Search results
expressdigest.com
- Over the next several hundred years, explorers ventured to the Arctic in search of resources, scientific knowledge, national prestige, personal fame and a navigable Northwest Passage. The most successful of these explorers adapted to the harsh Arctic environment and adopted the tools and practices of northern Indigenous peoples.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/arctic-exploration
People also ask
Why did explorers search the Arctic?
When did explorers explore the Arctic?
Why is Arctic exploration obscurity?
How did the English explore the Arctic?
Why did explorers seek the Northwest Passage?
Why was Arctic exploration so important in the 1800s?
Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle . Historical records suggest that humankind have explored the northern extremes since 325 BC, when the ancient Greek sailor Pytheas reached a frozen sea ...
For over 400 years explorers risked their lives to search the Arctic for a northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Explorers searching for the Passage were hoping to establish a lucrative trading route between Europe and Asia.
Nov 29, 2023 · The allure of the Arctic began as early as the 330s BC, with the Greek explorer Pytheas venturing north from Britain. However, it wasn’t until the late 1500s that the search for the Northwest Passage — a direct route from Europe to Asia through the Arctic — intensified.
- Sir John Franklin. Now, just as in the fifteenth century, our desire to navigate through the Arctic all comes down to trade. Back then the spread of the Ottoman Empire disrupted Britain’s ability to trade with Asia using the Silk Road - a series of land-based routes stretching across the Eurasian continent.
- Fridtjof Nansen. Not only was Fridtjof Nansen the first person to cross the Greenland icecap he also made important meteorological and geographical records of the previously unexplored interior.
- Robert Peary. American explorer Robert Peary is often credited as leading the first expedition to successfully reach the North Pole. Setting sail from New York in July 1908 with 23 men, he spent the winter preparing on Ellesmere Island before setting off on 28 February with dog sleds and support crews.
- Louise Boyd. Dubbed ‘the girl who tamed the Arctic’, Louise Boyd was a wealthy American heiress who in the 1930s documented hundreds of botanical specimens on Greenland’s east and north coasts.
- Overview
- Study and exploration
The earliest references to Arctic exploration are shrouded in obscurity as a result both of inaccurate ideas of the shape of Earth and of primitive navigation techniques, which make it difficult to interpret early maps and accounts of voyages. Probably the first to approach the Arctic regions was a Greek, Pytheas, who in the 4th century bce made a voyage from the Mediterranean, around Britain, to a place he called Thule, variously identified as the Shetlands, Iceland, and Norway. The accounts of this remarkable explorer were for centuries discredited, but the idea of Thule, shrouded in fog and believed to be the end of the Earth, caught the imagination of many.
Iceland is known to have been visited by Irish monks in the 8th and 9th centuries, but it was the Vikings from Norway who settled the island, late in the 9th century. In the course of the next four centuries, these hardy sailors established trade routes to the White Sea, visited Greenland (c. 982) and founded two settlements on the southwest coast (which disappeared, for unknown reasons, before the 16th century), reached the coast of North America, and probably also reached Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya. However, they left scant records of their voyages, and many of the places they visited had to be rediscovered by others.
The earliest references to Arctic exploration are shrouded in obscurity as a result both of inaccurate ideas of the shape of Earth and of primitive navigation techniques, which make it difficult to interpret early maps and accounts of voyages. Probably the first to approach the Arctic regions was a Greek, Pytheas, who in the 4th century bce made a voyage from the Mediterranean, around Britain, to a place he called Thule, variously identified as the Shetlands, Iceland, and Norway. The accounts of this remarkable explorer were for centuries discredited, but the idea of Thule, shrouded in fog and believed to be the end of the Earth, caught the imagination of many.
Iceland is known to have been visited by Irish monks in the 8th and 9th centuries, but it was the Vikings from Norway who settled the island, late in the 9th century. In the course of the next four centuries, these hardy sailors established trade routes to the White Sea, visited Greenland (c. 982) and founded two settlements on the southwest coast (which disappeared, for unknown reasons, before the 16th century), reached the coast of North America, and probably also reached Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya. However, they left scant records of their voyages, and many of the places they visited had to be rediscovered by others.
The quest began as a search for a shorter shipping route between Europe and Asia. But, with each ship and life lost during the 300 year search, explorers seeking the Northwest Passage were also on a hunt for glory.
Jan 24, 2020 · Arctic obsession drove explorers to seek the North Pole. Risking life and limb, countless expeditions braved Arctic cold and crushing ice in the 1800s. All failed, but each one came closer and...
