Age of Exploration [antikvár]

NTRODUCTION Between 1420 and 1620 Europeans learned that all seas are one; that seamen, given adequate ships and stores, skill and courage, could in time reach any country in the world which had an ocean coast, and—what was more important—return home. No other period in the history of the Western world equals this time in significance, in variety and in dramatic interest. Not the least important of its by-products was the demolition of geographical theories that had prevailed in Europe since classical antiquity. Nowhere in the writings of Ptolemy, for example, was there any hint of the immense American continent or of the vast Pacific Ocean. Today, when the world is on the brink of the exploration of space, we have new reasons for wishing to understand the motives, the means and the achievements of the old discoverers. This is not easy, for their story, so familiar in general outline, is hard to follow in detail. There are very few eyewitness accounts of major voyages, and fewer still written by leaders of expeditions. The reports of Vasco da Gama, of Ferdinand Magellan, of Sebastián del Cano, have disappeared. Columbus' journal survives, but only in an abstract made by another hand; and even so it describes as much what Columbus wished to see as what he actually saw. Most explorers were practical men, little given to writing. They saw no reason to give away valuable information, except to their employers. The employers encouraged this taciturnity, because they hoped to monopolize the profits of the new-found lands. The details of discovery, therefore, have often to be inferred from the writings of chroniclers and armchair amateurs of travel, which were based upon classical theory and cosmographical conjecture as well as upon experience. The Age of Exploration is commonly associated with the Renaissance; with a quickening of curiosity, with a new clarity and detachment in studying natural phenomena and human achievement. Yet there was nothing new about travel, about the desire to see strange lands. What was new was the systematic organization of maritime reconnaissance and the rapid improvement in its techniques. Once rulers and financiers understood that more efficient ships, more accurate instruments and better methods of cartography and navigation had made long ocean passages possible, they invested in exploring. Their object was not discovery for its own sake— that was incidental—but the opening of ocean routes to distant India, China and Japan, countries known to exist and believed to be of commercial importance. The men who did the work were tough professionals, willing to serve any ruler who would employ them, ready to go anywhere and investigate anything if they were suitably rewarded. They were the maritime counterparts of the mercenary captains who made a profession of the land fighting of Europe. Skillful, imaginative and bold, they drew the map of the world we know. So dramatic and so complex a tale is best told plainly; it needs no hyperbole. Professor Hale relates and analyzes the story of the discoverers in clear, unsentimental prose, not belittling their courage, their vision and their faith but properly emphasizing the systematic purpose which drove them, the inventiveness, the technical ingenuity and the judgment which made possible their success. J. H. PARRY Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs Harvard University