Migration into Polynesia
prehistory (no written records)
migration begins ~2500 BC
Phoenicians: 1500-1000 BC
earliest culture with extensive coastal trading
homeland of Phoenicia equivalent to modern Lebanon & Israel
continued until Carthage conquered by Romans in 146 BC
Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa;
the first to use the Pole Star for navigation;
traded throughout the Mediterranean and into
the Indian Ocean
Greeks: from 500 BC, dominant culture in Mediterranean
carried on coastal trading tradition of the Phoenicians
Map: The world according to Herodotus, 450 B.C.
The early Greeks believed that the Mediterranean was surrounded by land, which was encircled by water.
A librarian at Alexandria
Field “experiment” to determine the curvature of the Earth compared Sun angle in a well at Syene with the shadow of a wall in Alexandria
Calculated the Earth's circumference:
40,000 km (24,840 mi)
More precise, modern measurement: 40,032 km (24,860 mi)
The
Ptolematic System was used to calculate the motions of the planets and other
celestial bodies
Ptolemy developed the geographic system of latitude and longitude
The Geography (c. 150 A.D.), Ptolemy gives the prime objectives of cartography, and how to make maps on various regions. He discussed the known continents at that time: Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Ptolemy’s Atlas was considered without error
at the time.
However, it overestimated
the Asian landmass, and grossly underestimated the width of the oceans. A primary reason that Columbus thought that
he had reached eastern Asia.
With the decline of the Roman Empire, there was also a
degeneration in geographic knowledge.
Religious dogma supplanted scientific inquiry and interpretations. This map of the Earth is a flat rectangle.
Starting in
early 800s AD
Advances in ship building
Vikings colonized Iceland by 900 AD and settled
Greenland.
They were the first Europeans to reach
North America in 985.
Normans (Vikings) conquer England
1066.
Viking settlements collapsed with start of Little Ice Age (1430-1850).
From approx
800 AD
Arabian
traders sailed the Indian Ocean, and possibly discovered New Zealand.
Major trading routes established by Arabs in the Indian Ocean; they took advantage of changes in the wind direction with the monsoons.
Used magnetic compasses, invented by the Chinese in 4th
Century.
Possibly discovered New Zealand: The passage at top is from Volume 6, where Al-Idrisi described an exploration by Arab explorers around 790 AD of the Southern Ocean, and their discovery of a large, mountainous land-mass.
South-east of New Guinea is nothing but ocean - and New
Zealand.
Early 1400’s – major exploration of the
Indian Ocean and around Africa
Invented
the compass around 200 AD
Probably started using for navigation 800-1000 AD
Zheng commanded 317 ships and
37,000 men, and visited 37 countries.
China
greatly reduced all maritime trade after Zheng’s death.
Recent archeological evidence that Zheng
probably circumnavigated the world ocean with a fleet of vessels;
colonized western South and Central America;
the death of the emperor and a series of
calamities caused Chinese regime to expunge all evidence of the journey from
state records
1441 Portuguese navigators cruise West Africa
1450 Prince Henry establishes a Naval observatory
1470 Portuguese discover Africa's Gold Coast
1492 Columbus sets sail
1497 Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope and reaches India
1497 Cabot searches for Northwest Passage
1512 England builds double-deck warships
1519 Magellan begins global circumnavigation
1534 Jacques Cartier enters the St. Lawrence River
1577 Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe
1609 Henry Hudson explores Hudson River
First European to circumnavigate the ocean
Killed in the Philippines in 1521
British and French were
competing in technology as well as for empire-building
The chronometer was a
major advance for navigation – allowed accurate determination of longitude
British Navy recognized the need for detailed information about the
coasts of the continents and the open ocean.
In support of maritime trade, and empire building.
Cook killed in Hawaii 1779
Franklin, as U.S. Postmaster General, evaluated the routes of mail-carrying ships to and from Europe; discovered and charted the Gulf Stream.
Thomas Jefferson mandated charting of US coastal waters 1807
1831 Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle
1855 Matthew Maury publishes The Physical Geography of the Sea
1872 HMS Challenger sets sail from England
Director, U.S. Naval Depot of Charts & Instruments
1842 Wind and Current Charts
Recognized need for international cooperation
1855 The Physical Geography of the Sea
“father of physical oceanography”
Equivalent
today of a manned mission to Mars that discovered many new forms of life and
studied the geology and physical processes of the planet
Major questions in mid
1800s:
• How deep are
the oceans ?
• What is at
the bottom of the deep ocean?
• Does life exist at the bottom of the ocean ?
Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, Chief Scientist
Voyage covered 69,000 nautical miles with 362 oceanographic stations
•
the first systematic plot of ocean currents and temperatures
•
a map of bottom sediments
•
an outline of the main contours of the ocean basins
•
discovery of the mid-Atlantic Ridge and a record 26,900 feet (8,200
meters) in the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench
•
the discovery of 715 new genera and 4,717 new species
•
proof of abundant and diverse life at great depths in the ocean
Scientific results published in a 50-volume, 29,500-page report that took 23 years to compile
3 years in ice, to 84º N, drifted 2 km / day