguese waged a fierce struggle against Arab trade and shipping in the Indian Ocean and began to seize the most important trade and strategic points in South Asia. In 1501, the navigator Cabral arrived in Indian waters with a military flotilla, bombarded Calicut and bought a cargo of spices in Cochin. Two years later, Vasco da Gama again set off for the Indian Ocean; as "Admiral of India" he plundered and sank the ships of Arab merchants and, returning to Lisbon with a huge booty, left a permanent military squadron in Indian waters to piracy the plunder of ships plying between Egypt and India. Soon the Portuguese captured the island of Socotra, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, and the fortress of Diu on the northwestern coast of India, and thus established their control over the sea routes connecting the Red Sea and South Asia. “Replenishments began to come to them from Portugal, and they began to cross the road to the Muslims, taking captive, robbing and seizing by force all kinds of ships,” reports one Arab historian of the 16th century. The lands and cities they captured in India became a stronghold for the further expansion of Portugal into Asia. Viceroy of Portuguese India d "Albuquerque took possession of the Goa fortress on the western coast of India and the Iranian port of Hormuz, and in 1511 took Malacca, a rich trading city in the Strait of Malacca, blocking the entrance to the Indian Ocean from the east. "The best of all that is in the world, "- this is how Albuquerque assessed Malacca. With the capture of Malacca, the Portuguese cut off the main route connecting the countries of Asia Minor with the main supplier of spices - the Moluccas, and entered the Pacific Ocean. A few years later they capture these islands and start maritime trade with the South Finally, in 1542, they reach the shores of distant Japan and establish the first European trading post there.
Carrying out this expansion to the East, the Portuguese conquerors used the methods of navigation of the sailors of the East, Arabic and Javanese maps of the countries and seas of South Asia. One map of a Javanese helmsman, which fell into the hands of the Portuguese in 1512, depicted the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese possessions, the Red Sea, the Moluccas, the sea routes of the Chinese with straight roads where ships pass, and with the interior of the country. According to this map, the Portuguese ships moved through the seas of the Malay Archipelago to the Moluccas. The captains of the Portuguese ships were instructed to use Ceylon and Javanese helmsmen as pilots.
Thus, the sea route from Western Europe to India and East Asia was opened. Together with this discovery, through conquests, a huge colonial empire of Portugal was created, stretching from Gibraltar to the Strait of Malacca. The Portuguese Viceroy of India, who was in Goa, was subject to five governors governing Mozambique, Hormuz, Muscat, Ceylon and Malacca. The Portuguese also subjugated the largest cities of East Africa. The most important opening of the sea route in the history of mankind, which connected Europe with Asia, was used by feudal Portugal for its own enrichment, for plundering and oppressing the peoples of Africa and Asia.
From that time until the digging of the Suez Canal in the 60s of the XIX century. the sea route around South Africa was the main road along which trade was carried out between the countries of Europe and Asia and the penetration of Europeans into the basins of the Indian and Pacific Oceans took place.
Discovery of America and Spanish conquests
In the spring of 1492, the Spaniards took Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula, and on August 3 of the same year, three caravels of Christopher Columbus set off from the Spanish port of Paloe on a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in order to open the western route to India and East Asia. Not wanting to aggravate relations with Portugal, the Spanish kings Ferdinand and Isabella initially preferred to hide the real purpose of this trip. Columbus was appointed "admiral and viceroy of all the lands that he discovers in these seas-oceans", with the right to keep for his own benefit one tenth of all income from them, "whether it be pearls or precious stones, gold or silver, spices and others things and goods".
Biographical information about Columbus is very scarce. He was born in 1451 in Italy, not far from Genoa, in the family of a weaver, but there is no exact information about where he studied and when he became a navigator. It is known that in the 80s he lived in Lisbon and, obviously, participated in several voyages to the coast of Guinea, but these voyages were not what attracted him. He hatched a project to open the shortest route from Europe to Asia across the Atlantic Ocean; he studied the work of Pierre d'Agli (which was mentioned above), as well as the works of Toscanelli and other cosmographers of the 14th-15th centuries, who proceeded from the doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth, but significantly underestimated the length of the western route to Asia. However, to interest the Portuguese king in his Columbus’s project failed The “Council of Mathematicians” in Lisbon, which had previously discussed the plans of all expeditions, rejected his proposals as fantastic, and Columbus had to leave for Spain, where the project of opening a new route unknown to the Portuguese to Asia was supported by Ferdinand and Isabella.
On October 12, 1492, 69 days after departure from the Spanish port of Palos, Columbus' caravels, having overcome all the difficulties of the journey, reached San Salvador (apparently modern Watling), one of the islands of the Bahamas group, located off the coast of a new, unknown Europeans of the mainland: this day is considered the date of the discovery of America. The success of the expedition was achieved not only thanks to the leadership of Columbus, but also to the stamina of the entire crew, recruited from the inhabitants of Palos and other seaside cities of Spain who knew the sea well. In total, Columbus made four expeditions to America, during which he discovered and explored Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti), Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean Sea, the eastern coast of Central America and the coast of Venezuela in the northern part of South America. On the island of Hispaniola, he founded a permanent colony, which later became the stronghold of the Spanish conquests in America.
During his expeditions, Columbus proved to be not only a passionate seeker of new lands, but also a man who strove for enrichment. In the diary of his first trip, he wrote: “I am doing everything possible to get to where I can find gold and spices ...” “Gold,” he writes from Jamaica, “is perfection Gold creates treasures, and the one who owns it , can do whatever he wants, and is even capable of introducing human souls into paradise "To increase the profitability of the islands he discovered, on which, as it soon turned out, there was not so much gold and spices, he suggested taking slaves out of there to Spain:" And let, - he writes to the Spanish kings, - even slaves die on the way, yet not all of them face such a fate.
Columbus could not geographically correctly assess his discoveries and conclude that he had discovered a new continent unknown to him. Until the end of his life, he assured everyone that he had reached the shores of Southeast Asia, about the fabulous riches of which Marco Polo wrote and the Spanish nobles and merchants dreamed , kings. He called the lands he discovered "Indies" and their inhabitants - "Indians". Even during his last trip, he reported to Spain that Cuba is South China, and the coast of Central America is part of the Malacca Peninsula and that south of it there should be a strait through which you can get into rich India.
The news of the discovery of Columbus caused great alarm in Portugal. The Portuguese believed that the Spaniards had violated their right to own all the lands south and east of Cape Bojador, confirmed earlier by the Pope, and ahead of them in reaching the shores of India; they even prepared a military expedition to seize the lands discovered by Columbus. In the end, Spain turned to the pope to resolve this dispute. With a special bull, the pope blessed the seizure by Spain of all the lands discovered by Columbus. In Rome, these discoveries were evaluated in terms of spreading the Catholic faith and increasing the influence of the church. The pope resolved the dispute between Spain and Portugal as follows: Spain was granted the right to own all the lands located west of the line passing through the Atlantic Ocean one hundred leagues (about 600 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands In 1494, on the basis of this bull, Spain and Portugal divided the spheres of conquest among themselves under an agreement concluded in the Spanish city of Tordesillas; the boundary line between the colonial possessions of both states was established 370 leagues (over 2 thousand km) west of the above islands. Both states arrogated to themselves the right to pursue and seize all foreign ships that appeared in their waters, impose duties on them, judge their crews according to their laws and etc.
But the discoveries of Columbus gave Spain too little gold, and soon after the success of Vasco da Gama, the country became disillusioned with the Spanish "Indies", Columbus began to be called a deceiver, who instead of the fabulously rich India discovered a country of grief and misfortune, which became the place of death of many Castilian nobles. The Spanish kings deprived him of the monopoly right to make discoveries in the western direction and that share of the income received from the lands discovered by him, which was initially determined for him. He lost all his property, which went to cover debts to his creditors. Columbus, abandoned by all, died in 1506. Contemporaries forgot not a single navigator, they even gave the name of the mainland he discovered by the name of the Italian scientist Amerigo Vespucci, who in 1499-1504 took part in exploration of the shores of South America and whose letters aroused great interest in Europe. "These countries should be called the New World .." - he wrote.
After Columbus, other conquistadors in search of gold and slaves continued to expand the colonial possessions of Spain in America. In 1508, two Spanish Nina courts received royal patents for the establishment of colonies on the American mainland. The following year, the Spanish colonization of the Isthmus of Panama began; in 1513, conquistador Vasco Nunez Balboa with a small the first detachment of Europeans crossed the Isthmus of Panama and went to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, which he called the "South Sea". A few years later, the Spaniards discovered the Yucatan and Mexico, and also reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. Attempts were made to find a strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific, and thus complete the work begun by Columbus - to reach the shores of East Asia by the western route. This strait was searched for in 1515-1516. the Spanish sailor de Solis, who, moving along the Brazilian beret, reached the La Plata River; the Portuguese navigators, who made their expeditions in great secrecy, also looked for him. In Europe, some geographers were so sure of the existence of this not yet discovered strait that they put it on maps in advance.
A new plan for a large expedition to search for a southwestern passage to the Pacific Ocean and reach Asia by the western route was proposed to the Spanish king by Fernando Magellan, a Portuguese sailor from poor nobles who lived in Spain. Magellan fought under the banner of the Portuguese king in Southwest Asia on land and at sea, participated in the capture of Malacca, in campaigns in North Africa, but returned to his homeland without great ranks and wealth; after being denied even a minor promotion by the king, he left Portugal. Magellan, while still in Portugal, began to develop an expedition project to search for the southwestern strait from the Atlantic Ocean to the open Balboa "South Sea", through which, as he assumed, it was possible to reach the Moluccas. In Madrid, in the "Council of Indian Affairs", which was in charge of all matters relating to the Spanish colonies, they became very interested in Magellan's projects; the council members liked his assertion that the Moluccas, under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, should belong to Spain and that the shortest route to them was through the southwestern strait into the "South Sea", which was owned by Spain. Magellan was absolutely sure of the existence of this strait, although, as subsequent facts showed, the only source of his confidence was the maps on which this strait was plotted without any reason. Under the agreement concluded by Magellan with the Spanish king Charles I, he received five ships and the funds needed for the expedition; he was appointed admiral with the right to keep for his own benefit a twentieth of the income that the expedition and the new possessions that he added to the Spanish crown would bring. “Since I,” the king wrote to Magellan, “is known for certain that there are spices on the Molucco islands, I send you mainly in search of them, and it is my will that you go straight to these islands.”
On September 20, 1519, five ships of Magellan left San Lucar for this journey. It went on for three years. Having overcome the great difficulties of navigation in the unexplored southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, he found the southwestern strait, later named after him. The strait was much further south than indicated on the maps that Magellan believed. Having entered the "South Sea", the expedition headed for the shores of Asia. Magellan called the "South Sea" the Pacific Ocean, "because, as one of the expedition members reports, we have never experienced the slightest storm." For more than three months the flotilla sailed across the open ocean; part of the crew, who suffered greatly from hunger and thirst, died from scurvy. In the spring of 1521, Magellan reached the islands off the east coast of Asia, later called the Philippine.
Pursuing the goal of conquering the lands he discovered, Magellan intervened in the feud between two local rulers and was killed on April 27 in a skirmish with the inhabitants of one of these islands. The crew of the expedition, after the death of their admiral, completed this most difficult voyage; only two ships reached the Moluccas, and only one ship, the Victoria, was able to continue on its way to Spain with a cargo of spices. The crew of this ship, under the command of d "Elcano, made a long voyage to Spain around Africa, managing to avoid meeting with the Portuguese, who were ordered from Lisbon to detain all members of Magellan's expedition. Of the entire crew of Magellan's expedition, unparalleled in courage (265 people), only 18 returned to their homeland people; but "Victoria" brought a large cargo of spices, the sale of which covered all the expenses of the expedition and gave a significant profit.
The great navigator Magellan completed the work begun by Columbus - he reached the Asian mainland and the Moluccas by the western route, opening a new sea route from Europe to Asia, although it did not gain practical importance due to the distance and difficulty of navigation. This was the first circumnavigation in the history of mankind; it irrefutably proved the spherical shape of the earth and the inseparability of the oceans washing the land.
In the same year, when Magellan went in search of a new sea route to the Moluccas, a small detachment of Spanish conquistadors, who had horses and armed with 13 cannons, set off from Cuba to the interior of Mexico to conquer the Aztec state, whose wealth was not inferior to the wealth of India. hidalgo Hernando Cortes. Cortes, who came from a family of impoverished hidalgos, according to one of the participants in this campaign, "had little money, but a lot of debt." But, having acquired plantations in Cuba, he was able to organize an expedition to Mexico, partly at his own expense.
In their clashes with the Aztecs, the Spaniards, who possessed firearms, steel armor and horses not previously seen in America and instilled panic in the Indians, as well as using improved combat tactics, received an overwhelming superiority of forces. In addition, the resistance of the Indian tribes to foreign conquerors was weakened by the enmity between the Aztecs and the tribes they conquered. This explains the rather easy victories of the Spanish troops.
Having landed on the Mexican coast, Cortes led his detachment to the capital of the Aztec state, the city of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City). The path to the capital passed through the area of Indian tribes who were at war with the Aztecs, and this made the trip easier. Entering Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards were amazed at the size and wealth of the Aztec capital. Soon they managed to treacherously capture the supreme ruler of the Aztecs, Montezuma, and on his behalf begin to rule the country. They demanded from the Indian leaders subject to Montezuma an oath of allegiance to the Spanish King I, paying tribute in gold. In the building where the Spanish detachment was located, a secret room was discovered, in which there was a rich treasure of gold items and precious stones. All the gold things were poured into square bars and divided among the participants in the campaign, and most of it went to Cortes, the king and governor of Cuba.
Soon a great uprising broke out in the country against the power of greedy and cruel foreigners; the rebels laid siege to the Spanish detachment, which sat down with the captive supreme ruler in his household. With heavy losses, Cortés managed to break out of the siege and withdraw from Tenochtitlan; many Spaniards died because they rushed to riches and took so much that they could hardly walk.
And this time, the Spaniards were helped by those Indian tribes who took their side and were now afraid of the revenge of the Aztecs. In addition, Cortes replenished his squad with Spaniards who arrived from Cuba. Having gathered an army of 10,000, Cortes again approached the capital of Mexico and laid siege to the city. The siege was long; during it, most of the population of this populous city died of hunger, thirst and disease. August 1521, the Spaniards finally entered the ruined Aztec capital.
The Aztec state became a Spanish colony; the Spaniards seized a lot of gold and precious stones in this country, distributed the lands to their colonists, and turned the Indian population into slaves and serfs. “The Spanish conquest,” says Engels about the Aztecs, “cut off any further independent development of them” ( F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Gospolitizdat, 1953, p. 23.).
Soon after the conquest of Mexico, the Spaniards conquered Guatemala and Honduras in Central America, and in 1546, after several invasions, they subjugated the Yucatan Peninsula, inhabited by the Mayan people. “There were too many rulers and they plotted against each other too much,” one of the Indians explained the defeat of the Maya.
The Spanish conquest in North America did not extend beyond Mexico. This is due to the fact that in the areas located north of Mexico, the Spanish seekers of profit did not find cities and states rich in gold and silver; on Spanish maps, these areas of the American mainland were usually indicated by the inscription: "Lands that do not generate income."
After the conquest of Mexico, the Spanish conquistadors turned all their attention to the south, to the mountainous regions of South America, rich in gold and silver. In the 30s, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, an illiterate man who was a swineherd in his youth, undertook the conquest of the "golden kingdom", the state of the Incas in Peru; about his fabulous wealth, he heard stories from local residents on the Isthmus of Panama during the Balboa campaign, of which he was a member. With a detachment of 200 people and 50 horses, he invaded this state, having managed to use the struggle of two heir brothers for the throne of the country's supreme ruler; he captured one of them - Atahualpa, and on his behalf began to rule the country. A large ransom was taken from Atahualpa in gold things, many times greater than the treasure that the detachment of Cortes took possession of; this booty was divided among the members of the detachment, for which all the gold was turned into ingots, destroying the most valuable monuments of Peruvian art. The ransom did not give Atahualpa the promised freedom; the Spaniards treacherously put him on trial and executed him. After that, Pizarro occupied the capital of the state - Cusco and became the complete ruler of the country (1532); he put on the throne the supreme ruler of his adherent, one of the nephews of Atahualpa. In Cuzco, the Spaniards plundered the treasures of the rich temple of the Sun, and in its building they created a Catholic monastery; in Potosi (Bolivia) they seized the richest silver mines.
In the early 40s, the Spanish conquistadors conquered Chile, and the Portuguese (in the 30s-40s) - Brazil, which was discovered by Cabral in 1500 during his expedition to India (Cabral's ships were on the way to the Cape of Good Hope to the west by the South Equatorial Current). In the second half of the XVI century. The Spaniards took control of Argentina.
Thus the New World was discovered and the colonial possessions of feudal-absolutist Spain and Portugal were created on the American mainland. The Spanish conquest of America interrupted the independent development of the peoples of the American continent and placed them under the yoke of colonial enslavement.
Discoveries in North America and Australia
Despite the agreement on the division of the spheres of conquest between Porgalia and Spain, sailors and merchants from other European countries began to penetrate into unexplored parts of the globe in search of profit and wealth. So, John Cabot (Italian Giovanni Caboto, who moved to England), who went on an expedition to find a northwestern route to the Indian Ocean, first reached Newfoundland or the Labrador Peninsula in 1497, and his son, Sebastian Cabot, in 1498 reached northeast coast of North America and explored it. Subsequently, English and French navigators explored the eastern part of North America, and the Dutch, as a result of a series of voyages made during the 17th century, discovered Australia, about which ancient geographers had vague information. In 1606, a Dutch ship under the command of Willem Janz reached the northern coast of Australia for the first time, and in 1642-1644. The Dutch navigator Tasman made two voyages to the Australian shores and, passing south of Australia to the island of Tasmania he discovered, proved that Australia was an independent new continent.
The London merchants, in their own words, "seeing how surprisingly quickly the wealth of the Spaniards and the Portuguese was growing due to the discovery of new countries and the search for new trading markets", organized in 1552 an expedition of three ships under the command of Willoughby, who attempted to find a northeast passage to China, rounding the coast of Siberia. The ships of the Willoughby expedition in the Barents Sea were separated by a storm, two of them were covered with ice in the southern part of this sea, and their entire crew froze, and the third passed into the White Sea, reached the mouth of the Northern Dvina; his captain Chancellor traveled to Moscow and was received by Ivan the Terrible. In 1556 and 1580. the British again tried to find the northeastern passage, but their ships could not pass further than the entrance to the Kara Sea due to solid ice.
Dutch merchants at the end of the 16th century. three expeditions were sent to search for this passage, led by the Dutch navigator Bill Barents, but these ships could not pass east of Novaya Zemlya, where Barents wintered during his last expedition (1596-1597), as his ship was covered with ice.
Russian geographical discoveries of the 16th - 17th centuries.
The Russian people contributed to the great geographical discoveries of the first half of the 17th century. significant contribution. Russian travelers and navigators made a number of discoveries (mainly in the northeast of Asia) that enriched world science.
The reason for the increased attention of Russians to geographical discoveries was the further development of commodity-money relations in the country and the associated process of folding the all-Russian market, as well as the gradual inclusion of Russia in the world market. During this period, two main directions were clearly outlined - northeast (Siberia and the Far East) and southeast (Central Asia, Mongolia, China), along which Russian travelers and sailors moved.
Of great educational importance for contemporaries were the trade and diplomatic trips of Russian people in the 16th-17th centuries. to the countries of the East, a survey of the shortest land routes for communication with the states of Central and Central Asia and with China.
By the middle of the XVII century. the Russians thoroughly studied and described the routes to Central Asia. Detailed and valuable information of this kind was contained in the embassy reports (“article lists”) of the Russian ambassadors I. D. Khokhlov (1620-1622), Anisim Gribov (1641-1643 and 1646-1647) and others.
Distant China aroused close attention among the Russian people. Back in 1525, while in Rome, the Russian ambassador Dmitry Gerasimov informed the writer Pavel Iovius that it was possible to travel from Europe to China by water through the northern seas. Thus, Gerasimov expressed a bold idea about the development of the Northern Route from Europe to Asia. This idea, thanks to Jovius, who published a special book on Muscovy in the Gerasimov embassy, became widely known in Western Europe and was received with lively interest. It is possible that the organization of the expeditions of Willoughby and Barents was caused by the messages of the Russian ambassador. In any case, the search for the Northern Sea Route to the east was already in the middle of the 16th century. led to the establishment of direct maritime links between Western Europe and Russia.
The first reliable evidence of a journey to China is information about the embassy of the Cossack Ivan Petlin in 1618-1619. Petlin from Tomsk through the territory of Mongolia passed to China and visited Beijing. Returning to his homeland, he presented in Moscow "a drawing and painting about the Chinese region." The information collected as a result of Petlin's trip about the routes to China, about the natural resources and economy of Mongolia and China contributed to the expansion of the geographical horizons of contemporaries.
Of great importance in the history of geographical discoveries of that era was the survey of the vast expanses of the north and northeast of Asia from the Ural Range to the coast of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, that is, all of Siberia.
The annexation of Siberia was started in 1581 by a campaign of a detachment of the Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich. His detachment, consisting of 840 people, carried away by rumors about the untold riches of the Siberian Khanate, was equipped at the expense of large landowners and salt producers of the Urals Stroganovs. The government-supported campaign of Yermak (1581-1584) led to the fall of the Siberian Khanate and the annexation of Western Siberia to the Russian state.
Even in the middle of the XVI century. Sailings of Russian polar sailors from the European part of the country to the Gulf of Ob and to the mouth of the Yenisei are mentioned. They moved along the coast of the Arctic Ocean on small keel sailing ships - koches, well adapted to sailing in the ice of the Arctic due to the egg-shaped hull, which reduced the danger of ice compression. Used by Russian sailors of the XVI-XVII centuries. compass ("womb") and maps. In the first two decades of the 17th century there was already a fairly regular water communication of the West Siberian cities with Mangazeya along the Ob, the Gulf of Ob and the Arctic Ocean (the so-called "Mangazeya passage"). The same message was maintained between Arkhangelsk and Mangazeya. According to contemporaries, from Arkhangelsk to "Mangazeya, many trading and industrial people walk at night with all sorts of German (i.e. foreign, Western European) goods and bread." It was extremely important to establish the fact that the Yenisei flows into the very “Cold Sea”, along which people from Western Europe swim to Arkhangelsk. This discovery belongs to the Russian merchant Kondraty Kurochkin, who was the first to explore the fairway of the lower Yenisei up to the mouth.
A serious blow to the "Mangazeya move" was inflicted by government prohibitions of 1619-1620. use the sea route to Mangazeya, aimed at preventing the penetration of foreigners there.
Moving east into the taiga and tundra of Eastern Siberia, the Russians discovered one of the largest rivers in Asia - the Lena. Among the northern expeditions to the Lena, the Penda campaign (until 1630) stands out. Starting his journey with 40 companions from Turukhansk, he went through the entire Lower Tunguska, crossed the portage and reached the Lena. Having descended along the Lena to the central regions of Yakutia, Penda then sailed along the same river in the opposite direction almost to the upper reaches. From here, passing through the Buryat steppes, he got to the Angara (Upper Tunguska), the first Russian sailed down the entire Angara, overcoming its famous rapids, after which he went to the Yenisei, and returned along the Yenisei to his starting point - Turukhansk. Penda and his companions made an unparalleled circular journey of several thousand kilometers through difficult terrain.
In 1633, brave seafarers Ivan Rebrov and Ilya Perfilyev went east from the mouth of the Lena at night, who reached the river by sea. Yana, and in 1636, the same Rebrov made a new sea voyage and reached the mouth of the Indigirka.
Almost simultaneously, detachments of Russian service and industrial people (Posnik Ivanova and others) moved along the mainland in a northeast direction, discovering the mentioned rivers from land. Posnik Ivanov "and his comrades" made their long and difficult journey through the mountain ranges on horseback.
An important discovery in northeast Asia ended in the early 40s of the 17th century. Expedition of Mikhail Stadukhin. The detachment of the Cossack foreman and merchant Stadukhin, in which Semyon Dezhnev was, descended on a koch along the Indigirka, in 1643 reached the “Kov River” by sea, that is, reached the mouth of the Kolyma River. The Nizhne-Kolyma winter hut was laid here, from which, a few years later, Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev and industrial man Fedot Alekseev (known by the surname Popov) set out on their famous voyage around the northeastern tip of the Asian mainland.
An outstanding event of this era was the discovery in 1648 of the strait between America and Asia, made by Dezhnev and Fedot Alekseev (Popov).
Back in 1647, Semyon Dezhnev tried to go by sea to the mysterious Anadyr River, about which there were rumors among the Russian people, but “the ice didn’t let the river through to Anadyr”, and he was forced to return back. But the determination to achieve the intended goal did not leave Dezhnev and his comrades. On June 20, 1648, a new expedition set off from the mouth of the Kolyma in search of the Anadyr River on seven horses. The expedition, led by Dezhnev and Alekseev, included about a hundred people. Soon after the start of the campaign, four kochas disappeared from sight and the participants in this extremely difficult ice voyage had no further news about them. The remaining three ships under the command of Dezhnev, Alekseev and Gerasim Ankudinov continued their journey to the northeast. Not far from the Chukotka nose (later named after Dezhnev), Koch Ankudinov died. The crews of the other two ships took on board the wrecked and stubbornly advanced across the Arctic Ocean. In September 1648, the Dezhnev-Alekseev expedition rounded the extreme northeastern tip of Asia - the Chukchi (or Bolshoi Kamenny) nose and passed through the strait separating America from Asia (later called the Bering Strait). In bad sea weather, Kochi Dezhnev and Alekseev lost sight of each other. Koch Dezhnev, on which there were 25 people, was carried along the waves for a long time and, finally, was thrown onto the shore of the sea, which was later called the Bering Sea. Semyon Dezhnev then moved with his comrades into the depths of the mainland and after a heroic 10-week transition, during which his participants walked “cold and hungry, naked and barefoot” through a completely unfamiliar country, he reached the goal of his expedition - the Anadyr River. So it was, an outstanding geographical discovery was made, which proved that America was separated by sea from Asia and was an isolated continent, and a sea route around Northeast Asia was opened.
There are reasons to believe that Kamchatka in the middle of the 17th century. was discovered by Russian people. According to later reports, Koch Fedot Alekseev and his companions reached Kamchatka, where the Russians lived for a long time among the Itelmens. The memory of this fact was preserved among the local population of Kamchatka, and the Russian scientist of the first half of the 18th century. Krasheninnikov reported about him in his work "Description of the Land of Kamchatka". There is an assumption that part of the ships of the Dezhnev expedition, which disappeared on the way to the Chukchi nose, reached Alaska, where they founded a Russian "settlement. In 1937, during earthworks on the Kenai Peninsula (Alaska), the remains of dwellings of three hundred years ago were discovered, which scientists attributed to those built by Russian people.
In addition, Dezhnev and his companions are credited with discovering the Diomede Islands, where the Eskimos lived, and exploring the Anadyr River basin.
The discovery of Dezhnev - Alekseev was reflected on the geographical maps of Russia in the 17th century, which marked the free passage from the Kolyma to the Amur.
During 1643-1651. Russian detachments of V. Poyarkov and E. Khabarov made campaigns on the Amur, which delivered a number of valuable information about this river not studied by Europeans.
So, over a relatively short historical period (from the 80s of the 16th century to the 40s of the 17th century), Russian people traveled through the steppes, taiga, tundra through the whole of Siberia, sailed through the seas of the Arctic and made a number of outstanding geographical discoveries.
Consequences of geographical discoveries for Western Europe
During the XV-XVII centuries. thanks to the bold expeditions of navigators and travelers from many European countries, most of the earth's surface, seas and oceans washing it were discovered and explored; Many inland areas of America, Asia, Africa and Australia have fallen into the unknown. The most important sea routes were laid that connected the continents with each other. But at the same time, geographical discoveries marked the beginning of the monstrous enslavement and extermination of the peoples of open countries, which became for European profit-seekers the object of the most shameless robbery and exploitation: treachery, deceit, consumption of local residents were the main methods of the conquerors. This price was the creation in Western Europe of the conditions for the emergence of capitalist production.
The colonial system, which arose as a result of geographical discoveries, contributed to the accumulation in the hands of the bourgeoisie in Europe of large amounts of money necessary for the organization of large-scale capitalist production, and also published a market for its products, thus being one of the levers of the process of so-called primitive accumulation. With the establishment of the colonial system, the world market began to take shape, which served as a powerful impetus to the emergence and development of capitalist relations in Western Europe. “The colonies,” writes Marx, “provided a market for rapidly emerging manufactories, and the monopoly possession of this market ensured increased accumulation. Treasures obtained outside of Europe through robbery, enslavement of the natives, murders flowed into the metropolis and then turned into capital.
The so-called price revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also contributed to the rise of the European bourgeoisie. It was caused by the importation from America to Europe of a large amount of gold and silver mined by the cheap labor of serfs and slaves. In the middle of the XVI century. in the colonies, gold and silver were mined 5 times more than they were mined in Europe before the conquest of America, and the total number of voiced coins circulating in European countries increased more than 4 times over the 16th century. This influx of cheap gold and silver into Europe led to a sharp decrease in the purchasing power of money and to a strong increase in prices (2-3 times or more) for all goods, both agricultural and industrial. In the city, everyone suffered from this rise in prices, he received wages, and the bourgeoisie enriched itself. In the countryside, the main beneficiaries were those nobles who set up a new type of economy, using hired labor and selling products to the market at high prices, and wealthy peasants, who also sold a significant part of agricultural products. In addition, landowners who leased land on a short-term lease benefited. Finally, the long-term tenants, the peasant holders, who paid the traditional fixed cash rent, benefited. leased out credential terms on the condition of receiving a fixed annuity in cash.
Where it seemed possible, the feudal lords compensated for their losses by intensifying their offensive against the peasants, by increasing the monetary rent, by switching from cash quitrent to natural duties, or by driving the peasants off the land. The "price revolution" also affected the poorest peasants, forced to partly live by selling their labor power, and agricultural wage workers. Marx writes about the “price revolution”: “The consequence of the increase in the means of exchange was, on the one hand, the depreciation of wages and land rent, and on the other hand, the growth of industrial profits. In other words: to the extent that the class of landowners and the class of working people, the feudal lords and the people, have declined, the class of capitalists, the bourgeoisie, has risen to the same extent. K. Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., vol. 4, p. 154.) Thus, the "price revolution" was also one of the factors contributing to the development of capitalism in Western Europe.
As a result of the great geographical discoveries, Europe's ties with the countries of Africa, South and East Asia increased, and relations with America were established for the first time. Trade has become global. The center of economic life moved from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, the countries of Southern Europe fell into decline, primarily the Italian cities through which Europe had previously connected with the East, new centers of trade rose up: Lisbon - in Portugal, Seville - in Spain, Antwerp - in the Netherlands. Antwerp became the richest city in Europe, colonial goods, especially spices, were traded on a large scale, large-scale international trade and credit operations were carried out, which was facilitated by the fact that, unlike other cities, complete freedom of trade and credit transactions was established in Antwerp. In 1531, a special building was built in Antwerp for the implementation of trade and financial transactions - the stock exchange with a characteristic inscription on the pediment: "For the needs of merchants of all nations and languages." Concluding a trade deal on the stock exchange, the buyer examined only samples of goods. Loan obligations of the bill were quoted on the stock exchange as securities; a new type of profit appeared - stock speculation.
Without the Russian pioneers, the map of the world would be completely different. Our compatriots - travelers and navigators - have made discoveries that have enriched world science. About the eight most notable - in our material.
Bellingshausen's first Antarctic expedition
In 1819, the navigator, captain of the 2nd rank, Thaddeus Bellingshausen led the first Antarctic expedition around the world. The purpose of the voyage was to explore the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, as well as to prove or disprove the existence of the sixth continent - Antarctica. Having equipped two sloops - "Mirny" and "Vostok" (under the command), Bellingshausen's detachment went to sea.
The expedition lasted 751 days and wrote many bright pages in the history of geographical discoveries. The main one - - was made on January 28, 1820.
By the way, attempts to open the white mainland were made earlier, but did not bring the desired success: there was not enough luck, or maybe Russian perseverance.
So, the navigator James Cook, summing up his second circumnavigation, wrote: “I went around the ocean of the southern hemisphere in high latitudes and rejected the possibility of the existence of the mainland, which, if it can be found, is only near the pole in places inaccessible to navigation.”
During Bellingshausen's Antarctic expedition, more than 20 islands were discovered and mapped, sketches of Antarctic species and animals living on it were made, and the navigator himself went down in history as a great discoverer.
“The name of Bellingshausen can be directly put on a par with the names of Columbus and Magellan, with the names of those people who did not retreat before the difficulties and imaginary impossibilities created by their predecessors, with the names of people who went their own way, and therefore were the destroyers of barriers to discoveries, by which epochs are designated, ”wrote the German geographer August Petermann.
Discoveries of Semenov Tien-Shansky
Central Asia at the beginning of the 19th century was one of the least explored areas of the globe. An indisputable contribution to the study of the "unknown land" - as geographers called Central Asia - was made by Peter Semenov.
In 1856, the main dream of the researcher came true - he went on an expedition to the Tien Shan.
“My work on Asian geography led me to a detailed acquaintance with everything that was known about inner Asia. In particular, the most central of the Asian mountain ranges, the Tien Shan, beckoned me to itself, on which the foot of a European traveler had not yet set foot and which was known only from scarce Chinese sources.
Semenov's research in Central Asia lasted two years. During this time, the sources of the Chu, Syrdarya and Sary-Jaz rivers, the peaks of Khan-Tengri and others were put on the map.
The traveler established the location of the Tien Shan ranges, the height of the snow line in this area and discovered the huge Tien Shan glaciers.
In 1906, by decree of the emperor, for the merits of the discoverer, they began to add a prefix to his surname - Tien Shan.
Asia Przewalski
In the 70s-80s. XIX century Nikolai Przhevalsky led four expeditions to Central Asia. This little explored area has always attracted the researcher, and traveling to Central Asia was his old dream.
Over the years of research, mountain systems have been studied Kun-Lun , the ranges of Northern Tibet, the sources of the Yellow River and the Yangtze, basins Kuku-burrow and Lob-burrow.
Przhevalsky was the second person after Marco Polo to reach lakes-bogs Lob-burrow!
In addition, the traveler discovered dozens of species of plants and animals that are named after him.
“Happy fate made it possible to make a feasible study of the least known and most inaccessible countries of inner Asia,” Nikolai Przhevalsky wrote in his diary.
Around the world Krusenstern
The names of Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yuri Lisyansky became known after the first Russian round-the-world expedition.
For three years, from 1803 to 1806. - this is how long the first circumnavigation of the world lasted - the ships "Nadezhda" and "Neva", having passed through the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and then reached Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin by the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The expedition refined the map of the Pacific Ocean, collected information about the nature and inhabitants of Kamchatka and the Kuriles.
During the voyage, Russian sailors crossed the equator for the first time. This event was celebrated, according to tradition, with the participation of Neptune.
A sailor dressed as the ruler of the seas asked Kruzenshtern why he had come here with his ships, because the Russian flag had not been seen in these places before. To which the expedition commander replied: "For the glory of science and our fatherland!"
Expedition of Nevelskoy
Admiral Gennady Nevelskoy is rightfully considered one of the outstanding navigators of the 19th century. In 1849, on the transport ship Baikal, he went on an expedition to the Far East.
The Amur expedition continued until 1855, during which time Nevelskoy made several major discoveries in the area of the lower reaches of the Amur and the northern shores of the Sea of Japan, and annexed vast expanses of the Amur and Primorye to Russia.
Thanks to the navigator, it became known that Sakhalin is an island that is separated by the navigable Tatar Strait, and the mouth of the Amur is accessible for ships to enter from the sea.
In 1850, the Nikolaevsky post was founded by the Nevelsky detachment, which today is known as Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.
“The discoveries made by Nevelsky are invaluable for Russia,” wrote Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky , - many previous expeditions to these lands could achieve European fame, but not one of them achieved domestic benefit, at least to the extent that Nevelskoy did it.
North Vilkitsky
The purpose of the hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean in 1910-1915. was the development of the Northern Sea Route. By chance, the captain of the 2nd rank Boris Vilkitsky assumed the duties of the head of navigation. The icebreaking ships Taimyr and Vaygach put to sea.
Vilkitsky moved through the northern waters from east to west, and during the voyage he managed to compile a true description of the northern coast of Eastern Siberia and many islands, received the most important information about currents and climate, and also became the first who made a through voyage from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk.
The expedition members discovered the Land of Emperor Nicholas I. I., known today as Novaya Zemlya - this discovery is considered the last of the significant ones on the globe.
In addition, thanks to Vilkitsky, the islands of Maly Taimyr, Starokadomsky and Zhokhov were put on the map.
At the end of the expedition, the First World War began. Traveler Roald Amundsen, having learned about the success of Vilkitsky's voyage, could not resist exclaiming to him:
“In peacetime, this expedition would stir up the whole world!”
Kamchatka campaign of Bering and Chirikov
The second quarter of the 18th century was rich in geographical discoveries. All of them were made during the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions, which immortalized the names of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov.
During the First Kamchatka campaign, Bering, the leader of the expedition, and his assistant Chirikov explored and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. They discovered two peninsulas - Kamchatsky and Ozerny, Kamchatsky Bay, Karaginsky Bay, Cross Bay, Providence Bay and St. Lawrence Island, as well as the strait, which today bears the name of Vitus Bering.
Companions - Bering and Chirikov - also led the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The goal of the campaign was to find a route to North America and explore the islands of the Pacific.
In Avacha Bay, the expedition members founded the Petropavlovsk prison - in honor of the ships of the voyage "Saint Peter" and "Saint Pavel" - which was later renamed Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
When the ships set sail for the shores of America, by the will of evil fate, Bering and Chirikov began to act alone - because of the fog, their ships lost each other.
"Saint Peter" under the command of Bering reached the western coast of America.
And on the way back, the expedition members, who had many difficulties, were thrown by a storm onto a small island. Here the life of Vitus Bering ended, and the island on which the expedition members stopped to spend the winter was named after Bering.
"Saint Pavel" Chirikov also reached the shores of America, but for him the voyage ended more safely - on the way back he discovered a number of islands of the Aleutian ridge and safely returned to the Peter and Paul prison.
"Non-Yasak Lands" by Ivan Moskvitin
Little is known about the life of Ivan Moskvitin, but this man nevertheless went down in history, and the reason for this was the new lands he discovered.
In 1639, Moskvitin, leading a detachment of Cossacks, set sail for the Far East. The main goal of the travelers was to "find new unclaimed lands", to collect furs and fish. The Cossacks crossed the rivers Aldan, Maya and Yudoma, discovered the Dzhugdzhur ridge, which separates the rivers of the Lena basin from the rivers flowing into the sea, and along the Ulya river they entered the Lamskoye, or Sea of Okhotsk. Having explored the coast, the Cossacks opened the Taui Bay and entered the Sakhalin Bay, rounding the Shantar Islands.
One of the Cossacks said that the rivers in the open lands “are sable, there are a lot of animals, and fish, and the fish is big, there is no such thing in Siberia ... there are so many of them - just run a net and you can’t drag it out with fish ... ".
The geographical data collected by Ivan Moskvitin formed the basis of the first map of the Far East.
