Historical geographical discoveries. Message “Great Geographical Discoveries”

The main geographical discoveries in human history were made in the 15th century. XVII centuries. This period saw a number of important journeys made by Europeans, which led to the discovery of new trade routes, lands, and the seizure of territories.

As historians call these events, they became possible largely thanks to the achievements of science and technology. It was during this historical period that the creation of reliable sailing ships, the improvement of navigational and coastal maps and compasses, the substantiation of the idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth, etc. occurred. In many ways, the beginning of such active research was facilitated by the shortage of precious metals in a highly developed commodity economy, as well as the dominance Ottoman Empire in Africa, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Sea, which complicated trade with the world of the East.

The discovery and conquest of America is associated with the name of H. Columbus, who discovered the Antilles and Bahamas, and in 1492, America itself. Amerigo Vespucci sailed to the coast of Brazil as a result of expeditions of 1499-1501.

1497-1499 - the time when Vasco da Gama was able to find a continuous sea route to India from Western Europe along the coast of South Africa. By 1488, the Portuguese navigator, as well as a number of other travelers, had made geographical discoveries on the southern and western coasts of Africa. The Portuguese visited both the Malay Peninsula and Japan.

Between 1498 and 1502, A. Ojeda, A. Vespucci and other Portuguese and Spanish navigators explored the northern coast South America, including its eastern (territory of modern Brazil) coast and part of the Caribbean coast of Central America.

Between 1513 and 1525, the Spaniards (V. Nunez de Balboa) managed to cross the Isthmus of Panama and reach the Pacific Ocean. In 1519-1522, Ferdinand Magellan made the first voyage around the Earth: he went out into the Pacific Ocean, circumnavigating South America, and thus proved that the Earth is spherical. For the second time, in 1577-1580, Francis Drake did this.

The Aztecs' possessions were conquered by Hernan Cortez in 1519-1521, the Incas by Francisco Pizarro in 1532-1535, the Mayans in 1517-1697, etc.

The geographical discoveries of the British were associated with the search for a northwestern route to Asia, as a result of which they discovered the island of Newfoundland and the coast North America(1497-1498, J. Cabot), the island of Greenland, etc. (H. Hudson, W. Baffin, etc. sailed from 1576 to 1616). French travelers explored the coast of Canada (J. Cartier, 1534-1543), the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains (1609-1648, S. Champlain and others).

The great travelers of the world began their voyages not only from European ports. Among the explorers there were many Russians. These are V. Poyarkov, E. Khabarov, S. Dezhnev and others who explored Siberia and the Far East. Among the discoverers of the Arctic are V. Barents, G. Hudson, J. Davis, W. Baffin and others. The Dutch A. Tasman and V. Janszoon became famous for their travels to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. In the 18th century (1768), the region was re-explored by James Cook.

Geographical discoveries of the 15th - 17th centuries, as a result of which a significant part of the earth's surface was explored, helped to establish the modern contours of the continents, with the exception of part of the coasts of America and Australia. Was open new era in the geographical study of the Earth, which led to serious geopolitical and socio-economic consequences and was important for the further development of a number of natural sciences.

The discovery of new lands, countries, and trade routes contributed to the further development of trade, industry and relations between states. This led to the beginning of the formation of the world market and the era of colonialism. The development of Indian civilizations in the New World was artificially interrupted.

Geographical discoveries

People have traveled and made discoveries at all times, but during the history of mankind there was a period when the number of travelers and their discoveries increased sharply - the era of great geographical discoveries.

Great geographical discoveries are a period in human history that began in the 15th century and lasted until the 17th century, during which new lands and sea routes were discovered. Thanks to the brave expeditions of seafarers and travelers from many countries, it was discovered and explored. most of the earth's surface, the seas and oceans washing it. The most important sea routes were laid that connected the continents with each other.

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The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the economic development of our country should be based on preliminary analysis historical information, that is, it is necessary to realize the importance of the territories that were conquered by our ancestors.

The purpose of this work is to consider the expeditions and geographical discoveries of domestic researchers and scientists. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set:

· briefly characterize the economic and political situation of the country in a certain period of time;

· indicate the names of Russian travelers and discoverers of the era of great geographical discoveries;

· describe the discoveries of new lands and routes.

Development sites. Discoverers

At the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, education was completed Russian state, which developed along with world civilization. This was the time of the Great Geographical Discoveries (America was discovered in 1493), the beginning of the era of capitalism in European countries (the first bourgeois revolution in Europe of 1566-1609 began in the Netherlands). Great geographical discoveries are a period in human history that began in the 15th century and lasted until the 17th century, during which Europeans discovered new lands and sea routes to Africa, America, Asia and Oceania in search of new trading partners and sources of goods that they used. in great demand in Europe. Historians generally associate the "Great Discovery" with the pioneering long sea voyages of Portuguese and Spanish explorers in search of alternative trade routes to the "Indies" for gold, silver and spices. But the development of the Russian state took place under rather unique conditions.

The Russian people contributed to the great geographical discoveries of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries. significant contribution. Russian travelers and navigators made a number of discoveries (mainly in northeast 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 the formation of 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: northeastern (Siberia and the Far East) and southeastern (Central Asia, Mongolia, China), along which Russian travelers and sailors moved. Trade and diplomatic trips of Russian people in the 16th-17th centuries were of great educational importance for contemporaries. to the countries of the East, survey of the shortest land routes for communication with the countries of the Middle and Central Asia and with China.

In the middle of the 16th century, the Muscovite kingdom conquered the Kazan and Astrakhan Tatar khanates, thus annexing the Volga region to its possessions and opening the way to the Ural Mountains. The colonization of new eastern lands and the further advance of Russia to the east were directly organized by the wealthy merchants the Stroganovs. Tsar Ivan the Terrible granted vast estates in the Urals and tax privileges to Anikei Stroganov, who organized large-scale resettlement of people to these lands. The Stroganovs developed Agriculture, hunting, salt making, fishing and mining in the Urals, and also established trade relations with Siberian peoples. There was a process of development of new territories of Siberia (from the 1580s to the 1640s), the Volga region, and the Wild Field (on the Dnieper, Don, Middle and Lower Volga, and Yaik rivers).

Great geographical discoveries contributed to the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.

Conquest of Siberia by Ermak Timofeevich

Of great importance in the history of geographical discoveries of this era was the exploration of the vast expanses of the north and northeast of Asia from the Ural Range to the coast of the Arctic and Pacific oceans, i.e. all over Siberia.

The process of conquering Siberia included the gradual advance of Russian Cossacks and servicemen to the East until they reached the Pacific Ocean and consolidated their position in Kamchatka. The routes of movement of the Cossacks were predominantly water. Getting acquainted with river systems, they walked by dry route exclusively in places of the watershed, where, having crossed the ridge and arranged new boats, they descended along the tributaries of new rivers. Upon arrival in an area occupied by some tribe of natives, the Cossacks entered into peace negotiations with them with a proposal to submit to the White Tsar and pay tribute, but these negotiations did not always lead to successful results, and then the matter was decided by force of arms.

The annexation of Siberia began in 1581 with the 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 with funds from the large landowners and salt industrialists of the Urals, the Stroganovs.

On September 1, 1581, the detachment boarded plows and climbed the tributaries of the Kama to the Tagil Pass in the Ural Mountains. With an ax in their hands, the Cossacks made their own way, cleared rubble, felled trees, and cut a clearing. They did not have the time and energy to level the rocky path, as a result of which they could not drag the ships along the ground using rollers. According to the participants of the hike, they dragged the ships up the mountain “on themselves,” in other words, in their arms. At the pass, the Cossacks built an earthen fortification - Kokui-town, where they spent the winter until spring.

The first skirmish between the Cossacks and the Siberian Tatars took place in the area of ​​the modern city of Turinsk (Sverdlovsk region), where the warriors of Prince Epanchi fired at Ermak’s plows with bows. Here Ermak, with the help of arquebuses and cannons, dispersed the cavalry of Murza Epanchi. Then the Cossacks occupied the town of Changi-Tura (Tyumen region) without a fight. On the site of modern Tyumen, many treasures were taken: silver, gold and precious Siberian furs.

November 8, 1582 AD Ataman Ermak Timofeevich occupied Kashlyk, the then capital of the Siberian Khanate. Four days later the Khanty from the river. Demyanka (Uvat district), brought furs and food supplies, mainly fish, as gifts to the conquerors. Ermak greeted them with “kindness and greetings” and released them “with honor.” Local Tatars, who had previously fled from the Russians, followed the Khanty with gifts. Ermak received them just as kindly, allowed them to return to their villages and promised to protect them from enemies, primarily from Kuchum. Then the Khanty from the left bank regions - from the Konda and Tavda rivers - began to appear with furs and food. Ermak imposed an annual obligatory tax on everyone who came to him - yasak.

At the end of 1582, Ermak sent an embassy to Moscow, led by his faithful assistant Ivan Koltso, to notify the Tsar of the defeat of Kuchum. Tsar Ivan IV gave the Cossack delegation of Ivan the Ring a gracious welcome, generously presented the envoys - among the gifts was chain mail of excellent work - and sent them back to Ermak.

In the winter of 1584-1585, the temperature in the vicinity of Kashlyk dropped to -47°, and icy northern winds began to blow. Deep snow made hunting in the taiga forests impossible. In a hungry time winter time wolves gathered in large packs and appeared near human dwellings. Sagittarius did not survive Siberian winter. They died without exception, without taking part in the war with Kuchum. Semyon Bolkhovskoy himself, who was appointed the first governor of Siberia, also died. After a hungry winter, the number of Ermak’s detachment fell catastrophically. To save the surviving people, Ermak tried to avoid clashes with the Tatars.

On the night of August 6, 1585, Ermak died along with a small detachment at the mouth of Vagai. Only one Cossack managed to escape, and he brought the sad news to Kashlyk. The Cossacks and servicemen who remained in Kashlyk gathered a circle in which they decided not to spend the winter in Siberia.

At the end of September 1585, 100 servicemen arrived in Kashlyk under the command of Ivan Mansurov, sent to help Ermak. They didn’t find anyone in Kashlyk. When trying to return from Siberia along the path of their predecessors - down the Ob and further “through Kamen” - the service people were forced, due to “freezing of the ice,” to place a “hail over the Ob River opposite the mouth of the river” of the Irtysh and “spend the winter” in it. Having withstood a siege here “from many Ostyaks,” the people of Ivan Mansurov returned from Siberia in the summer of 1586.

The third detachment, which arrived in the spring of 1586 and consisted of 300 people under the leadership of governors Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasny, brought with them the “written head Danilo Chulkov” “to conduct business” on the spot. The expedition, judging by its results, was carefully prepared and equipped. To establish the power of the Russian government in Siberia, she had to found the first Siberian government fort and the Russian city of Tyumen.

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China Study. The first voyages of Russian sailors

Distant China attracted close attention from the Russian people. Back in 1525, while in Rome, the Russian ambassador Dmitry Gerasimov informed the writer Pavel Jovius that it was possible to travel from Europe to China by water through northern seas. Thus, Gerasimov expressed a bold idea about the development of the Northern Route from Europe to Asia. Thanks to Jovius, who published a special book about Muscovy and Gerasimov’s embassy, ​​this idea became widely known in Western Europe and was received with keen interest. It is possible that the organization of the Willoughby and Barents expeditions was prompted by messages from the Russian ambassador. In any case, the search for the Northern Sea Route to the east already in the middle of the 16th century. led to the establishment of direct maritime connections between Western Europe and Russia.

Back in the middle of the 16th century. Mention is made of the voyages of Russian polar sailors from the European part of the country to the Gulf of Ob and to the mouth of the Yenisei. They moved along the coast of the Arctic Ocean on small keel sailing ships - kochas, well adapted to sailing in the Arctic ice thanks to the egg-shaped hull, which reduced the danger of ice compression.

The 16th century is known for the reign of the Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. I would like to draw special attention to the oprichnina policy of the then ruler. State terror agitated the population, “famine and pestilence” reigned in the country, peasants fled from the bankrupt landowners and “fought among the yard.” It can be assumed that it was the runaway peasants who became the “discoverers” of new lands, and only later higher-status individuals made “discoveries” at the state level.

Most likely, in the 16th century, Russian travel, which resulted in geographical discoveries, experienced a period of “emergence”. The first attempts to travel to other countries and new lands were made. One of the most important and promising was the conquest of Siberia by Ermak. But our ancestors didn’t stop there; they also tried their hand at traveling on water. No great discoveries have yet been made in this industry, but already in the 17th century certain successes were made.

There were a sufficient number of factors stimulating the people to further develop new lands, the main one being the lack of access to the seas.

Main travel destinations of the 17th century

"Mangazeya move." Penda's hike

Already in the first two decades of the 17th century, there was a fairly regular water connection between Western Siberian cities and Mangazeya along the Ob, Ob Bay and the Arctic Ocean (the so-called “Mangazeya passage”). The same communication was maintained between Arkhangelsk and Mangazeya. According to contemporaries, “many commercial and industrial people travel from Arkhangelsk to Mangazeya throughout the years 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 same “Icy Sea” along which they sail from Western Europe to Arkhangelsk. This discovery belongs to the Russian trader Kondraty Kurochkin, who was the first to explore the fairway of the lower Yenisei right up to the mouth.

A serious blow to the “Mangazeya move” was dealt by government prohibitions in 1619-1620. use the sea route to Mangazeya, with the goal of preventing foreigners from entering there.

Moving east into the taiga and tundra of Eastern Siberia, the Russians discovered one of largest rivers Asia - Lena. Among the northern expeditions to the Lena, Penda's campaign (before 1630) stands out. Starting his journey with 40 companions from Turukhansk, he walked throughout the entire Lower Tunguska, crossed the portage and reached the Lena. Having descended along the Lena to the central regions of Yakutia, Penda then swam along the same river in the opposite direction almost to the upper reaches. From here, having passed through the Buryat steppes, he came to the Angara (Upper Tunguska), the first of the Russians to sail down the entire Angara, overcoming its famous rapids, after which he went to the Yenisei, and along the Yenisei he returned to his starting point - Turu-Khansk. Penda and his companions made an unprecedented circular journey of several thousand kilometers through difficult terrain.

Petlin's mission

The first reliable evidence of a trip to China is information about the embassy of the Cossack Ivan Petlin in 1618-1619. (Petlin's mission). The trip was made on the initiative of the Tobolsk governor, Prince I. S. Kurakin. The mission of 12 people was led by Tomsk Cossacks teacher Ivan Petlin (who spoke several languages) and A. Madov. The mission was tasked with describing new routes to China, collecting information about it and neighboring countries, and also establishing the sources of the Ob River. In China, Petlin was supposed to announce where the mission was coming from and explore the possibility of establishing further relations with China.

Having left Tomsk on May 9, 1618, together with the ambassadors of the Mongolian “Tsar Altyn,” the mission climbed the Tom Valley, crossed Mountain Shoria, crossed the Abakan ridge, the Western Sayan Mountains and entered Tuva. Then she crossed the upper reaches of the Kemchik (the Yenisei basin), crossed several ridges and reached the slightly salty mountain lake Uureg-Nuur. Turning east and descending into the steppe, three weeks after leaving Tomsk the mission arrived at headquarters Mongol Khan near the closed lake Usap.

From here the travelers moved to the southeast, crossed the Khan-Khuhei - the northwestern spur of the Khangai Range - and the Khangai itself - and walked about 800 km along its southern slopes. At the bend of the Kerulen River we turned southeast and crossed the Gobi Desert. Before reaching Kalgan, Petlin saw the Great Wall of China for the first time.

At the end of August, the mission reached Beijing, where it negotiated with representatives of the Ming Dynasty government.

Due to the lack of gifts, Petlin was not received by Emperor Zhu Yijun, but received his official letter addressed to the Russian Tsar with permission for the Russians to again send embassies and trade in China; As for diplomatic relations, it was proposed to conduct them through correspondence. The charter remained untranslated for decades, until Spafari (a Russian diplomat and scientist; known for his scientific works and embassy to China) began studying it in preparation for his embassy. The common expression Chinese letter refers specifically to this document, which was in the embassy order, and the contents of which remained a mystery.

Returning to his homeland, Ivan Petlin presented in Moscow “a drawing and painting about the Chinese region.” His mission was of great importance, and the report on the trip - “Painting to the Chinese state and Lobinsky, and other states, residential and nomadic, and uluses, and the great Ob, and rivers and roads” - became the most valuable, most full description China, containing information about the land route from Europe to China through Siberia and Mongolia. Already in the first half of the 17th century, the “Painting” was translated into all European languages. 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 expanding the geographical horizons of his contemporaries.

Russian discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. Explorers of Siberia

The conquest of Siberia was accompanied by a very rapid expansion of geographical horizons. Less than 60 years had passed since Ermak's campaign (1581-1584), when the Russians crossed the entire continent of Asia from the Ural Range to the eastern limits of this part of the world: in 1639, the Russians first appeared on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Moskvitin's campaign (1639-1642)

Ataman Dmitry Kopylov, sent from Tomsk to the Lena, founded a winter hut in 1637 at the confluence of the Map and Aldan. In 1639 he sent the Cossack Ivan Moskvitin. They crossed the ridge and reached the Sea of ​​Okhotsk at the mouth of the river. Uli, west of present-day Okhotsk. In the coming years, people from Moskvitin’s detachment explored the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the east to the Tauiskaya Bay, and to the south along the river. Ouds. From the mouth, the Cossacks walked further east, towards the mouth of the Amur. He returned to Yakutsk in 1642.

Dezhnev's campaign (1648)

The Yakut Cossack, a native of Ustyug, Semyon Dezhnev, passed through the Bering Strait for the first time. On June 20, 1648, he left the mouth of the Kolyma to the east. In September, the researcher rounded the Big Stone Nose - now Cape Dezhnev - where he saw Eskimos. Opposite the cape he saw two islands. This refers to the Diomede or Gvozdev Islands located in the Bering Strait, on which the Eskimos lived then, as now. Then storms began, which carried Dezhnev’s boats across the sea until, after October 1, they were thrown south of the mouth of Anadyr; It took 10 weeks to walk from the crash site to this river. In the summer of the following year, Dezhnev built a winter quarters on the middle reaches of the Anadyr - later the Anadyr fort.

"Parcels" by Remezov

Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov - cartographer, historian and ethnographer, can rightfully be considered the first researcher of the Trans-Urals. Traveling on behalf of the Tobolsk authorities to collect rent throughout the central part of the West Siberian Plain and some other areas of the eastern slope of the Urals, i.e. being, as he put it, “on the premises,” he created a scheme for studying these territories, which was later implemented in an expanded form during the work of the Academic detachments of the Great Northern Expedition. At first, the description of the places visited was a secondary matter for Remezov. But since 1696, when he, as part of a military detachment, spent six months (April-September) in the waterless and impassable stone steppe beyond the river. Ishim, this activity became the main one. In the winter of 1696-1697. with two assistants he completed a survey of the Tobol basin. He plotted the main river from its mouth to the top, photographed its large tributaries - the Tura, Tavda, Iset and a number of rivers flowing into them, including the Miass and Pyshma.

The river also received a cartographic image. Irtysh from its confluence with the Ob to the mouth of the river. Tara and its three tributaries. In 1701, Remezov completed the compilation of the “Drawing Book of Siberia”. She played a huge role not only in the history of Russian, but also world cartography.

Discovery of Kamchatka by Atlasov

Information about Kamchatka was first received in the mid-17th century, through the Koryaks. But the honor of discovery and geographical description belongs to Vladimir Atlasov.

In 1696, Luka Morozko was sent from Anadyrsk to the Koryaks on the Opuka River (Opuka flows into the Berengov Sea). He penetrated much further south, precisely to the river. Tigil. At the beginning of 1697, Atlasov set off from Anadyrsk. From the mouth of the Penzhina we walked for two weeks on reindeer along the western shore of Kamchatka, and then turned east, to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, to the Koryaks - Olyutorians, who sit along the river. Olyutore. In February 1697, on Olyutor, Atlasov divided his detachment into two parts: the first went along the eastern bank of Kamchatka to the south, and the second part went with him to the western bank, on the river. Palan (flows into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk), from here to the mouth of the river. Tigil, and finally, on the river. Kamchatka, where he arrived on July 18, 1697. Here they first met the Kamchadals. From here Atlasov walked south along the western shore of Kamchatka and reached the river. Golygina, where the Kuril Islands lived. From the mouth of this river he saw the islands, meaning the northernmost of the Kuril Islands. From Golygina Atlasov across the river. Ichu returned to Anadyrsk, where he arrived on July 2, 1699. This is how Kamchatka was discovered. Atlasov made a geographical description of it.

Hiking E.P. Khabarova and I.V. Poryakova on Amur

Erofey Pavlovich Khabarov continued the work begun by another explorer, V.D. Poyarkov. Khabarov was originally from Veliky Ustyug (according to other sources, from Solvychegodsk). Life in his homeland was difficult, and debts forced Khabarov to go to the distant lands of Siberia. In 1632 he arrived on Lena. For several years he was engaged in the fur trade, and in 1641 he settled on empty land at the mouth of the river. Kirenga is the right tributary of the Lena. Here he started arable land, built a mill and a salt pan. But the Yakut governor P. Golovin took away both the arable land and the salt pan from Khabarov and transferred them to the treasury, and Khabarov himself was imprisoned. Only in 1645 did Khabarov leave prison “naked as a falcon.” In 1649, he arrived in the Ilimsk fort, where the Yakut governor stopped for the winter. Here Khabarov learned about the expedition of V.D. Poyarkov and asked permission to organize his expedition to Dauria, to which he received consent.

In 1649, Khabarov and his detachment climbed up the Lena and Olekma to the mouth of the river. Tungir. In the spring of 1650 they reached the river. Urki, a tributary of the Amur, fell into the possession of the Daurian prince Lavkay. The cities of the Daurs were abandoned by people. Each city had hundreds of houses, and each house housed 50 or more people. The houses were bright, with wide windows covered with oiled paper. Rich grain reserves were stored in the pits. Prince Lavkay himself was found near the walls of the third city, equally empty. It turned out that the Daurs, having heard about the detachment, got scared and fled. From the stories of the Daurs, the Cossacks learned that on the other side of the Amur lies a country richer than Dauria and that the Daurs pay tribute to the Manchu prince Bogdoy. And that prince had large ships with goods sailing along the rivers, and he had an army with cannons and arquebuses.

Khabarov understood that the forces of his detachment were small and he would not be able to capture the region where the population was hostile. Leaving about 50 Cossacks in the town of Lavkaya, in May 1650 Khabarov returned to Yakutsk for help. A report on the campaign and a drawing of Dauria were sent to Moscow. And Khabarov began to assemble a new detachment for a trip to Dauria. In the fall of 1650, he returned to the Amur and found the Cossacks abandoned near the fortified town of Albazin. The prince of this city refused to pay tribute, and the Cossacks tried to take the city by storm. With the help of Khabarov's detachment that arrived in time, the Daurs were defeated. The Cossacks captured many prisoners and large booty.

Throughout the history of mankind, numerous geographical discoveries have occurred, but only those that were made at the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th centuries were called Great. Indeed, never before or after this historical moment have there been discoveries of such magnitude and of such enormous significance for humanity. European navigators discovered entire continents and oceans, vast unexplored lands inhabited by peoples completely unfamiliar to them. The discoveries of that time amazed the imagination and revealed completely new prospects for development to the European world, which previously could not even be dreamed of.

Prerequisites for the Great Geographical Discoveries

The sailors of that era had not only a great goal, but also the means to achieve it. Progress in navigation led to the appearance in the 15th century. a new type of vessel capable of long ocean voyages. It was a caravel - a fast, maneuverable ship, the sailing equipment of which allowed it to move even in a headwind. At the same time, instruments appeared that made it possible to navigate on long sea voyages, primarily the astrolabe - a tool for determining geographical coordinates, latitude and longitude. European cartographers learned to make special navigation maps that made it easier to plot courses across the ocean.

The goal of the Europeans was India, which appeared to their imagination as a country with incalculable riches. India has been known in Europe since ancient times, and goods brought from there have always been in great demand. However, there were no direct connections with her. Trade was carried out through numerous intermediaries, and states located on the routes to India prevented the development of its contacts with Europe. The Turkish conquests of the late Middle Ages led to a sharp decline in trade, which was very profitable for European merchants. The countries of the East were superior to the West in terms of wealth and level of economic development at that time, so trade with them was the most profitable type of business activity in Europe.

After Crusades, as a result of which the European population became familiar with the values ​​of everyday Eastern culture, and its needs for luxury goods, other household goods and spices increased. Pepper, for example, was then literally worth its weight in gold. The need for gold itself also increased sharply, as the development of trade was accompanied by a rapid expansion of money circulation. All this prompted the search for new trade routes to the East, bypassing Turkish and Arab possessions. India was becoming magical symbol, who inspired brave sailors.

Swimming of Vasco da Gama

The Portuguese were the first to embark on the path of great discoveries. Portugal completed the Reconquista before other states of the Iberian Peninsula and transferred the fight against the Moors to North Africa. Throughout the 15th century. Portuguese sailors in search of gold, ivory and other exotic goods moved far south along the African coast. The inspiration for these voyages was Prince Enrique, who received the honorary nickname “Navigator” for this.

In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias discovered the southern tip of Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope. After this historic discovery, the Portuguese took a direct route across the Indian Ocean to the wonderland that beckoned them.

In 1497-1499. The squadron under the command of Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) made the first voyage to India and back, thus paving the most important trade route to the East, which was a long-standing dream of European sailors. In the Indian port of Calicut, the Portuguese purchased so many spices that the income from their sale was 60 times higher than the cost of organizing the expedition.

The sea route to India was discovered and charted, allowing Western European sailors to regularly make these extremely profitable voyages.

Discoveries of Christopher Columbus

Meanwhile, Spain joined the discovery process. In 1492, her troops crushed the Emirate of Granada - the last Moorish state in Europe. The triumphant completion of the Reconquista made it possible to direct the foreign policy power and energy of the Spanish state to new grandiose achievements.

The problem was that Portugal achieved recognition of its exclusive rights to the lands and sea routes discovered by its sailors. A way out of the situation was offered by advanced science of the time. The Italian scientist Paolo Toscanelli, convinced of the sphericity of the Earth, proved that you can reach India if you sail from Europe not to the east, but in the opposite direction - to the west.

Another Italian, a sailor from Genoa, Cristobal Colon, who went down in history under the Spanish name Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), developed on this basis a project for an expedition to find a western route to India. He managed to achieve his approval by the Spanish royal couple - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

X. Columbus

After a multi-day voyage, on October 12, 1492, his ships reached about. San Salvador, located near the coast of America. This day is considered the date of the discovery of America, although Columbus himself was convinced that he had reached the shores of India. That is why the inhabitants of the lands he discovered began to be called Indians.

Until 1504, Columbus made three more voyages, during which he made new discoveries in the Caribbean Sea.

Since the descriptions of the two “Indies” discovered by the Portuguese and the Spaniards differed sharply from each other, the names East (Eastern) and West (Western) Indies were assigned to them. Gradually the Europeans came to realize that it was not easy different countries, but even different continents. At the suggestion of Amerigo Vespucci, the lands discovered in the Western Hemisphere began to be called the New World, and soon the new part of the world was named after the insightful Italian. The name West Indies was assigned only to the islands located between the shores of North and South America. Not only India itself, but also other countries began to be called East Indies South-East Asia all the way to Japan.

Discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the first circumnavigation of the world

America, which at first did not bring much income to the Spanish crown, was seen as an annoying obstacle on the way to rich India, which stimulated further searches. Essential had the discovery of a new ocean on the other side of America.

In 1513, the Spanish conqueror Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the shores of a sea unknown to Europeans, which was first called the South Sea (in contrast to the Caribbean Sea, located north of the Isthmus of Panama). Subsequently it turned out that this is an entire ocean, which we now know as the Pacific. This is what Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), the organizer of the first circumnavigation of the world in history, called it.

F. Magellan

A Portuguese navigator who entered Spanish service, he was convinced that if he circumnavigated America from the south, it would be possible to reach India by the western sea route. In 1519 his ships set sail, and in next year Having crossed the strait named after the leader of the expedition, they entered the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Magellan himself died in a clash with the population of one of the islands, later called the Philippine Islands. During the voyage, most of his crew also died, but 18 of the 265 crew members, led by captain H.-S. El Cano, on the only surviving ship, completed the first voyage around the world in 1522, thus proving the existence of a single World Ocean connecting all the continents of the Earth.

The discoveries of sailors in Portugal and Spain gave rise to the problem of delimiting the possessions of these powers. In 1494, the two countries signed a treaty in the Spanish city of Tordesillas, according to which, through Atlantic Ocean, from the North Pole to the South Pole, a demarcation line was drawn. All over again open lands to the east of it they were declared the possession of Portugal, to the west - of Spain.

After 35 years, a new treaty was concluded delimiting the possessions of the two powers in the Pacific Ocean. This is how the first division of the world took place.

“The existence of such a path can be proven based on the spherical shape of the Earth.” It is necessary to “start sailing continuously to the west”, “to reach places where all kinds of spices and gems. Do not be surprised that I call the country where spices grow west, while they are usually called east, because people who constantly sail to the west reach these countries by sailing on the other side of the globe.”

“This country is worth seeking out for the Latins, not only because great treasures, gold, silver and all kinds of precious stones and spices can be obtained from there, but also for the sake of its learned people, philosophers and skilled astrologers, and also in order to find out how how such a vast and populous country is governed and how they conduct their wars.”

References:
V.V. Noskov, T.P. Andreevskaya / History from the end of the 15th century to late XVIII century

This change occurred earlier, in Russia - later. The changes reflected increased production, which required new sources of raw materials and markets. They imposed new conditions on science and contributed to the general rise of the intellectual life of human society. Geography also acquired new features. Travel enriched science with facts. They were followed by generalizations. This sequence, although not absolutely noted, is characteristic of both Western European and Russian science.

The era of great discoveries of Western sailors. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, outstanding events took place over three decades. geographical events: voyages of the Genoese H. to the Bahamas, to the mouth of the Orinoco and to the coast of Central America (1492-1504); around the South - the city of Callicut (1497-1498), F. and his companions (Juan Sebastian Elcano, Antonio Pigafetta, etc.) around and around South Africa (1519-1521) - the first circumnavigation.

The three main search paths - and Magellan - ultimately had one goal: to reach by sea the richest space in the world - from and other areas of this vast space. In three different ways: directly to the west, around South America and around South Africa, the sailors bypassed the state of the Ottoman Turks, which blocked the Europeans' land routes to South Asia. It is characteristic that variants of these world routes were subsequently repeatedly used by Russian navigators.

The era of great Russian discoveries. The heyday of Russian geographical discoveries occurred in the 16th-17th centuries. However, the Russians collected geographical information themselves and through their Western neighbors much earlier. Geographical data (from 852) is contained in the first Russian chronicle - “The Tale of Bygone Years” by Nestor. Russian city-states, developing, were looking for new natural sources of wealth and markets for goods. Novgorod, in particular, grew richer. In the 12th century. Novgorodians reached the sea. Voyages began to the west to Scandinavia, to the north - to Grumant (Spitsbergen) and especially to the northeast - to Taz, where the Russians founded the trading city of Mangazeya (1601-1652). Somewhat earlier, movement to the east began overland, through Siberia (Ermak, 1581-1584).

The rapid movement into the depths of Siberia and towards the Pacific Ocean is a heroic feat. It took them a little more than half a century to cross the space from to the strait. In 1632 the Yakut fort was founded. In 1639, Ivan Moskvitin reaches the Pacific Ocean near Okhotsk. Vasily Poyarkov in 1643-1646. walked from to Yana and Indigirka, the first of the Russian Cossack explorers to sail along the Amur Estuary and the Sakhalin Bay of the Sea. In 1647-48. Erofey Khabarov passes to the Sungari. And finally, in 1648, Semyon Dezhnev goes around from the sea, discovers the cape that now bears his name, and proves that he is separated from North America by a strait.

Gradually, elements of generalization acquire great importance in Russian geography. In 1675, the Russian ambassador, the educated Greek Spafarius (1675-1678), was sent to the city with instructions to “depict all the lands, cities and the route on the drawing.” Drawings, i.e. maps were documents of state importance in Russia.

Early Russian is known for the following four of its works.

1. Large drawing of the Russian state. Compiled in one copy in 1552. The sources for it were “scribal books”. The Great Drawing has not reached us, although it was renewed in 1627. The geographer of Peter’s time V.N. wrote about its reality. Tatishchev.

2. Book of the Big Drawing - text for the drawing. One of the later copies of the book was published by N. Novikov in 1773.

3. The drawing of the Siberian land was drawn up in 1667. It has reached us in copies. The drawing accompanies the “Manuscript against the drawing”.

4. The drawing book of Siberia was compiled in 1701 by order of Peter I in Tobolsk by S.U. Remizov and his sons. This is the first Russian geographical map of 23 with drawings of individual regions and settlements.

Thus, in Russia, too, the method of generalizations first became cartographic.

In the first half of the 18th century. Extensive geographical descriptions continued, but with an increasing importance of geographical generalizations. It is enough to list the main geographical events to understand the role of this period in the development of domestic geography. Firstly, an extensive long-term study of the Russian coast of the Arctic Ocean by detachments of the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-1743. and the expeditions of Vitus and Alexei Chirikov, who, during the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions, discovered the sea route from to (1741) and described part of the northwestern coast of this continent and some of the Aleutian Islands. Secondly, in 1724 it was established Russian Academy Sciences with the Geographical Department in its composition (since 1739). This institution was headed by the successors of Peter I, the first Russian geographers V.N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) and M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). They became organizers of detailed geographical research territories of Russia and themselves made a significant contribution to the development of theoretical geography, raising a galaxy of remarkable geographers and researchers. In 1742, M.V. Lomonosov wrote the first Russian work with theoretical geographical content - “On the Layers of the Earth.” In 1755, two Russian classic monographs on regional studies were published: “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” by S.P. Krashennikov and “Orenburg Topography” P.I. Rychkova. The Lomonosov period began in Russian geography - a time of reflection and generalizations.

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