THE URGE TO E>.

Myths and mistakes

The Urge to Explore Before people began

pans of the world th-:
I

They found it hard to

stones.
such an amazing beast as an e
tell fact fron

SlNCE THE EARLIEST TIMES, people have explored their an eagle so large ii

surroundings. They have crossed the hottest deserts, climbed claws 7 Early expk -
its

brave because they had to face sc

the highest mountains, and sailed the widest seas. They have fnghtening superstitions and le

struggled through steamy jungles to find an unknown plant hundred years ago sailors fearec
they sailed too far across the ocea:
and brought back weird creatures from the ocean floor.
ship might disappt ;

Today, a new adventure in exploration is beginning. We of the earth and fa The

Portuguese who started to ex
are finding out about the surroundings of the earth itself.
the coast of A:

Already men have walked on the moon. Spacecraft the 15th cer.
feared that when they
traveling through the solar system have sent back reached the equator the
news of other planets, and one day men and women sun might turn them
black and make the sea boil.
may travel to other planets too.
All explorers have in common the human trait of
curiosity.However, curiosity was not the only reason for T*
many journeys of discovery. Explorers always had more =/P /r
y
practical reasons for setting out, for example to search
for land or treasure. Others hoped to find valuable trade
or new routes to countries that produced the
goods they wanted. Some Claiming new lands
were missionaries, who felt When Europeans began to explore the
world in the 15th century, ihey often
a duty to convert people to acted as if it belonged to them When
their own religion. Some they reached a land where the people
seemed pnmitive to them because they
were fishermen, or miners, were not Chnstians. the Europeans took
or merchants, looking for over the land on behalf of their own
king and country. The result was that
a better living. centuries later a large pan of the world,
including all of North and South Amc
and most of AI me European
colonies In ir this had temble
people

Trade
There is a saying that trade follows ihc flag In other woi
when explorers find new lands, traders soon follow However, it
would be more accurate to say that "the flag follows trade' It was
irch for trade and trade routes that resulted in Europn
discovery ol all the world's oceans and continents during the
L 5th and 16th centuries The famou -uch
as I olumbus and Magellan, arose Irom the d<
to lind a sea route to the markets ol the ai ast where valuable
I I

goods slk h as silk and spices could be bought Columbus did

not -et out to discover a new continent He was hopir.
reach China and Japan, and died insisting that he had doru
Magellan did not intend to sail around the world He was hoping
to lind a new route lor trade with the Molucc e Islands

Mapmaking
Most European maps from I

Religion show the world as a flat disk On

Unlike many other religions, c hristianit) continents are shown - and
claims to he universal Sincere Christians Africa - as th.
therefore believed it was theii duty to was unknown The lop ol the ma
convert other people to c hristianit) and at the exact center of the woi
European expeditions u> the Americas ilem. the Holy Cuv |er.

included pi tests, w hose |oh was not only placed at the center ol the earth
to hold services fot the I uropean members that is where the Bi

ol the expedition, hut also 10 ( omen the as these W

local people Priests oi the lesuit Ordei hooks and are really mc
(founded in1540) were especiall) active pictures than the)
as missionai ies, both in the Amerii as and Church taught that the earth
in the ai East. One ol them, st
I laneis 1 Although the . at it

Xavici was the first European to visit

,
w as not - and this knov
|apan, and another, Fathei Marquette, died out - mos
discovered the Mississippi River. without question that the