Expeditions in Antiquity and the Age of Discovery

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There was a time when maps were full of blank spaces, sea monsters and legendsEvery uncharted stretch of coastline was a mystery, and every ocean, a gamble. From very early on, different civilizations set out to fill those gaps: some for trade, others for lust for power, religious curiosity, or pure personal ambition.

Over the centuries, those first expeditions by Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arab explorers or Chinese gave way to a veritable Age of DiscoveryLed primarily by the Portuguese and Castilians, and later by the Dutch, French, English, and Russians, the conquest of the Americas resulted in an interconnected world, new trade routes, colonial empires, and also enormous human tragedies for many peoples who had not asked to be discovered.

From early voyages to global routes

Long before Columbus or Magellan, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean were already the scene of large-scale voyages, military campaigns, and trade missionsAround 3500 BC, Egyptian ships sailed the Nile, and soon after they ventured beyond its banks into the Mediterranean. Around 3000 BC, expeditions to Nubia sought gold, slaves, and raw materials.

In Mesopotamia, figures such as Lugalzagesi of Uruk or Sargon of Akkad They extended their dominion from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, creating the first political "image" of the known world. At the same time, sailors from the Egyptian and Phoenician spheres explored the coasts of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, laying the groundwork for routes that, centuries later, would be used by the Persians and Greeks.

The Phoenicians, with cities like Tyre and Carthage, were involved in some of the most remarkable voyages: Hanno the Navigator He would have advanced along the African Atlantic coast as far as, probably, the Gulf of Guinea, establishing trading posts and leaving accounts of volcanoes and hairy beings that some have identified as gorillas. Another Phoenician navigator, Himilco, is said to have reached the British coast by sea, crossing the Pillars of Hercules.

In parallel, the Egyptian authorities organized missions to the enigmatic Land of Punt (probably in the Horn of Africa region), while Pharaoh Necho II, according to Herodotus, commissioned Phoenician sailors to circumnavigate Africa, sailing from the Red Sea and returning via the Mediterranean. Herodotus doubted the account, but he recorded a detail that today fits perfectly with astronomical reality: the sailors said that, at one point during the voyage, they saw the sun in the north at midday, something that only occurs when crossing into the Southern Hemisphere.

Greek and Roman explorers at the edge of the known world

Among the Greeks, names like Pytheas of MassiliaEudoxus of Cyzicus or Alexander the Great. Pytheas, a Marseillais of the 4th century BC, set out to find new trade routes that would escape Carthaginian control of the Strait of Gibraltar. We don't know for sure how he evaded the blockade, but we do know that he followed the Atlantic coast to the British Isles in search of tin, and from there continued north.

In his lost work "On the Ocean", which we know thanks to later authors, he describes a place called ThuleSix days' sail further north of Great Britain, where the sun barely set in summer and the sea seemed a mixture of water and ice. Many identify this Thule with Iceland, Norway, or the Faroe Islands. He also spoke of the Northern Lights, the midnight sun, and, according to Pliny, the amber trade in areas that could correspond to the Baltic. What is astonishing is that he did so with ships designed for the Mediterranean, probably relying on local pilots.

Eudoxus of Cyzicus, for his part, was a Greek navigator in the service of the Ptolemies of Egypt in the 2nd century BC. Sent by Ptolemy VIII, he organized voyages to India, making conscious use for the first time of the monsoon windsHe would set sail with the favorable monsoon and return with the changing seasons. On one of his voyages, a storm diverted him to the Horn of Africa, where he found the figurehead of a Phoenician ship, supposedly from Gadir (Cádiz). This discovery fueled his obsession with the idea of ​​circumnavigating Africa from the Atlantic: he set sail from Gadir, sailed south using the Gulf of Guinea current to latitudes near Cameroon, found uninhabited islands with water (probably the Canary Islands or Cape Verde), and dreamed of finding a monsoon-like wind pattern in the Atlantic. His account is lost, but his figure aptly symbolizes the Greek drive to push boundaries.

In the military field, the paradigmatic example is Alexander the GreatBetween 336 and 324 BC, he led his armies from Macedonia to India, crossing Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and the Hindu Kush mountains. He did not merely conquer: he founded cities (many named Alexandria), opened trade routes, mixed populations, and fostered cultural and economic exchange. His Hellenistic empire extended Greek culture to the easternmost reaches of the world, while incorporating local elements, laying the foundations for what we later call the classical world.

Rome inherited and expanded upon that momentum. Under the empire, authors such as Strabo or Pliny the Elder They compiled information from travelers, soldiers, and merchants about Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is known that, on Nero's orders, a detachment of the Praetorian Guard sailed up the Nile to search for its sources and gather information for a possible attack against the kingdom of Meroe. They passed the cataracts, crossed desert areas, reached marshy territories (recognizable today as the Sudd of the White Nile), and described large bodies of water gushing out between rocks, probably a waterfall connected to Lake Albert. They advanced some 1.500 kilometers beyond the Egyptian limes before returning with military and commercial reports.

Furthermore, Roman legions and merchants They ventured into the Sahara and West Africa in search of gold, slaves, and new routes to the Niger River or Lake Chad; others followed caravan trails into Central Asia. Their motivations combined curiosity with economic interest and strategic control.

Long-distance routes: from the Silk Road to Zheng He's Chinese fleets

Meanwhile, other networks were being woven from the East. Under the emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC), the envoy Zhang Qian opened contact between China and Central Asia, giving rise to what Europeans would later call the Silk Road. This network was not a single route, but a network of land and river routes which, starting from Chinese cities like Xian, branched out into multiple routes towards Bukhara, Samarkand, Baghdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Alexandria or Black Sea ports.

They used to travel through those corridors silks and spicesPrecious stones, paper, astronomical and mathematical knowledge, but also religions, epidemics, and tales from distant lands. The eastern Mediterranean (Alexandria, Aleppo, Damascus) acted as a veritable "curtain" that filtered what reached Western Europe, largely monopolized by Arab merchants and Italian cities like Venice and Genoa.

At the same time, there was a maritime route to India and China Departing from Egypt or Mesopotamia, ships sailed to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf and crossed the Indian Ocean, again taking advantage of the monsoons. Between April and June, the southwest monsoon pushed the ships toward Asia; between October and December, the northeast monsoon brought them back. For centuries, Arab sailors dominated this trade, establishing enclaves in the Indian Ocean such as Zanzibar and trading in slaves, gold, ivory, and spices.

In the 15th century, Ming China staged a series of spectacular maritime expeditions under the command of Admiral ZhengHe (1371-1435). Equipped with enormous junks of up to nine masts, early compasses, and advanced nautical charts, Zheng He led seven voyages between 1405 and 1433 that took him through Southeast Asia (Cochinchina, Malacca, Siam, Java), India (Calcutta, Sri Lanka), the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and Egypt. He brought back giraffes, ostriches, leopards, and lions as exotic gifts for the emperor, and some authors have argued—without full academic consensus—that his fleets may even have reached the Americas.

The relevant point is that, while Europe was still organizing itself after the Black Death and the medieval wars, China was already technically prepared to dominate the Indian OceanHowever, internal political changes cut short this momentum; long voyages were prohibited, some records were destroyed, and naval expansionism ceased to be the priority. This opened a window of opportunity that the Portuguese and Castilians would seize decades later.

Why Europe ventured into the oceans

In late medieval and Renaissance Europe, several factors converged that pushed towards overseas expansion. On the one hand, demand for oriental products The demand skyrocketed: spices (pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg), silks, porcelain, dyes like indigo, perfumes, carpets, pearls, and diamonds. Spices weren't just an exotic whim: they helped preserve food, masked the flavors of spoiled meat, had medicinal uses, and, of course, added flavor to bland dishes.

The problem was that, after the expansion of the Ottoman Turks and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the land routes and some trade corridors were cut off. increased prices or blockedThe Italian cities, which monopolized much of this trade, maintained their profit margins, but for other emerging powers, Ottoman control was little less than a strategic embargo. Some historians have compared this closure to what a sudden cutoff of the oil supply would mean today.

At the same time, Europe was suffering a chronic shortage of precious metals (Monetarist thesis): Without sufficient gold and silver, the monetary system faltered and economic activity suffered. The idea of ​​finding new sources of gold, silver, and precious stones overseas was tremendously attractive to kings, bankers, and merchants.

Added to this was a changing social context: feudal society was giving way to an increasingly powerful urban bourgeoisie, cities were growing, Gutenberg's printing press (mid-15th century) allowed for the rapid sharing of maps, travelogues, and technical treatises, and the Humanism and the Renaissance They began to question dogmas and to place experience and observation above pure scholastic authority.

In the Iberian Peninsula, the long Reconquest The conflict with the Muslim kingdoms had forged a class of warrior nobles and younger sons who, once the conquest of Granada was completed in 1492, sought new arenas in which to gain honor, land, and plunder. The system of primogeniture reserved the inheritance for the firstborn son, so many younger sons saw warfare in Africa or oceanic expeditions as a path to social advancement.

From a technical point of view, the Iberians were pioneers in combining Arab and European contributions in new types of ships such as the carrack and the caravelWith robust hulls and lateen and square sails that allowed for better maneuverability and the ability to leave the "calm" Mediterranean to face the Atlantic. Cartography schools like the one promoted around Henry the Navigator in Sagres, along with instruments such as the astrolabe and the pivot compass, were crucial for venturing out to sea.

Portugal opens the African route and reaches Asia

Almost from its birth as a kingdom, Portugal was compelled to look to the sea: it only had a land border with Castile, so The Atlantic Ocean was its natural route of expansion.Under the impetus of Henry the Navigator, the crown financed a systematic program of exploration of the West African coast. The Portuguese rounded new capes year after year.

In 1434, Gil Eanes overcame the dreaded Corporal BojadorThis was a psychological boundary, the "end of the world" for many medieval sailors. From there, expeditions continued to Río de Oro (present-day Senegal), the Niger Delta, and the Gulf of Guinea; trading posts such as Arguim and the fortress of Elmina were founded. The riches of Africa were discovered in the form of gold, slaves, timber, ivory, fish, and later, sugar.

The Portuguese colonized archipelagos such as Madeira, Azores, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principewhich served as supply stops on the journey south and as highly profitable sugar plantations. In 1487, Bartolomé Díaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope, demonstrating that it was possible to access the Indian Ocean via southern Africa.

A decade later, in 1497, statue of Vasco da Gama He set sail for India. After skirting the east African coast, crossing between Madagascar and the continent, and following the monsoon routes, he reached Calicut in 1498. He had finally achieved what for centuries had been a European dream: a direct sea route to the rich lands of spices, without going through Muslim intermediaries or Asian caravans.

In the following years, Portugal consolidated its presence in key locations: Mozambique, Goa, Malacca, Hormuz, Macau, and East Timor. It built a chain of fortresses and coastal enclaves to control the main trade routes, although it rarely ventured deep inland. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral's expedition, diverted westward possibly as much by design as by accident, made landfall on the coast of what would be called Brazil, within the strip that the Treaty of Tordesillas reserved for the Portuguese.

Brazil, with its logwood, sugar, and later gold and diamonds, eventually attracted a large portion of Portugal's resources, as the Portuguese lacked the population and means to simultaneously sustain a vast empire in Asia and another in the Americas and Africa. Over time, the Dutch, French, and British seized Portuguese trading posts in the Indian Ocean, although Portugal maintained colonies such as Angola, Mozambique, Goa, and Macau for centuries, until it was classified as “the last Western empire”.

Castile and the opening of the western Atlantic

Castile, focused for decades on the Granada War, arrived somewhat late to the ocean race. Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) Portugal was granted primacy south of the Canary Islands, which remained under Castile's control. Once the Reconquista was complete and the internal situation stabilized, the Catholic Monarchs could look to the sea with new eyes.

In 1492, they decided to finance the project of Christopher ColumbusA Genoese man convinced he could reach Asia by sailing west. After 72 days at sea, on October 12, the expedition sighted land in the Caribbean. Columbus died convinced he had reached the "Indies," but in reality, he had brought Europe into contact with a continent unknown to Eurasia: America.

The first voyages to the Caribbean proved disappointing in terms of spices and precious metals, but crops such as [unclear - possibly "spice" or "coffee"] soon emerged. corn, potato and cocoaCassava, tomatoes, tobacco, and peppers, in addition to potential gold and silver mines. The political problem was how to divide the world between Castile and Portugal: Tratado de tordesillas (1494) set an imaginary line 370 leagues west of Cape Verde, reserving for Portugal what remained to the east (Africa, Asia and the eastern part of South America) and Castile what was discovered to the west.

In the following decades, the Spanish explored and conquered vast territories in the American continent. lover He seized the Aztec empire with the support of peoples subjugated by Tenochtitlan and the devastating effect of diseases such as smallpox. Francisco Pizarro He did the same with the Inca Empire. Other explorers, such as Francisco de Orellana, made the first complete descent of the Amazon from the Andes to the Atlantic, leaving accounts full of encounters with indigenous populations, famines, riots, and supposed tribes of warrior women who inspired the river's name.

In 1519, while Cortés was landing in Mexico, Charles I financed the great expedition of Fernando de Magallanes With a clear objective: to find a passage to the South Sea (the Pacific) by sailing west and reach the Spice Islands (Moluccas) within the Castilian zone according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. After numerous internal conflicts, mutinies, and desertions, the fleet located the strait that today bears the name of Magellan and sailed out into the Pacific.

Magellan died in the Philippines in a clash with natives, but Juan Sebastian Elcano He took command of the Victoria and returned to Sanlúcar in 1522 after circumnavigating the globe. Not only was it empirically proven that the Earth was round and the ocean map completely mapped, but a strategic westward route to Asia was opened, although too long and expensive to immediately compete with the Portuguese route; these voyages also initiated contact with distant islands in the Pacific, such as the history of Easter Island.

The expansion of other European powers and polar explorations

France, England, and the future Netherlands did not accept the papal division of the world and, when their internal circumstances allowed, fully entered the colonial race. Navigators like John Cabot In the service of England or Jacques Cartier on behalf of France, they explored the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador and the St. Lawrence, partly in search of an unattainable Northwest Passage to Asia.

In the 17th century, private companies such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC) They founded strategic colonies at the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) to supply their fleets bound for Asia. In North America, English settlements such as Jamestown and Plymouth emerged, as well as French settlements like Quebec and New Orleans. The English would eventually seize territories from the Dutch and French, imposing their hegemony over much of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Russia, for its part, experienced continuous eastward expansion. After the defeat of the Tatars, Cossacks and settlers moved inland. SiberiaDriven by the fur trade, they crossed giant rivers like the Yenisei and the Lena in just a few decades, reaching the Pacific. Later, explorers like Semyon Dezhnev and, in the 18th century, Vitus Bering, revealed the existence of the strait between Siberia and Alaska, which bears the latter's name.

Over time, the poles and the last unmapped regions of the planet became the new target. In the Arctic and Antarctic, expeditions like those of Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Wally Herbert and Ranulph Fiennes They pushed human endurance to the limit, not so much to conquer empires as for science, national prestige and pure sporting ambition.

Amundsen managed to cross the Northwest Passage With the young Gjøa (1903-1906), he later flew over the North Pole in the airship Norge and, in Antarctica, led the Fram expedition that reached the South Pole in 1911 ahead of Scott's group. Shackleton, with his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, failed in his attempt to cross the Antarctic continent, but managed to save his entire crew after the sinking of the Endurance in an epic of extreme survival.

As the 20th century progressed, polar expeditions became increasingly scientific and less colonial, but they continued to produce astonishing feats: unsupported crossings with dog sleds or skis, forced wintering, flights and aerial mapping, glaciological and climatic studies fundamental to understanding the current planet.

Looking at the entire journey, from the Egyptian ships on the Nile, the Phoenicians skirting Africa, the Greeks dreaming of Thule, Alexander's cavalcade, the caravans of the Silk Road, Zheng He's fleets, the Portuguese rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus and Magellan completing the map, to Shackleton's ships trapped in the ice, one sees the same driving force: Connecting spaces, trading, imposing power, but also satisfying an almost irrational curiosity about what lies beyond the horizon.That mixture of ambition, fear, economic calculation, religious fanaticism, science, and a thirst for adventure is what has gradually filled all the gaps on the maps.