#Discoveringtheworld by Europe

In the 30 days I was sailing across the North Pacific I had plenty of thinking time. There were many periods when the sails were set - the wind consistent - and the role of the watch was not much more than lookout. Sometimes these periods were for conversation with crew mates but others - especially when the wind and sea noise made hearing difficult I immersed myself in my own thoughts. This is not something I found difficult - it is something I have always loved doing. So be prepared for a lot more blogs as my thoughts unravel - ha!

On a personal note one thought I had was how much of my time is taken up with physical activity and the outdoors and how much I assume that will continue. However I recognise a bit of an imbalance maybe - particularly with advancing age - (do I really mean that ?) I think I need more desk top passions too - more academic vigour perhaps to keep the brain ticking over. I remember chatting with my crew mates on deck and asking "if you were on Mastermind what would your specialist subject be ? " - only to realise - perhaps other than sport I had no answer myself !

There were times in the Pacific when we were literally a thousand miles from nearest landfall. We were isolated in the middle of the ocean. (it did feel immense). However with GPS and modern navigation we always knew where we were on the surface of the earth and of course we understand the world is round and how the continents and oceans are mapped out. Stating the obvious for our forbears that was not always the case and I started thinking about how the world was discovered - who did it and when and how. I had a vague idea from my knowledge of history but began to imagine what it would be like. I started thinking about setting off in a wooden boat - with inefficient sails - no modern materials (no nylon or Gortex!) - no modern navigation systems - no gas to cook by - no modern food packaging - little health care -  and most of all no knowledge of where you were heading and might find (was the earth flat?) I particularly had this train of thought as we entered the Strait of Juan de Luca from the Pacific - now Canada on the left USA on the right - almost a stones throw away! Imagine being the first and not knowing what you were heading into. Epic! Who were the people who did it. What were their circumstances and motivations. How did it come about? I would like to know - ha! Anyway I have set the scene - I have a new interest. As usual I am putting it in a blog - mainly for my own benefit - as a record - and as a way of thinking out loud so to speak.

One of the books I have at home is a Penguin addition of The History of the World by J M Roberts. I have dipped into it from time to time over the years and have done so again in the last day or two with my new interest in mind! I came across this and I précis it below as a starting point! So here goes :-

• While as early as 600AD Pythagoras maths and Ptolemaic astronomy had determined the world was round it was still a matter of speculation in 1400. Was the world flat? Could you fall off the edge?
• In 1400 it still seemed sensible to see Jerusalem as the centre of the world - with a world made up of three continents Europe, Asia and Africa around the shores of one land locked sea - the Mediterranean. Until this time Europe's contact with the East had been made over land - not by sea travel. Goods were shipped through Asia by caravan trains and ships rarely ventured south of Morocco.
• Also around this time a defined Europe was under threat from the East and was hemmed in by the consolidation of Christian Russia and in the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire of Islam. The Crusades against Islam had run their course by 1250. Europe was landlocked and thus they had to look to the oceans as a potential source to find new land and wealth - this was the motivation.
• Around 1400 it is understood there were real advances in both ship design and navigation skills that made ocean crossing more realistic. The ships adopted a stern rudder and improvements were made to the rigging - more masts and sails allowed boats to be able to sail closer to the wind and therefore become more manoeuvrable. On navigation a coherent approach had developed over several centuries to come together at this time. Vikings (who had crossed the Atlantic centuries before) had shown how to use the Pole Star and sun to follow a line of latitude - the use of the compass - originally from China - and then from the Mediterranean and in 1270 the first reference to the use of a chart. Spurred on by the prospect of commercial prizes, missionary zeal and diplomatic possibilities European princes invested much money in research - employing cartographers and hydrographers. Foremost was the King of Portugal's brother - to become known as Henry the Navigator (by chance I visited his monument near Lisbon late last year).
• The 14th century could be known as the age of "Reconnaissance".
• The Portugese had a long Atlantic coast - they were land locked by Spain and virtually barred from Mediterranean trade by Italian dominant control. Consequently they were foremost in looking to push out into the Atlantic and Henry the Navigator was foremost in fostering expeditions at this time.
• The Portugese gradually started pushing south hugging the Africa coast and settled in Madeira in the 1420's. 10 years later it was the Azores and in 1445 Senegal. In 1473 they crossed the equator and 1487 were at Cape of Good Hope (around which lay the Indian Ocean).
• In 1498 Vasco de Gama at last dropped anchor in Indian waters.
• By this time Christopher Columbus - an Italian working for Spain had crossed the Atlantic (confident in the light of Greek - Ptolemaic - astronomic calculation ) looking for the other end of Asia only to discover the New World - the Americas - for the Catholic monarchs of Spain. Columbus did not realise what he had found - he thought it was part of Asia. He had found a known continent by a brave new route! (he referred to it as the "West Indies". Columbus refused to acknowledge he had found a new continent but by 1494 the term "New World" was first used. (Not until 1726 was it realised Asia and The New World were not joined but separated by the Bering Straits.)
• These two enterprising discovering nations - Portugal and Spain worked together to come to understandings about "their" respective interests in the widening horizons they had discovered for themselves. The Pope acknowledge treaties dividing up the new discoveries between them.
• In 1500  a Portugese squadron aiming for the Indian Ocean - was blown deep into the Atlantic - to reach an unknown landfall - which turned out to be Brazil!! While in the main Portugal continued to concentrate on the East they also developed an interest in the Atlantic side and an Italian in Portugese service - Amerigo Vespucci - ran far enough south in "America" to confirm it was not island but a new continent. Before long the continent became named after him and when the North was subsequently discovered this was named after him too.
• By 1522 the Portugese  Ferdinand Magellan sailing under the Spanish flag completed the first voyage around the world - ( proving it was not flat). Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines and therefore did not personally complete the voyage but his ship did. The Straits of Magellan were names after him. They form the route around Chile from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Thereafter the world expanded and trade flourished. While the way had been lead by the Portugese and Spanish they were joined and exceeded by France and Holland. Subsequently everyone was surpassed by the English over the next 200 years when discovery often became conquest. 

Maps became atlases of the world and although crude - recognisable as we know the world to be laid out today. The Dutchman Gerhard Kremer drafted his Mercator maps - and was the first map maker to use the term America on a map. (However while navigation techniques had improved it was not until the 18th century that a time piece was invented for ship carriage that was accurate enough for exact sailing.)

So this was the expansion and influence of Europe. Jerusalem was no longer seen as the centre of the world. Empires would be built and the world changed forever.

What I have in mind now is to read about the voyages and lives of the great discoverers - Columbus, de Gama, Vespucci and Magellan for instance - and where does Captain Cook fit into it? Lets see where it takes me - ha!