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 in Latin America. Largest Spanish city is Mexico City (half the population of all of Spain).
10 million inhabitants in Portugal, 120 million Portuguese speakers in Brazil. Largest Portuguese city is Sao Paulo (more inhabitants than Portugal).
14 million inhabitants in Holland, 8 million Afrikaans speakers in 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 have greater 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--profitable to 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 them flow.
The coastline of Europe is one of the most complex in the world. The narrow Strait of Gibraltar opens into the Mediterranean. The Bosporus is like a river but opens into the Black Sea. The one thing Europeans were not prepared for was long regular coastlines without geographical oddities!

Individual Stories

As important as any geographical discoveries must have been the individual impact of contact (direct or vicarious) with distant parts of the world. By any standards, the two that follow are remarkable.

Peter Carder

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

Tisquantum

(Better known as Squanto). A native American who had been trading with English ships that stopped in New England enRoute to Jamestown. He was captured and taken to Spain to be sold as a slave, but was ransomed by Spanish friars. He made his way from Spain to England and obtained passage on a ship back to North America. He found that his tribe had been wiped out by disease in the meantime. When the Pilgrims arrived (1620), Tisquantum provided them with survival information, and they provided 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