European Exploration of the Pacific During the Age of Discovery

Abstract

The exploration of the Pacific began with Portuguese interests in the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas. This chapter begins with the establishment of trading posts in Ceylon, India and the Maldive Islands, and eventually in the Spice Islands of Indonesia, all of which had already been heavily influenced by traders from the Middle East. In the late fifteenth century the eastward traffic from Europe used the Indian Ocean route, pioneered by Vasco de Gama, a pathway that never actually crossed the ocean. In an effort to find an alternative route to the Spice Islands, Ferdinand Magellan took the first epic voyage across the Pacific in 1520. He discovered and described the low islands he encountered there, but there would be no renewal of food or water until reaching the Mariana Islands. Here he would encounter the Chamorro people on the island of Guam after being at sea for 98 days. The interaction would become a sociological template for future dealings between native Pacific people and the Europeans, as evidenced by the more extensive Pacific explorations made by Alvaro de Mandana de Neira and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros beginning in 1567. The discoveries and difficulties associated with those three voyages are described in detail.