In the geographical discovery, the newly discovered areas mainly refer to

European navigators opened up new routes and "discovered"

Generally speaking, it is an important event in the history of geographical development. It should be said that the representative of any civilized nation first reaches an unknown part of the earth's surface, or determines the spatial relationship between known parts of the earth's surface, so as to deepen the scientific understanding of the geographical characteristics of the earth and promote the development of geography, which can be called geographical discovery. Before the fifteenth century, only uninhabited continents like Antarctica and some islands and oceans were unknown to mankind. The land and islands inhabited by uncivilized countries are only known to civilized countries. During the long period from the emergence of ancient civilization to the 15th century, various civilized nations have made many discoveries in vast areas outside the birthplace of ancient culture and accumulated rich geographical knowledge, the most important of which is the formation of the concept of the earth sphere. 1409, Ptolemy's Geographic Guide, which was lost for more than 1000 years, was translated into Latin, and the theory of spherical earth was widely circulated. However, it is impossible for ancient scholars to directly verify the shape of the earth, and rarely can they accurately determine the size of the earth and the distribution of marine land. 15~

The discovery of new routes from Europe to India, the discovery of America and the success of global navigation have successfully solved this problem, which has made mankind's understanding of the earth leap forward. These events are often referred to as

. In western Europe, Portugal first launched a large-scale maritime adventure.

In the early days,

Henry

In order to obtain gold, ivory and slaves, geographical research institutions were established, and expeditions to the west coast of Africa were organized many times. Madeira Island and Cape Verde Islands were discovered successively, and they sailed along Africa from Gibraltar.

Arrive in the Gulf of Guinea. 1473, Portuguese ships sailed across the equator and then reached the mouth of Congo. 1487, Diaz's expedition reached the southern tip of Africa, found the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean. 1497, the fleet led by da gama continued along the Diaz route, passing through Mozambique on the east coast of Africa.

1498 to Kallikat, southwest India, opened a route from the Atlantic Ocean to India, bypassing the southern tip of Africa, thus breaking the situation that Arabs control the Indian Ocean route. Portugal monopolized the trade between Europe and East Asia and South Asia through the new air route and became a maritime power. While the Portuguese opened up new routes, the Spanish rulers also tried their best to expand overseas.

The discovery of America is the most important harvest of this expansion.

It is believed that the earth is spherical, and that sailing from Europe to the west can reach India and China in the east.

Get a plan to fly west.

And the queen's support. 1492, he has it.

To the queen

Credentials, led the fleet from palos Port, sailed westward after passing the Canary Islands, and successively arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and other islands. But Columbus mistakenly thought that the Bahamas was the jurisdiction of India and put the local

Residents call it

And mistakenly thought that Cuba was a province of China. From 1493 to 1496, 1498 ~ 1500 and 1502 ~ 1504, Columbus made the second, third and fourth voyages, and successively discovered Dominica.

Coast. On the third voyage, I landed on the American continent for the first time in the Gulf of Paria. Columbus didn't realize until his death that these places he discovered were not China and India, but a piece.

. Later, Italy

When Ameriks Vespuchus arrived in the United States, he realized that this was a place.

. After people realized that the land on the west coast of the Atlantic was not Asia, but a new continent, people's geographical vision expanded. Spain, 15 13

Balboa crossed.

Isthmus, seeing the southwest sea, he put

This area is called the South China Sea (now the Pacific Ocean). In order to reach Asia, people try to find a strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the South China Sea, or a corner like the Cape of Good Hope. Based on this desire, Portugal

Magellan is at

With the support of, started a new voyage exploration activities. Magellan has participated in the Portuguese expedition and has been to Africa, India, Sumatra, Java, Banda Islands and

Straits and other places. He believes in the theory that the earth is spherical. 15 19, Magellan led the fleet, set out from the Spanish port of San Rugar, passed through the Canary Islands, and reached the east coast of South America, that is, went south along the coast, crossed the strait named after him between the South American continent and Tierra del Fuego, and entered the "South China Sea". At first, it turned northwest, and then turned west. The fleet has never encountered a storm during its voyage, that is to say, it is called the Pacific Ocean. 152 1 year, the fleet arrived in the Philippine islands, and Magellan was there.

Killed in the conflict. The rest of Magellan's fleet is at 1522 "

"Return to the port of San Rugar, complete the voyage around the world.

After that, the most favorable trade routes from Europe to India, Indonesia, China and America were occupied by Spain and Portugal. In order to develop maritime trade, the Netherlands and Britain began to look for new routes to India and China in high latitudes, and

Other fields.

The Barents Sea in the Netherlands made three voyages to explore the routes from the north to China and India.

Regionally, Bear Island and Spitsbergen Island have been discovered successively, reaching the northernmost part of Xindi Island, Kara Sea and Varga Island.

At the beginning, Hudson of Britain had explored the classics many times.

The route to China; Short arrived at Cape Horn at the southern tip of America in 16 16; Tasman of the Netherlands sailed around Australia from 1642 to 1643 and discovered New Zealand and Tasmania. These voyages further expanded human geographical knowledge, made some scientific investigations on ocean currents and wind systems, and made actual measurements on islands and land. By the18th century, Cook's ocean exploration had already belonged to the category of scientific investigation. 14、

At that time, European countries already had

Finally, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There is an urgent need to find markets and raw materials from overseas. but

Firmly controlled the east-west trade routes, and the routes from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean were in the hands of Arabs. In this case, in order to expand their commercial and colonial activities, these countries actively encouraged navigation and opened up new routes. This is to promote

The main reason. Second, European businessmen and

Greed for gold is another reason for the great geographical discovery. In addition, Spain and Portugal are both located in Europe, protruding from the Atlantic Ocean, and their geographical positions are also conducive to the development of the maritime industry. The great discovery of geography has caused people's ideological changes and greatly promoted the progress of earth science and the development of European capitalism. Ancient scholars' guesses about the spherical shape of the earth were confirmed by the great discovery of geography, especially the voyage around the world, and the religious superstition about the shape of the earth was finally denied. Prove that there is a unified world ocean on the earth. Compared with land, the ocean occupies most of the earth's surface, which promotes the investigation and research of the global ocean and land. It promotes the progress of earth science, and also promotes the development of astronomy, navigation, weather forecasting and the modernization of shipbuilding technology. Promoted Europe's

The emergence of the world market began colonial plunder and promoted the economic development of western European countries.