Were the Polos the first Europeans to reach China? The first European in China: the life story of Marco Polo and a journey to China What dynasties were in the history of China.

The era of the great geographical discoveries is the most important stage in the history of mankind. This is a time when the outlines of the continents, seas and oceans are becoming more accurate, technical devices are being improved, and the leading countries of that time are sending sailors in search of new rich lands. In this lesson, you will learn about the sea expeditions of Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, as well as the discovery of new lands by them.

background

Among the reasons for the Great geographical discoveries are:

Economic

After the era of the Crusades, Europeans developed strong trade ties with the East. In the East, Europeans bought spices, fabrics, jewelry. In the XV century. overland caravan routes, along which Europeans traded with eastern countries, were captured by the Turks. The task of finding a sea route to India appeared.

Technological

The compass and the astrolabe (an instrument for measuring latitude and longitude) were improved.

New types of ships appeared - caravel, carakka and galleon. They were distinguished by their spaciousness and powerful sailing equipment.

Navigation charts were invented - portolans.

Now Europeans could not only make traditional coastal voyages (i.e., mainly along the coast), but also go far into the open sea.

Events

1445- the expedition organized by Henry the Navigator reached the Green Cape (the western point of Africa). The island of Madeira, the Canary Islands, part of the Azores were discovered.

1453- Constantinople is captured by the Turks.

1471 The Portuguese reached the equator for the first time.

1488- Expedition Bartolomeu Dias reached the southernmost point of Africa - the Cape of Good Hope.

1492- Christopher Columbus discovered the islands of San Salvador, Haiti, Cuba in the Caribbean.

1497-1499- Vasco da Gama reached the Indian port of Calicut, rounding Africa. For the first time, a route was opened to the East across the Indian Ocean.

1519- Ferdinand Magellan goes on an expedition in which he discovers the Pacific Ocean. And in 1521 it reaches the Mariana and Philippine Islands.

Members

Rice. 2. Astrolabe ()

Rice. 3. Caravel ()

Successes have also been made in cartography. European cartographers began to draw maps with more accurate outlines of the coasts of Europe, Asia and North America. The Portuguese invented navigational charts. On them, in addition to the outlines of the coast, settlements were depicted, obstacles encountered on the way, as well as the location of ports. These navigation charts were called portolans.

The pioneers were Spaniards and Portuguese. The idea of conquering Africa was born in Portugal. However, the knightly cavalry was helpless in the sands. Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator(Fig. 4) decided to try the sea route along the west coast of Africa. The expeditions he organized discovered the island of Madeira, part of the Azores, the Canary Islands. In 1445, the Portuguese reached the western point of Africa - Cape Verde. Somewhat later, the coast of the Gulf of Guinea was discovered. A large amount of gold and ivory was found there. Hence the name - Gold Coast, Ivory Coast. At the same time, African slaves were discovered, which were traded by local leaders. Portugal became the first European country to sell live goods.

Rice. 4. Henry the Navigator ()

Already after the death of Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese reached the equator in 1471. In 1488 the expedition Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern end of Africa - Cape of Good Hope. Rounding Africa, this expedition entered the Indian Ocean. However, due to the rebellion of the sailors, Bartolomeu Dias was forced to return. His path continued Vasco da Gama (Fig. 5), which in 1497-1499. rounded Africa and after an 8-month voyage arrived in the Indian port of Calicut (Fig. 6).

Rice. 5. Vasco da Gama ()

Rice. 6. The opening of the sea route to India, the route of Vasco da Gama ()

Simultaneously with Portugal, the search for a new sea route to India began Spain, which at that time was ruled Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Christopher Columbus(Fig. 7) proposed a new plan - to reach India, moving west, across the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus shared the view that the earth is spherical. On August 3, 1492, Columbus on three caravels "Santa Maria", "Nina" and "Pinta" set off from Spain in search of India (Fig. 8). On October 12, 1492, a shot rang out on the Pinta caravel. This was the signal: the sailors had reached the island they named San Salvador, which in translation means "holy savior." Having explored the island, they went south and discovered two more islands: Haiti (then Hispaniola) and the island of Cuba.

Rice. 7. Christopher Columbus ()

Rice. 8. Route of Christopher Columbus ()

The first expedition of Columbus lasted 225 days and discovered caribbean sea. During the next three expeditions, Columbus discovered the coast of Central America and the northern coast of South America. However, the Spanish crown was not satisfied with the amount of gold that entered the country. Soon Columbus was turned away. He died in 1506 in poverty, confident that he had discovered a new sea route to India. The continent discovered by Columbus was originally called West Indies(Western India). Only later the mainland was given the name America.

The rivalry between Spain and Portugal led to the first division of the world in history. V 1494 was concluded Treaty of Tordesillas, according to which a conditional meridian was drawn along the Atlantic Ocean somewhat west of the Azores. All newly discovered lands and seas to the west of it were to belong to Spain, and to the east to Portugal. but Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world corrected this document.

Back in 1513, the Spaniard Vasco de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. He called it then the South Sea. In the autumn of 1519, on five caravels with a team of 253 sailors, Ferdinand Magellan (Fig. 9) set off on his journey (Fig. 10). His goal was to find a way across the Atlantic Ocean to the Moluccas (Spice Islands). After a year of travel, Magellan's team entered a narrow strait, which was later named Strait of Magellan. After passing through it, Magellan's team managed to enter the previously unknown ocean. This ocean is called Quiet.

Rice. 9. Ferdinand Magellan ()

Rice. 10. The first round-the-world trip of Ferdinand Magellan ()

In March 1521, Magellan's team reached the Mariana Islands and then landed in the Philippines, where Magellan himself died in a skirmish with the locals. His team managed to reach the Moluccas. Three years later, only one ship with 17 sailors returned home. Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world proved that the Earth is spherical.

European exploration of the New World took the form conquests - conquests. Together with the conquest, the resettlement of colonists from Europe to the New World begins.

The great geographical discoveries changed the picture of the world. First, it has been proven that the Earth is spherical. A new continent, America, was also discovered, as well as a new ocean, the Pacific. The outlines of many continents, seas and oceans have been refined. The great geographical discoveries were the first step towards the creation of a world market. They shifted the trade routes. So, trading cities Venice and Genoa lost their key role in European trade. Their place was taken by ocean ports: Lisbon, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Seville. Due to the influx of precious metals into Europe from the New World, a price revolution took place. Prices for precious metals fell, while prices for products and raw materials for production rose.

The great geographical discoveries marked the beginning of the colonial redistribution of the world and the dominance of Europeans in Asia, Africa and America. The exploitation of slave labor and trade with the colonies allowed European trading circles to enrich themselves, which became one of the prerequisites for the formation of capitalism. Also, the colonization of America led to the destruction of the oldest American cultures. The great geographical discoveries were one of the causes of the food revolution in Europe. Previously unknown crops were introduced: corn, tomatoes, cocoa beans, potatoes and tobacco.

Bibliography

Boytsov, M.A. Magellan's Way: Early Modern Times. History reading book. - M., 2006.
Vedyushkin V.A., Burin S.N. Textbook on the history of modern times, grade 7. - M., 2013.
Verlinden C., Mathis G. “Conquerors of America. Columbus, Cortes. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1997.
Lange P.V. Like the sun ... The life of Ferdinand Magellan and the first circumnavigation of the world. - M.: Progress, 1988.
What discovery is Ferdinand Magellan famous for, and what continent was discovered by Christopher Columbus?
Do you know any other famous navigators and the territories they discovered?

The era of the great geographical discoveries is the period of human history from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 17th centuries.
Conditionally divided into two parts:
Spanish-Portuguese discoveries the end of the 15th century and the entire 16th century, which include the discovery of America, the discovery of a sea route to India, Pacific expeditions, the first circumnavigation
Anglo-Dutch-Russian discoveries end of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th century, which includes English and French discoveries in North America, Dutch expeditions to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Russian discoveries throughout North Asia

A geographical discovery is a visit by a representative of a civilized people to a new part of the earth previously unknown to cultural mankind or the establishment of a spatial connection between already known parts of the land.

Why did the era of great geographical discoveries begin?

The growth of European cities in the 15th century
Active development of trade
Active development of crafts
Depletion of European mines of precious metals - gold and silver
The discovery of printing, which led to the spread of new technical sciences and knowledge of antiquity
Distribution and improvement of firearms
Discoveries in navigation, the advent of the compass and the astrolabe
Advances in cartography
The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks, which interrupted the economic and trade relations of Southern Europe with India and China

Geographic knowledge before the beginning of the Age of Discovery

In the Middle Ages, Normans discovered Iceland and the shores of North America, European travelers Marco Polo, Rubruk, Andre from Longjumeau, Veniamin Tudelsky, Afanasy Nikitin, Karpini and others established land connections with the countries of Far Asia and the Middle East, the Arabs explored the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea , the shores of the Red Sea, the western shores of the Indian Ocean, the roads connecting Eastern Europe through Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Iranian Highlands - with India

Beginning of the Age of Discovery

The beginning of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries can be considered the activities of the Portuguese navigators of the 15th century and the inspirer of their achievements, Prince Henry the Navigator (03/04/1394 - 11/13/1460)

At the beginning of the 15th century, the geographical science of Christians was in a deplorable state. The knowledge of the great scientists of antiquity has been lost. The impressions from traveling alone: Marco Polo, Carpini, Rubruk - did not become public and contained many exaggerations. Geographers and cartographers in the manufacture of atlases and maps used rumors; discoveries made by chance were forgotten; lands found in the ocean were lost again. The same applied to the art of navigation. The skippers did not have maps, instruments, knowledge of navigation, they were terribly afraid of the open sea, huddled close to the shores.

In 1415, Prince Henry became Grand Master of the Portuguese Order of Christ, a powerful and wealthy organization. With its funds, Heinrich built a citadel on the isthmus of Cape Sagres, from where until the end of his days he organized sea expeditions to the west and south, created a nautical school, attracted the best mathematicians, astronomers from Arabs and Jews, collected information wherever and from where he could about distant countries and voyages , seas, winds and currents, bays, reefs, peoples and shores, began to build more advanced and larger ships. The captains went out to sea for them, not only inspired to search for new lands, but also well prepared theoretically.

Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century

Madeira island
Azores
the entire west coast of Africa
mouth of the Congo River
Cape Verde
Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, was discovered by the expedition of Bartalomeu Dias in January 1488

Great geographical discoveries. Briefly

1492 —
1498 Vasco da Gama discovers a sea route to India around Africa
1499-1502 - Spanish discoveries in the New World
1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland and the Labrador Peninsula
1500 - discovery of the mouth of the Amazon by Vicente Pinson
1519-1522 - the first circumnavigation of Magellan, the discovery of the Strait of Magellan, Mariana, Philippine, Moluccas
1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean
1513 - Discovery of Florida and the Gulf Stream
1519-1553 - discoveries and conquests in South America by Cortes, Pizarro, Almagro, Orellana
1528-1543 - Spanish discoveries of the interior of North America
1596 - discovery of the island of Svalbard by Willem Barents
1526-1598 - Spanish discoveries of the Solomon, Caroline, Marquesas, Marshall Islands, New Guinea
1577-1580 - the second round-the-world voyage of the Englishman F. Drake, the discovery of the Drake Strait
1582 - Yermak's campaign in Siberia
1576-1585 - British search for a northwestern passage to India and discovery in the North Atlantic
1586-1629 - Russian campaigns in Siberia
1633-1649 - the discovery by Russian explorers of the East Siberian rivers to the Kolyma
1638-1648 - discovery by Russian explorers of Transbaikalia and Lake Baikal
1639-1640 - Ivan Moskvin's exploration of the coast of the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk
The last quarter of the 16th - the first third of the 17th century - the development of the eastern shores of North America by the British and French
1603-1638 - French exploration of the interior of Canada, discovery of the Great Lakes
1606 - Independently from each other, the discovery of the northern coast of Australia by the Spaniard Kyros, the Dutchman Janson
1612-1632 - British discoveries of the northeast coast of North America
1616 - discovery of Cape Horn by Schouten and Le Mer
1642 Tasman discovers the island of Tasmania
1643 Tasman discovers New Zealand
1648 - opening of the Dezhnev Strait between America and Asia (Bering Strait)
1648 - Fyodor Popov discovers Kamchatka

Ships of the Age of Discovery

In the Middle Ages, the sides of the ships were sheathed with planks, with the top row of boards overlapping the bottom. This is a durable upholstery. but the ships become heavier from this, and the edges of the plating belts create unnecessary resistance to the hull. At the beginning of the 15th century, the French shipbuilder Julien proposed to sheathe ships end-to-end. The boards were riveted to the frames with copper stainless rivets. The joints were glued with resin. This sheathing was called "caravel", and the ships began to be called caravels. Caravels, the main ships of the Age of Discovery, were built at all shipyards in the world for another two hundred years after the death of their designer.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the flute was invented in Holland. "Fliite" in Dutch means "flowing, flowing". These ships could not be overwhelmed by any of the largest shafts. They, like corks, took off on a wave. The upper parts of the sides of the flute were bent inward, the masts were very high: one and a half times the length of the hull, the yards were short, the sails were narrow and easy to maintain, which made it possible to reduce the number of sailors in the crew. And, most importantly, the flutes were four times longer than wide, which made them very fast. In flutes, the sides were also installed end-to-end, the masts were made up of several elements. Flutes were much more capacious than caravels. From 1600 to 1660, 15,000 flutes were built and plowed the oceans, replacing caravels

Mariners of the Age of Discovery

Alvise Cadamosto (Portugal, Venice, 1432-1488) - Cape Verde Islands
Diego Can (Portugal, 1440 - 1486) - West coast of Africa
Bartalomeu Dias (Portugal, 1450-1500) - Cape of Good Hope
Vasco da Gama (Portugal, 1460-1524) - the way to India around Africa
Pedro Cabral (Portugal, 1467-1526) - Brazil
Christopher Columbus (Genoa, Spain, 1451-1506) - America
Nunez de Balboa (Spain, 1475-1519) - Pacific Ocean
Francisco de Orellana (Spain, 1511-1546) - Amazon River
Fernando Magellan (Portugal, Spain (1480-1521) - first circumnavigation of the world
John Cabot (Genoa, England, 1450-1498) - Labrador, Newfoundland
Jean Cartier (France, 1491-1557) east coast of Canada
Martin Frobisher (England, 1535-1594) - polar seas of Canada
Alvaro Mendanya (Spain, 1541-1595) - Solomon Islands
Pedro de Quiros (Spain, 1565-1614) - Tuamotu archipelago, New Hybrids
Luis de Torres (Spain, 1560-1614) - the island of New Guinea, the strait that separates this island from Australia
Francis Drake (England, 1540-1596) - second circumnavigation of the world
Willem Barents (Netherlands, 1550-1597) - the first polar navigator
Henry Hudson (England, 1550-1611), explorer of the North Atlantic
Willem Schouten (Holland, 1567-1625) - Cape Horn
Abel Tasman (Holland, 1603-1659) - Tasmania, New Zealand
Willem Janszon (Holland, 1570-1632) - Australia
Semyon Dezhnev (Russia, 1605-1673) - the Kolyma River, the strait between Asia and America

All the time when in ancient Greece and Rome, then in Christian Europe and among Muslims, as well as in Scandinavia, people got acquainted with the Earth as their habitat and tried to study it, there was another center of geographical knowledge. It's about China. In general, the European and Chinese worlds remained isolated, only gradually discovering each other. But several surprisingly similar ideas and methods of study are known, which, it would seem, suggest the presence of contacts, albeit not direct and outlined only by a dotted line.

For those who are immersed in the study of the history of the Western world, it is important to keep in mind that starting from about the 2nd century. BC e. and up to the 15th century. the Chinese people had the highest level of knowledge among other peoples of the Earth (Needham, 1963: 117). Chinese mathematicians began to use zero and created a decimal system, which was much more convenient than the sexagesimal system that existed in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Decimal reckoning was borrowed from the Hindus by the Arabs around 800, but it is believed that it entered India from China.

Chinese philosophers differed from the ancient Greeks mainly in that they attached paramount importance to the natural world. According to their teaching, individuals were not personalized by nature, since they were considered as part of it. They denied the divine power that prescribes laws and created the universe for man according to a predetermined plan. In China, it was not believed that after death life continues in paradise or in the circles of hell; the dead are absorbed by the all-penetrating universe, of which all individuals are an inseparable part. Confucianism taught a way of life in which friction between members of society was minimized, but remained relatively indifferent to the development of scientific knowledge.

To illustrate this feature, Joseph Needham gives the following parable:

“During his journey to the east, Confucius met two teenagers arguing among themselves, and asked them about the reason for their dispute. One of them said: "I think that the rising Sun is closer to us than the noon." Another answered: "And I believe that the rising and setting Sun is farther from us, and the noon is closer." The first continued: “The rising Sun is as big as the top of a chariot, and the midday one is no larger than a plate. And what looks big should be closer to us, the same thing that looks smaller should be farther from us. But the second retorted: “The setting Sun is cold, and the midday one is hot, and what is hotter should be closer to us.” Confucius failed to resolve their dispute. Then both boys laughed at him and said with contempt: “And why do only people consider you such a scientist?” (Needham, Ling, 1959: 225–226)

The huge difference in the orientation of the culture of the ancient Greeks and the Chinese will become immediately clear if you try to imagine what Socrates could answer the disputants in this situation. But this does not mean at all that the Chinese were not interested in what was outside the world familiar to them. The work in the field of geographical knowledge done by the Chinese looks very impressive, although it is more characterized by the achievements of the observational plan and practical applications than by the development of theory.

Works in the field of geography

In China, these works were associated with the creation of methods that made it possible to make accurate measurements and observations with their subsequent use in various useful inventions. So, for example, systematic observations of the state of the weather were carried out from the 13th century. BC e. The contents of the oldest fragments of geographical descriptions provide an overview of the natural resources and supplies of the nine provinces into which the territory of China was divided in the 5th century BC. BC e. They describe the soils, produce, and waterways of each of the provinces (Needham and Ling, 1955: 500). In the II century. BC e. Chinese engineers were already making accurate measurements of the amount of silt carried by rivers. In 2 AD e. China conducted the world's first population census. Among the technical inventions, China owns the production of paper, the printing of books, the use of rain and snow gauges to measure the amount of precipitation, and the compass for the needs of navigation.

The Chinese have made significant progress in understanding natural processes. Approximately in the IV century. BC e. they discovered the meaning of the water cycle. Almost at the same time that Plato was thinking about the consequences of deforestation in Attica, the Chinese philosopher E-Tzu, who lived two centuries later than Confucius, pointed out that a forest once cut down on the mountain slopes could no longer be restored there, if not cattle and small cattle grazing will be stopped (Glacken, 1956: 70).

The Chinese knew a lot about the destructive activity of water flows flowing down from the mountains, and about the formation of river floodplains. At the same time, when Avicenna expressed his thoughts about the erosion (denudation) of mountains, the Chinese scientist Cheng-Hao came to the same conclusion (1070). Here is what he wrote about a pronounced mountain range with sharp peaks and steep slopes:

“Considering the reasons for the appearance of these forms, I think that (over the centuries) mountain streams rushing down washed away all the sand and all the earth, exposing the rocks ... If you look up, standing at the bottom of the gorge, the wall of the cliff seems vertical, but when you are on one of the peaks, then the other peaks are on the same level as the one on which you are standing. This is true for all levels of peaks up to the highest.

Now the Great River (i.e. Yellow, Huang He) ... (and some others) is dirty and overflowing with sediment. In the west of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, rivers flow in narrow gorges hundreds of feet deep. It is clear that silt and fine sand were carried eastward by these rivers year after year, and thus the substances that made up the whole continent could be dispersed. These conclusions must be unconditionally correct” (Needham and Ling, 1959: 603–604).

According to Needham, the geographical writings of Chinese authors are divided into eight groups: (1) works devoted to the study of people, which we could classify as human geography; (2) descriptions of areas in China; (3) other countries; (4) travel stories; (5) books on the rivers of China; (6) descriptions of the coasts of China, especially those that are important for navigation; (7) works of local lore, including descriptions of areas subordinate to and ruled by walled cities, famous mountain ranges, or certain cities and palaces; (8) geographical encyclopedias. Much attention has also been paid to the origin of geographical names and their change (Needham and Ling, 1959: 508).

Chinese geographical explorations and discoveries

The geographical discoveries of Chinese travelers are often not taken into account by European authors dealing with the history of geography. Either the ambassadors of the emperor, or missionaries and merchants went on long journeys outside of China.

The earliest evidence of Chinese travels is a book probably written between the 5th and 3rd centuries. BC e. She was found in the tomb of a man who ruled around 245 BC. e. territory that occupied part of the Wei He valley. The books found in this burial were written on strips of white silk glued to bamboo stalks; due to poor preservation, they were rewritten at the end of the 3rd century. BC e. They are known as the Travels of Emperor Mu, who reigned from 1001-945. BC e. Emperor Mu, they say, desired to travel around the world and leave traces from the wheels of his chariot in every country. The history of his wanderings, like Homer's Odyssey, is full of amazing adventures and certainly embellished by the writer, but contains such details that could hardly be the fruit of fantasy. The emperor visited the forested mountains, saw snow, hunted a lot. On the way back, he crossed a vast desert so dry that he had to drink horse blood. There can be no doubt that in very ancient times, Chinese travelers traveled considerable distances from the Wei He valley, the center of a developed culture (Mirsky, 1964: 3–10). The discovery of Mediterranean civilizations is attributed to the geographer Zhang Qian and attributed to 128 BC. e. (Sykes 1961: 21; Needham 1963; Mirsky 1964: 13–25; Thomson 1965: 177–178). His book describes a route through the interior of Asia to Bukhara, which then led to Persia and the Mediterranean coast. Merchant caravans were constantly moving along this route, and, apparently, trade relations with Western countries were established long before the “official” opening of the West. The Chinese brought peaches, almonds, raisins, apricots, silk and, of course, silkworms, while they themselves bought alfalfa, wheat and vines.

In general, there were many Chinese travelers whose achievements deserve to be captured in the history of geographical discoveries. Yet among the most famous of them was the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (Sykes, 1961: 24–30). In the 7th century n. e. he found the strength to cross on the way to India the highest, windswept Tibetan plateau and the highest mountains in the world. After several years of study in the centers of Buddhism, he returned to China with a large collection of Buddhist relics and manuscripts, brought by him on beasts of burden. He is considered the Chinese discoverer of India (Mirsky, 1964). In the same century, another Buddhist monk, I-Ching, reached India by sea, first making an eight-month stop in Sumatra in 671. Returning to China, he brought with him more than 10,000 scrolls of Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, which he intended to translate into Chinese (Sykes , 1961: 30). A few centuries later, in 1220, another Chinese traveler (Chang Chun) crossed the deserts of Central Asia, overcoming endless hardships and difficulties of the way, and finally met with the Mongol leader Genghis Khan in Samarkand. In 1287-1288 Nestorian Christian monk Rabban Bar Sauma made a pilgrimage from China to Rome. Learning that the pope had died and a new one had not yet been elected, he went through Genoa to Paris and Bordeaux to see the kings of France and England. Imagine the amazement of the thirteenth-century French, who found themselves in the role of being "discovered" by a Christian from China. In 1288, he returned to Rome, and, having received the blessing of the new pope, set off on his way back to Beijing. This happened just a few decades before the Polo brothers traveled to China. In 1296, another Chinese traveler, Zhou Takuan, visited Cambodia and described in detail the customs of this country.

The Chinese also explored the seas. Not a single written evidence has survived that they went to the expanses of the Pacific Ocean, although Chinese expeditions visited Japan and Taiwan. In the XIII century. Chinese merchants sailed on their junks to Java and the islands of the Malay Archipelago and even to India. Marco Polo met them in the Persian Gulf in the port of Hormuz. But the main studies were carried out by the Chinese naval commander Zheng He between 1405 and 1433. He led seven expeditions, each of which had a whole fleet of ships. Thanks to them, regular maritime trade routes were opened between Java, Sumatra, Malaya, Ceylon and the western coast of India. He also visited the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, sailed along the east coast of Africa, located south of the equator; in an easterly direction, he sailed to the island of Taiwan. On board the ships of his last expedition (1431-1433), ambassadors from more than ten countries arrived in China. It is possible that one of the ships was sent by him to the northern coast of Australia (Hsieh, 1988).

Cartography

The Chinese were skilled map makers. Zhang Heng, who lived in the II century. n. e., probably the first in China to use a degree grid, but his maps have not been preserved. There are, however, references to him, where it is said that he "drew a net [of coordinates] over the heavens and the earth, and thus numbered them" (Needham and Ling, 1959: 538).

The "father of Chinese cartography" was Bei Xu, who was appointed by the Chinese emperor to the post of Minister of Public Works in 267 AD. e. He created a map of part of China on eighteen silk scrolls. To draw up the basis of the map, he surveyed the area by measuring several base lines and determining points remote from these lines using a cross-sight method, that is, in the same way as the Egyptians did long before him. When drawing rivers, coastlines, mountain ranges and drawing cities and other objects on a map, he used as a basis a rectangular grid of lines perpendicular to each other, drawn in the direction of south-north and east-west. Did this scientist, or Zhang Heng, or anyone else who lived much earlier than them, borrow the idea of using triangulation to determine the location of objects and a network of intersecting lines for cartographic images from the Greeks, and perhaps through them from the Egyptians? This is quite likely, although it has not been established for certain. There is nothing impossible in the fact that many of these methods were invented much earlier than anywhere else, namely in China, and then penetrated to the west, just as it happened with the decimal system.

Two magnificent copies of Chinese maps were carved in stone in 1137; the information placed on them, in all likelihood, was received before 1100 (Needham, Ling, 1959: 547–549). One of them - "Map of China and the countries of the barbarians" - includes the territory from the Great Wall of China, which runs north of Beijing, to Hainan Island in the south, as well as the mountains of Central Asia in the west. Another, titled "Map of the Ways of Yu the Great," shows roughly the same area, with the major rivers and coastline from Bohai Bay to the northern coast of the Shandong Peninsula and Hainan Island appearing even more accurate. None of these maps show the island of Taiwan. Both of them, like other Chinese maps, are oriented to the north.

Bibliography

James P. All possible worlds / P. James, J. Martin / Ed. and since the last A. G. Isachenko. - Moscow: Progress, 1988. - 672 p.

Great discoveries on earth
Content

1

1

Who Invented the Compass? one

What was the first Viking settlement? one

Who were the first Arab travelers? 2

What was the knowledge of the Europeans compared to the knowledge of the Arabs? 2

Who was the first to visit China? 2

Were the Polos the first Europeans to reach China? 2

How did people find out about Marco's adventures? 2

When was the great era of travel? 2

What state opened the great era of travel? 2

Who was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa? 3

^ Which European reached India by sea? 3

What were the busiest years in the great era of travel? 3

Who discovered America? 3

Where did the name "America" come from? 3

Where did Columbus think he was going? 3

Did Columbus really set foot on the American mainland? 3

Were the Polos the first Europeans to reach China?

How did people find out about Marco's adventures?

Who Invented the Compass?

The Chinese invented the compass about 4,000 years ago. However, Europeans began to use it about a thousand years ago.

What was the first Viking settlement?

The Vikings discovered Iceland for the first time in 860 when a group of travelers went astray. Irish monks, however, had been there 65 years earlier. Scandinavia, where the Vikings were from, was very harsh on Earth.

Who were the first Arab travelers?

Arabs have played an important role in the history of travel. In the VI-VII centuries. They conquered a huge territory, spreading their scientific knowledge and their religion - Islam.

What was the knowledge of the Europeans compared to the knowledge of the Arabs?

The Europeans knew much less in the fields of science, such as mathematics and geography, than the Arabs at that time. Their view of the world was based on Christian beliefs. On European maps, the Earth was depicted as a circle with Jerusalem in the center.

Who was the first to visit China?

China, located in the Far East, was a hard-to-reach place. In 1271, Mark Polo, the son of a merchant from Venice (Italy), reached Beijing with his father and uncle and spent many years in the company of the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan (in Russian transcription - Khubilai).

Were the Polos the first Europeans to reach China?

No. The road known as the Silk Road, which ran from China to the west, had been used by merchants since 500 BC, but the Polos were the first Europeans to travel the length and breadth of the country and have contact with the Chinese rulers.

How did people find out about Marco's adventures?

On his return home in 1295, war broke out between the Venetians and the Genoese, and he was imprisoned. While in prison, Marco dictated his story to another prisoner. Many did not believe what was written in his book. It told about the exploration of oil and coal deposits, magnificent palaces, elephant parades, 100,000 white horses donated to Kublai Khan and amazing gems, which clearly exceeded the imagination of the Venetian citizens.

When was the great era of travel?

XV-XVI centuries often referred to as the great era of travel because so many discoveries were made during that time. Sea routes to the East were laid; unexplored lands were explored, such as America, the West Indies and the Pacific Islands.

What state opened the great era of travel?

Portugal, early 15th century The sails of the ships sailing from the port of Lisbon sailed south until the winds turned them to the east. The caravels were not large - about 24 m long.

Who was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa?

Portuguese captain Bartolomeo Dias, in 1487.

He had two caravels and a large cargo ship. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope, but the crew refused to go any further.

Which European reached India by sea?

The Portuguese navigator Vasca da Gama lost two ships and half of his men, but returned to Portugal with a cargo of spices and jewels taken from India.

What were the busiest years in the great era of travel?

Most of the discoveries were made in an incredibly short time - 34 years:

1487 Diaz bypassed Africa from the south.

1492 Columbus reached the West Indies.

1497 English explorer John Cabat reached Newfoundland, beyond North America.

1498 Do Gama reached India by sea.

1519-1521 Magellan sailed in the Pacific Ocean.

Who discovered America?

In 1492, Christopher Columbus traveled from Spain across the Atlantic to the West Indies and discovered the New World, the existence of which the Europeans did not suspect. But people lived in America for thousands of years before Europeans sailed there.

Where did the name "America" come from?

It comes from the name of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian adventurer who claimed to have reached the continent of America in 1497, but this is highly doubtful.

Where did Columbus think he was going?

Columbus believed that he was sailing to China. When he got to the West Indies, he insisted that these were islands beyond China.

Did Columbus really set foot on the American mainland?

No. He landed first in the West Indies. Later, he made three more voyages to the shores of the West Indies. The third time he reached Panama, in Central America, he never landed on the North American mainland. The history of China is the history of a five-thousand-year-old civilization, one of the most ancient on our planet. She left us a boundless cultural heritage and wise principles of life.

Throughout the history of China, more than one dynasty of rulers has changed. However, whoever rules the Celestial Empire, the basis of government, as a rule, was the veneration of ancient traditions, Heaven and recognized virtues, such as loyalty to the father and ruler, filial obedience, respect for decency, benevolence, honesty, striving for.

Most rulers revered at least one of the traditional religions: Taoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism. - a gift from the gods, as it is believed in traditional beliefs.

What were the dynasties in Chinese history?

Dynasty		Period	Founder
three rulers and five emperors		3500-2070 BC
Xia		2070-1600 BC	Da Yu
shang		1600-1066 BC	Zi Tang
Zhou		1045-221 BC	wu wang
	Western Zhou	(1046-771 to AD)
	Eastern Zhou	(770-256 BC)
	Spring and Autumn period	(770-476 BC)
	Fighting Period kingdoms	(475-221 BC)
Qin		221-206 BC.	Ying Zheng
Han		206 BC - 220 AD	Liu Bang
	Western Han	(206 BC-23 AD)
	Eastern Han	(25 - 220 AD)
Age of the Three Kingdoms		220-280 AD
	Wei	(220-265)	Cao Pi
	Shu	(221-263)	Liu Bei
	At	(222-280)	Sun Quan
Jin		(265-439)	Sima Yan
	Western Jin	(265-316)
	Eastern Jin	(317-420)
	16 realms	(304-439)
Southern and Northern dynasty		420-589	Liu Yu
	Southern dynasties	(420-589)
	Northern dynasties	(386-581)
Sui		581-618	Yang Jian
Tan		618-907	Li Yuan
era of the five dynasties ten kingdoms		907-979
soong		960-1279	Zhao Kuanyin
	Northern Song	(960-1127)
	Southern Song	(1127-1279)
Liao		916-1125	Su Tzu
Western Xia		1038-1227
Jin		1115-1234	Wanyan Ming
Yuan		1279-1368	Khubilai
Min		1368-1644	Zhu Yuanzhang
Qing		1644-1911	Aisingioro Nurhatsi

History of China: 20th century and today

In the following years, the ancient Chinese civilization fell into a state of decline, and the Chinese began to look for ways to reform. The most radical of them, trying to save and revive the former power of their state, chose the communist path of development.

The Communist Party, not without the help of the USSR, seized power in China in 1949. Since then, China's traditional virtues have been viciously attacked. In particular, during the Great Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong, hundreds of temples and other ancient monuments were looted and destroyed. People who believe in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism were subjected to massive repression. Private property, the traditional culture of China were on the verge of death.

Despite the fact that after the Cultural Revolution, cruelty to culture basically stopped, however, the Chinese lost their historical moral values left by Confucius: philanthropy, justice, decency, loyalty and reasonableness. Today, in the educational institutions of China under the rule of the Communist Party, from childhood to adulthood, people study the doctrines of communism, and the state religion is actually the atheism of the Communist Party, and its leaders are "gods."

Due to the contempt for nature and the desire to overthrow the traditional foundations that communism preaches, the environment in this country has also suffered greatly. It is known that out of 50,000 rivers in 1950, only about 23,000 rivers remain in China today (according to The Economist). At the same time, only half of the water resources of cities are suitable for drinking. Only about 40% of the water used is recycled (half of that in Europe).

All this is the reverse side of the “China economic miracle”, which is now being praised by domestic and foreign media, noting the high economic growth of the country. However, the victim of this growth, in the first place, is a person for whose health the "economic miracle of China" has become a disaster.

The most detailed study of how China left traditions and borrowed Western ideas of communism is published by " Great Epoch» « ». None of the written works has revealed so deeply the question of what is the Chinese Communist Party, what are its main features and what crimes did it commit during its reign in Chinese history.