Europe Reaches Out - The Age of Exploration

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

The Modern Demographic World

Entire populations and cultures have been transplanted in recent centuries.

• 59 million inhabitants of Great Britain but 240 million English-speakers in U.S., 28 million in S. Africa, 24 million in Canada,15 million in Australia.
• Largest French city is Paris; second largest is Montreal.
• 37 million inhabitants in Spain, 200 million Spanish speakers inLatin America. Largest Spanish city is Mexico City (half the population of all of Spain).
• 10 million inhabitants in Portugal, 120 million Portuguesespeakers in Brazil. Largest Portuguese city is Sao Paulo (more inhabitants than Portugal).
• 14 million inhabitants in Holland, 8 million Afrikaans speakersin S. Africa.
• There are 4 million Jews in Israel, 6 million in the U.S.
• The second largest Polish city is Chicago.
• 30 million blacks in the U.S. (only 3 countries in Africa havegreater population).

Factors in Exploration

• Accidental discovery.
• Desire to bypass Moslem world.
• Disruptions of overland routes (somewhat overrated).
• Intra-European rivalry.
• No bulk transport--cargos were small but high value--profitableto carry long distances by small ship.
• Curiosity.

Major Events in Exploration.

• African coast-route to India.
• Trans Atlantic voyages.
• Northwest and Northeast Passage.
• Pacific voyages.
• Circumnavigations

Strange ideas were not so strange

It may seem bizarre that Cartier could sail up the St. Lawrence hoping to reach China, but for the time the idea was not so unreasonable:

• There was no clear idea how rivers were fed or what made themflow.
• The coastline of Europe is one of the most complex in the world.The narrow Strait of Gibraltar opens into the Mediterranean. TheBosporus is like a river but opens into the Black Sea. The onething Europeans were not prepared for was long regular coastlineswithout geographical oddities!

Individual Stories

As important as any geographical discoveries must have been theindividual impact of contact (direct or vicarious) with distanceparts of the world. By any standards, the two that follow areremarkable.

Peter Carder

One of an eight-man party sent ashore on Tierra delFuego by Francis Drake to gather supplies (1587). A stormscattered Drake's fleet and the shore party was given up as lost.The shore party started back up the east coast of South Americain their open boat. Carder alone reached Brazil and eventuallyEngland. It took him nine years.

Tisquantum

(Better known as Squanto). A native American who hadbeen trading with English ships that stopped in New Englandenroute to Jamestown. He was captured and taken to Spain to besold as a slave, but was ransomed by Spanish friars. He made hisway from Spain to England and obtained passage on a ship back toNorth America. He found that his tribe had been wiped out bydisease in the meantime. When the Pilgrims arrived (1620),Tisquantum provided them with survival information, and theyprovided him with a group to belong to.

Technology and the Age of Exploration.

Innovations that aided exploration

• Stern-post rudder
• Lateen and square sails in combination
• Compass
• Discovery of Trade Winds

Innovations derived from exploration.

• New foodstuffs: coffee, tea, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, squash,
• maize.
• Improvements in shipbuilding, charting, navigation.General stimulus to discovery.

The Longitude Problem and spinoffs from it.

• Attempt to use eclipses of Jupiter's satellites for timekeeping.
• Predictions were up to 15-20 minutes off. Discrepancy (time for light to cross Earth's orbit) led to first estimate of speed of light.
• Drive to develop accurate clocks, sextants, led to improvements in machining and metallurgy.
• When accurate clocks became available, it was found that clocks in equatorial regions ran slow. Reason: lower gravity because of Earth's equatorial bulge.

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Created 21 May 1997
Last Update 21 May 1997