THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Series One: The Papers of Sir Hans Sloane, 1660-1753 from the British Library, London
Parts 2 and 3: Manuscript Records of Voyages of Discovery, 1450-1750

Chronology of Exploration & Discovery from Ancient Times to 1753

Date Details

c3200BC First recorded Egyptian sea voyage

c2300BC Harkhuf. Expeditions up the Nile

c1000BC Polynesian colonisation begins

c650BC Colaeus sails through the Straits of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules)

c600BC Phoenecians explore African and Arabian coasts. Pharaoh Neccho II of Egypt sends
an expedition round Africa (the first recorded circumnavigation)

c470BC Planno founds colonies in North West Africa

457BC Herodotus (c490-429BC) explores the Nile

c450 BC Herodotus draws world map

c334BC Aristotle. Publication of Meteorologica

c334-323BC Alexander the Great (c356-323BC) extends his empire from the Mediterranean
to the Himalayas

c332BC Foundation of Alexandria

c330BC Pytheas. Circumnavigation of the British Isles. Observes the relation between the
moon and tides

c323BC Euclid. Publication of the Elements

c300BC Building of the Great Wall of China begins

c230BC Eratosthenes puts forward a heliocentric cosmology

221BC Emperor Shih Huan-ti unites China

c215BC Hsu-fu founds settlement in Japan

c146BC Eudoxus sails from the Black Sea to West Africa

c140BC Crates of Mallus creates his great globe of the world

c138-116BC Chang Chi’en follows the Silk Road

120BC Eudoxus travels from Egypt to India

c105BC Opening of the Silk Road from China to the West

c10BC Maternus crosses the Sahara

14-37AD Hippalus sails from the Red Sea to India

23-79AD Pliny the Elder. Publication of Historia Naturalis. This includes a description of tides
and their intervals

42AD Paulinus crosses the Atlas Mountains

54AD Diogenes explores North Africa. Possibly discovers the source of the Nile

c150AD Ptolemy. Publication of Guide to Geography including his world map

166AD A Roman Embassy is sent to China

c270AD The compass is invented in China

304AD Huns invade China

399AD Fu-Hsien travels from China to India. After 15 years of studying Buddhism he returns
via Ceylon and Java

525AD Cosmas Indicopleustes of Alexandria explores the Nile and publishes his Topographia
Christiane

c600AD Book printing begins in China

629-645AD Hsuan-Tsang (c602-664) travels from China to India to collect Buddhist texts

632AD Death of the prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam

730AD Venerable Bede. Observations of the tides

c800AD Norse raiders occupy the Shetlands, Hebrides, Faeroes and Orkneys

828AD The Astronomical System of Ptolemy is translated into Arabic and known as the
Almagest

c850AD Soleiman sails from Arabia to India

c860AD Chinese explorers reach Somali, Africa

c862AD Vikings reach Dnieper River

c865-870AD Norwegian settlement of Iceland

c880AD Othere/Wolfstan explore Northern Europe on behalf of King Alfred the Great

c891AD Al-Yaqubi. Publication of Kitab al-Budan

c900 AD Gunnbjorn discovers Greenland

963AD Al Sufi. Publication of The Book of Fixed Stars

c982AD Erik the Red explores and colonises Greenland

c986AD Bjarni Herjolfssen sights North America
c1000 Leif Ericsson explores North America (Vinland)

Repeated Norse attempts to colonise North America are unsuccessful

Astrolabes arrive in Europe from the Far East

1060 Chinese explorers reach Malindi, Africa

1080 Toledan table of positions of the stars

The Crusades

c1154 Al-Idrisi. Publication of Kitab al-rujari (Geography)

1162 Birth of Genghis Khan

c1165 A letter from Prester John – allegedly a Christian priest-king in Asia – to the Pope
stimulates European interest in Asia

1175 Neckham. Treatise on the maritime compass

1215 Ghengis Khan captures Beijing and establishes Mongol rule of China

1226-1346 Settlement and urbanisation of much of Eastern Europe by Order of Teutonic
Knights

1240 Mongols capture Kiev, Russia

1245-1247 Giovanni da Pian del Carpini travels from Italy to Poland, Russia and Mongolia as
emissary of the Pope

1245-1254 Nicolo and Maffeo Polo travel from Italy to trade with Ghengis Khan and the
Mongolian Empire

1253 Guillaume de Rubruquis travels to Mongolia as a missionary from Louis IX of France

1260 Kublai Khan is proclaimed Great Khan
1271-1295 Marco Polo (1254-1324) travels through Asia to Mongolia and China, becoming a
friend of Kublai Khan and governor of a Chinese city. Polo visits Sumatra and returns to
Venice via the Indian Ocean

1298 Marco Polo is captured in a sea battle off the Dalmatian coast, is imprisoned, and writes
his Travels with Rustichello

1314-1330 Odoric de Pordenone travels from France to China and back via Tibet, acting as a
Christian missionary

1325-1354 Ibn Battutah (c1304-1377) explores North Africa and the Middle East. His first
expedition is from Morocco to Egypt, the Red Sea, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mecca and
Baghdad – then on to Somalia, Mombassa and Kilwa before returning to Mecca. His second
expedition was to Syria, the Crimea, Afghanistan, China, Malaysia and India – then back to
Morocco. His third expedition was across the Sahara Desert to Mali and Timbuktu

1330 Jordanus de Severec establishes French missions in India

1368 The Mongols are driven out of China

1394 Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal (1394-1460), known as ‘Henry the Navigator’

1402 Bethencourt establishes European settlement in the Canary Islands

1405-1433 Zheng-Ho. 7 voyages of exploration from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf
and Red Sea – possibly rounds the Cape of Good Hope

1415 Portuguese capture of Ceuta, in North Africa start the ‘age of reconaissance’ – driven by
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)

1420 Zaro and Teixeira discover Madeira for Portugal

1424-1434 Prince Henry sends 15 expeditions to explore West Africa. None get further than
Cape Bojador, just south of the Canaries

1432 Cabral claims the Azores for Portugal

c1433 Further Chinese Voyages of Discovery banned by imperial decree

1435 Eanes. Exploration of West African coast almost to the Tropic of Cancer

1441 Antao Goncalves sails to Cape Branco in West Africa and takes two slaves

1444 Eanes sails to Lagos and captures 200 African slaves

1445 Dinis Dias rounds Cape Verde – the western tip of Africa and opens up trade routes to
Timbuktu

1452-1456 3 Papal decrees officially sanction the slave trade

1453 Gutenburg prints the 42-line Bible in Mainz, marking the beginning of printing in Europe

1469-1474 Fernao Gomes obtains lease for a monopoly of the Guinea trade from the
Portuguese king and explores and exploits the Guinea coast

1482 Cão discovers the mouth of the Congo River

1486-1490 De Paia journeys through Ethiopia in search of Prester John (see entry for 1165)

1487-1489 Covilha travels to India to search for Prester John and establishes trade route to
Calicut

1488 Bart. Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope, opens Indian trade route for King John II of
Portugal

1492 Martin Behaim constructs the first documented terrestrial globe

1492-1493 Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506). His first voyage, intending to reach Japan
by a Western route, results in his landfall at (probably) Samara Cay on 12 October 1492. He
journeys on to Fortune Island (Isabella), Long Island (Fernandina), Cuba and Hispaniola
before returning to Spain. Funded by Ferdinand and Isabella, the 3 ships used were Nina,
Pinta, and Santa Maria

1493-1496 Columbus. Second voyage reaches Leeward Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and
Hispaniola

1497 John and Sebastian Cabot (1450-1498) and
(1476-1557). Sail in the Matthew to Newfoundland in an attempt to find a North-West
passage to the East. Their landfall in June 1497 is the first corroborated landing in North
America

1497-1499 Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) sails to India via Cape of good Hope and East Africa

1498-1500 Columbus. Third voyage reaches Trinidad, Venezuela and Hispaniola

1499-1501 Alonsode Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) sail to South America and
explore the Northern and Eastern Coasts, naming Venezuela after Venice and establishing
that South America is a continent

1500 Pinzón sails along the coast of Guiana and discovers Brazil and the Amazon River

Cabral, whilst exploring North Africa, his ship is blown off course and ends in Brazil, which is
claimed for Portugal

1500-1502 Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real sail to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia

1502-1504 Columbus. Fourth voyage reaches Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba, Nicaragua,
Cost Rica and Panama

1502-1508 Lodovico de Varthema. Follows the route of Covilha

Varthema becomes the first Christian to visit Mecca, and discovers the Molucca Islands
(where cloves and nutmeg grew). He also visits Java, Borneo, Malacca and Burma

1507 Waldseemüller. Publication of Cosmographiae introduction in which the New World is
named ‘America’ after Amerigo Vespucci

1508-1509 Sebastian Cabot sails to Hudson Strait

1510 Ojeda and Nicuesa found Spanish settlement in Darien

1511 Albuquerque takes Malacca for the Portuguese. Searches for Spice Islands

1512 Copernicus. Publication of Commentariolus –his heliocentric cosmology

1513 Ponce de Léon sails to North America and discovers Florida

Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and sights the Pacific

1515 Diaz de Solis discovers the mouth of the River Plate

1517 Portuguese found factory in Colombo, Ceylon

1519 Pineda sails from Florida to the Mexican border along the coast and is the first
European to visit Texas

1519-1521 Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) travelled from Cuba to Mexico, subduing the Aztec
Indians and occupying Veracruz and Tenochtitlán

Ferdinand Magellan (c1480-1521). First circumnavigation of the world – completed by Juan
Sebastian del Cano after Magellan’s death in Mactan. Magellan skirted the coast of South
America before entering the Pacific via the Strait of Magellan. He proceeded to the Marianas
and the Philippines (where he was killed). The survivors returned via Brunei, the Moluccas,
and the Cape of Good Hope. 18 men survived

1520 Lope de Sequeira circumnavigates Africa

1522 Andagoya carries out coastal survey of South America and brings back reports of Inca
gold in Peru

1524-1526 Alvardo conquers Guatemala and El Salvador

1524 Petrus Aptanus of Ingolstadt. Publication of Cosmographia

Verrazano discovers New York Bay and Hudson River

1527 Cabot sails up the River Plate and other major South American rivers searching for a
route to the Pacific

King Henry VIII of England sponsors the first attempt to reach the North Pole

1527-1536 Narvaez and De Vaca explore interior of Florida. De Vaca reaches Mexico by land

1532-1535 Pizarro leads conquistadores in the annihilation of the Incas, capturing Cuzco

1534 Jacques Cartier (1491-1557). First voyage from St Malo to Newfoundland and the
mouth of the St Lawrence River

1535 Cartier. Second voyage makes contact with Huron Indians and discovers Quebec and
Montreal for King Francois I of France

Mendoza establishes first European settlement in Argentina in Buenos Aires

1535-1537 Almagro crosses the Andes from Cuzco to Bolivia and Chile

1536-1538 Belalcázar, Jiménez de Quesada and Federman search Colombia for gold

1539 Ulloa explores western shores of Mexico and Baja peninsula – establishing that it is not
an island

1539-1542 De Soto explores Florida and southern part of North America. Discovers
Mississippi River

1540-1542 Orellana explores the Amazon River from Rio Napo to the sea.

1540-1542 Coronado, Alarcon and Cardenas explore the South-western part of North
America. Coronado reaches central Kansas. Cardenas discovers the Grand Canyon. Alarcon
finds the mouth of the Colorado River

1541-1546 Valdivia founds Santiago and explores Chile

1557 Jenkinson follows Chancellor’s path to Moscow then sails down the Volga to the
Caspian Sea and east to Bukhara

1561 Cavallon and Coronado colonise Costa Rica

1561-1564 Jenkinson travels to the western shore of the Caspian Sea to Persia

1564 John Hawkins begins slaving voyages

1565 Urdaneta crosses the Pacific from the Philippines to Mexico

1567-1569 Mendana explores the South Pacific and discovers the Solomon Islands

1576 Martin Frobisher discovers Baffin Bay

1577-1580 Francis Drake circumnavigates the world in the Pelican (renamed the Golden
Hind) via Drake Passage, San Francisco, the Pacific and the Spice Islands of the East Indies

1581-1582 Newbury travels from Aleppo to Ormuz and to Istanbul, and is the first Britain to
travel down the Euphrates

1582-1590 Berrío explores the Orinoco valley looking for El Dorado. He is later captured by
Ralegh

1583 Newbury and Fitch attempt overland route from Ormuz to Goa for the Levant Company,
but are arrested. Fitch escapes down the Ganges to Bangladesh and travels on to Malacca
(1584-1591)

Gilbert claims Newfoundland for Elizabeth I

1584 Ralegh tries but fails to establish a colony in Virginia

1585-1587 Davis makes three successive attempts to discover the Northwest Passage

1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada

1594-1597 Basents surveys Spitsburgen and Novaya Zemlya

1595-1596 Mendana and Quiros discover the Marquesas, the first major Polynesian Islands
found

1595-1596 Ralegh tries but fails to find gold in the Caroni Valley

1596-1605 Onate colonises New Mexico for Spain

1597 The Portuguese establish a trading post in Macao, China

1598 Anthony and Robert Sherley cross the Zagros Mountains from Baghdad to Isfahan

1601 Lancaster sails to Java to set up a trading post for the East India Company

1601 Ricci establishes Jesuit Mission in Beijing

1602 Dutch East India Company try to monopolise Eastern trade via the Cape of Good Hope
and the Magellan Straits

1602 Gosnold lands in Massachusetts Bay and commences English exploration of the east
coast of North America

1602-1603 Vizcaíno discovers harbour of Montery and maps west coast of North America

1603 Chaplian explores the St Lawrence River

Accession of James I

1603-1607 De Goes becomes the first European since Marco Polo to reach China from the
West, after travelling along the Silk Route from Lahore

1604-1605 Torres establishes that New Guinea is an Island

1606 Willem Jantzoon is the first European known to reach Australia, which he stumbles
across whilst prospecting for gold off New Guinea

1607 Smith founds Jamestown, Virginia

1608 Jourdain is the first Britain to describe the Seychelles

1608-1609 Champlain continues exploration of Canada, founding Quebec and exploring the
Richlieu River

1609 Shipwreck of the Sea Venture off the coast of Bermuda

First Royal charter for the Virginia Company

1609-1610 Hudson sails past Newfoundland to Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. He then
travels north and discovers Hudson River and Hudson Bay. His crew mutinies and he is cast
adrift to die

1610 Kurochkin explores the Yenisey River in Asia

1611-1615 Brîlé explores North America’s Great Lakes

1612 Patani on the Malay Peninsula is opened up as a port allowing Anglo-Siamese trade

1613 Paez finds Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile, in Ethiopia

1614 Marriage of John Rolfe to Pocahontas

1615-1616 Baffin and Bylot explore Hudson and Baffin bays

1615-1617 Schoutan and Le Maise pioneer new route to Pacific, avoiding Dutch controlled
waters

1616 Hartog discovers west coast of Australia

1618 Samuel treks from Siam to Burma for the British East India Company

1620 The Pilgrim Fathers sail to America on the Mayflower and found New Plymouth

1620-1627 Persaert explores North West India for the Dutch East India Company

1626 Andrade establishes a mission in Western Tibet

1628 Lobo explores the Blue Nile, travelling from Lake Tana to the Tisisat falls

1629 Dutch expeditions map the coast of Western Australia, preparing the way for settlement

1634-1635 Nicollet travels from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, exploring the American
Midwest

1637-1639 Teixeira explores and surveys the river Amazon

1639 A Russian expedition reaches the Sea of Okhotsk

1641 Beginning of English slave trade to Barbados

1642 Start of English Civil War
1642-1643 Abel Tasman explores the South Pacific, discovering Tasmania, New Zealand and
Tonga. Due to crisis in Europe, Dutch exploration and colonisation of the South Pacific
dwindles after the 1650s

1648 Dezhnyov explores North East Asia and sails through the Bering Strait

1648-1652 The Dutch East India Company establishes a settlement in Cape Town, South
Africa

1658-1667 Bernier explores India, describing Agra, Delhi and Kashmir in detail

1659-1660 Groseilliers and Radisson explore Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region of North
America

Foundation of the Royal Society

1661 The Earl of Sandwich carries out scientific experiments into the depth, tides and salinity
of the Mediterranean for the Royal Society

1662 The Royal Society issues Directions for Seaman bound for voyages and gives fresh
impetus to scientific exploration

1669 La Salle explores the Ohio River

1669-1688 Bowrey explores India, Burma, Sumatra and Ceylon

1670 The Hudson’s Bay Company receives its charter

Lederer explores the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

1671 Robert Boyle of the Royal Society advocates the systematic exploration of the world’s
oceans

1672 Jolliet and Marquette explore the Mississippi River from Lake Michigan to Arkansas

1673 Needham and Arthur explore Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida

1679-1682 La Salle journeys down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and claims Louisiana
for France

1683-1684 Engelbert Kaempfer journeys through Persia, Ceylon Java and Siam to reach
Japan for one year and makes extensive notes on local life

1686-1723 Samuel Fritz founds a Jesuit Mission amongst the Amazonian Indians and he
explores much of the interior of Brazil as well as charting the Amazon

1687-1706 Kino establishes missions in Arizona

1691 De La Loubere explores and describes Siam

1691-1692 Kelsey explores the Canadian Plains west of Hudson Bay

1698 End of Royal African Company monopoly. Slave trade officially open to private traders

1700 Dampier explores the South Pacific and establishes the Dampier Strait, to the west of
New Guinea

1704 Alexander Selkirk is marooned on Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile after a dispute
with his captains, including Dampier. He lives alone for four years before being rescued by
Woodes Rogers, guided by Dampier as pilot, and later recounts his ordeal to Defoe, who
bases Robinson Crusoe on his ordeal

1720-1727 Messerschmitt explores Asia from the Urals to Mongolia

1721-1723 Roggereen fails to find great Southern Land in the South Pacific, but does
discover the Easter Islands on Easter Sunday

1725-1728 Bering sails through the strait separating America and Asia

1735-1743 La Vérendrye explores the Dakotas

1740-1744 Anson circumnavigates the globe in the Centurion

1741 Behring leads Great Northern Expedition which proves that Asia and America are not
joined

1746 James Cook (1728-79) - The son of a Yorkshire labourer - is apprenticed to a shipowner
in Whitby. Active in North Sea and Baltic Sea

1749 Isabella Godin miraculously survives after being left deserted near the Amazon without
drink, food or a boat

1750 Thomas Gray writes Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Samuel Johnson starts The
Rambler (1750-52). Voltaire takes up residence in Potsdam at the invitation of Frederick II

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