Geographic Discovery Research Articles

Chronicles of the sea

This publication attempts to present the history of the sailing ships development, from ancient times to the present day. It is almost impossible to present the development history of such an important technological achievement in a few pages, so we only focus on the most significant turning points in the publication. We present the ancient ships, the long ships of the Vikings, the shipbuilding techniques of the age of great geographical discoveries. We analyse the characteristics of line of ships, which greatly influenced the battles of the great powers of the world. Finally, we give a small overview of currently used sailing ship technologies.

ДЕМОНСТРАЦИЯ ТУЗЕМЦЕВ КАК ФЕНОМЕН ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ ОТКРЫТИЙ И КОЛОНИАЛИЗМА живой экспонат британского мореплавателя Уильяма Дампира

Статья посвящена анализу одного из феноменов географических открытий и колониализма - демонстрации туземцев в Европе на примере судьбы жителя острова Миангас Джиоло, захваченного в рабство мореплавателем Уильямом Дампиром и выставленного в качестве экспоната в Лондоне. Помимо трагической истории Джиоло автор представила общую характеристику человеческих выставок в ракурсе цивилизационного подхода и имагологии и выделила их побудительные мотивы. С одной стороны, демонстрация туземцев в Европе стимулировалась жаждой наживы, характерной для представителей «империй эксплуатации», каковой являлась Британская империя. С другой стороны, это явление отражало присущее человеческой природе любопытство и стремление к познанию. С третьей – потребностью человека как живого социального существа в зрелищах, которые позволяли ему в непосредственной эмоциональной форме ощутить свою принадлежность к европейской общности и почувствовать свою защищенность в стремительно трансформирующемся мире Нового времени. Созерцание «другого» человека затрагивало глубинные пласты психологической организации личности, играя на моменте оппозиционности, т.е. противопоставления концептов «мы» и «они». Психология во многом определяла четвертый побудительный момент туземных выставок – утверждение в собственном превосходстве, оправдывавшем преобладавшее отношение цивилизованного мира к завоеванным и открытым территориям. В статье отмечено, что географические открытия и колониальная эра, визуализируя европейскому обществу «других» людей из различных регионов земного шара, стимулировали развитие расистских теорий. The article is devoted to the analysis of one of the phenomena of geographical discoveries and colonialism - the demonstration of natives in Europe using the example of the fate of Giolo, a resident of the island of Miangas, captured as a slave by the seafarer William Dampier and exhibited as a showpiece in London. In addition to the tragic story of Giolo, the author presented a general description of human exhibitions from the perspective of the civilizational approach and imagology and highlighted their motivations. On the one hand, the demonstration of natives in Europe was stimulated by the itch for gain, characteristic of representatives of “empires of exploitation,” such as the British Empire. On the other hand, this phenomenon reflected the inherent curiosity and desire for knowledge in human nature. With the third one it was the need of man as a living social for spectacles that in a direct emotional form allowed him to feel his belonging to the European community and his security in the rapidly transforming world of the New Age. Contemplation of the “other” person affected the deep stratums of the psychological organization of the personality, playing on the moment of opposition, i.e. contrasting the concepts of “us” and “they”. Psychology largely determined the fourth motivating factor of native exhibitions, such as assertion of one’s own superiority, which justified the prevailing attitude of the civilized world towards conquered and discovered territories. The article notes that geographical discoveries and the colonial era stimulated the development of racist theories by visualizing “other” people from different regions of the globe to European society.

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF KING FRANCIS1(1515-1547)

The study of historical figures has remained the focus of interest for researchers, especially European figures who had a prominent role in shaping the events of Europe and then the trend towards the new world and took it upon themselves to draw the map of Europe through its internal and foreign policies. These figures remained the center of controversy among researchers, through extrapolation and analysis of historical documents and writings, over the extent of what they achieved for their countries and peoples and what they established on the European map. Among those figures was the French King Francis I, who sat on the throne of France from 1515 to 1547, and whose reign was full of events. International relations changed according to what he saw as appropriate for French interests, whether by concluding agreements at times, as happened with the development of his relationship with the Ottoman Empire, which was a key to the growth of French-Ottoman relations and an outlet for interference in Ottoman affairs and between waging wars at other times because of his expansionist ambitions in Europe, the most important of which was waging a war against Spain for control. On the Italian kingdoms and what coincided with those events and those that followed them, including his interest in geographical discoveries, which he considered one of the most important foundations of his expansionist policy outside Europe towards the New World and reaching the East. The study dealt with the circumstances of François I’s accession to the throne of France and the most important kings who lived with him in that period. Then we touched on his wars with Spain because of his expansionist claims in Italy, the French-Ottoman relations that developed very significantly, and the success of his expansionist policy through his encouragement of the movement of geographical discoveries after he saw the treasures. The money and types of trade that Spanish and Portuguese ships brought from overseas achieved great success in that direction despite the superiority of the British fleet and its sovereignty over the seas

Potreba za filozofijom u savremenom svetu

To think about essential questions, the meaning of human existence, social-historical and ontological riddles of the World, necessarily means being in the chambers of philosophy. Unfortunately, our (post)modern, globalized and busy world is turning its back on the wisdom of all ages. In this paper, the authors point to the rejection of philosophy in the modern consumer society and search for answers to questions about the need to study philosophy today. Also, about its importance for man, people and humanity. The work consists of three parts, in which a contribution is made to the understanding of the importance of philosophy for man, society and humanity. The authors pointed the reasons for the rejection of philosophy in the modern age are explored, and the relationship between philosophy and science is examined. Philosophy is needed by modern man/ society/humanity for the same reasons it was needed in the past, but the need for it is hidden in modern consumer society. Philosophy is eternal and everlasting. If the root of philosophy is about 27 centuries deep and has survived all radical changes in the world and all (r)evolutions, rulers and dynasties, political and social movements, all wars and destructions, all geographical discoveries and the exploring of the Cosmos, is it wise to voluntarily deny such a deep source of wisdom? In contrast to today's consumer lost in his own life, philosophy gives us an insight that can be healing and beneficial. But we should have a fruitful conversation with philosophy, but not just have a historical retrospective. Because we who are still alive need philosophers and their wisdom of the ages. A philosopher looks for the essential and the necessary in everything, and this separates him from those people who deal with unimportant things, phenomena and processes. Of course, a philosophically minded person never underestimates the knowledge and meaning of exact sciences and techniques and technical progress. Communicating with the wisdom of the ages is both healing and valuable and benefits both the individual and the community to which he or she belongs.

THE "LARGE BARYON PUMP OF THE EARTH" AS A NATURAL IMAGE OF THE "TREE OF LIFE" AND AN OBJECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, WHICH IS INTEGRATED WITH THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF MAN

THE "LARGE BARYON PUMP OF THE EARTH" AS A NATURAL IMAGE OF THE "TREE OF LIFE" AND AN OBJECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, WHICH IS INTEGRATED WITH THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF MAN

Find the river: Discovering the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra in the age of empire

AbstractDespite the enormous size and economic and scientific significance of the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River, questions ofwhereandwhatit was generated successive waves of dispute from the mid-eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. Geographical discovery in the eastern Himalayan borderlands neither entailed the application of fixed theories and techniques, nor resulted from consistent flows of information along established channels. Europeans instead understood the region’s rivers in many different ways, influenced by sporadic deluges of data, competing forms of expertise, shifting imperatives of colonial political economy, unsettling encounters with various bodies of water, and heterogeneous Asian knowledge structures. Informants, infrastructures, and cosmologies of often-overlooked communities at imperial margins fundamentally reshaped European knowledge. Under these conditions, practitioners of spatial sciences came to thrive on the proliferation of models and objects of discovery rather than seeking definitive closure.

The Great Geographical Discoveries from the Perspective of Environmental History--A book report on The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange, the masterpiece of the American historian Alfred W. Crosby, is honored as the founding text for researches on environmental history, in which the author Crosby explored an environmental-history perspective that was novel at the time, re-examining the historic events in the Age of the Great Geographical Discoveries including Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas and Europeans' colonization there, and interpreting the history by virtue of exchanges and transitions of the environment and the creatures therein. From the perspective of historical research, this ecological-history perspective represented at that time a pioneering research progress.

Historiographical Analysis of the Work «Taqwim Al-Buldan» by Abu Al-Fida in the System of Philosophical Views Orientalists

Ancient and medieval historical and geographical written monuments are valuable sources for studying the geographical, toponymic, etymological, ethnopolitical history of various territories. Geographical discoveries of medieval scientists and travelers based on specific materials will make a new scientific contribution to the reconstruction of ideas about the area, but also contribute to the study of the heritage of the Turkic peoples. As part of the study of historiography, the works of Arab geographers and travelers occupy a huge place among foreign sources related to various countries. And the studies of Western orientalists of the new time have not lost their relevance to this day. This article is dedicated to the book of the Syrian geographer, historian and politician Abu al-Fida’ (1273-1331) «Taqwim al-Buldan». The article provides a historiographical analysis of the accumulated knowledge of historical science in order to identify important information, as well as conducting paradigmatic links with sources of medieval time. The level of study of the topic shows new aspects of historical reality that are necessary for further research.

«Great geographical discoveries»: the meaning and historical content of the term in the light of the interaction experience of civilizations in the New World

The main question that Humankind was confronted with at the beginning of the Age of Great Discoveries can be spelled out as follows: «Just how is the world shaped?» The subsequent Great Geographical Discoveries showed the true dimension and structure of the surface of the Planet, as well as the real range of diversity of the «World of Humans». And the new knowledge of the shape of the world, in turn, gave rise to the following dilemma: can we surmise any unity of this world, all the great diversity of human cultures notwithstanding, or is such a unity nothing but an illusion? The search for an answer to this question constituted one of the axes of the spiritual life of Humankind in subsequent centuries up to the present day. The crucial point in the search for an answer to the above said question was the Discovery of America. The Meeting of two Worlds brought about the most acute crisis of consciousness on both sides. In the course of ensuing attempts at overcoming the crisis, they discovered new dimensions of their own heritage and new prospects for future life. Two alternative ways of evolution of homo sapiens, essentially different and even opposed, took shape. On the one hand, it was globalization, and on the other hand, it was increased emphasis on the heterogeneity of specific human communities at different levels, being the regional civilizations the most conspicuous ones in this respect. The collision, interweaving and mutual influence of those processes predetermined the main trends of human history over the past five centuries. In Latin America, a special frontier civilizational type has developed, as different from the classical both Western and Oriental models. It embodies more patently the principle of dialogue, which is, according to M. Bakhtin, a distinctive feature of the evolution of homo sapiens in general. This type of civilisation acquires particular importance at the present stage of evolution of the human world, which, on the threshold of the XXI century has entered its new stage, that of uncertainty and instability, the frontier stage.

Globalization as a Catalyst for the Development and Decline of Empires

Abstract The author analyzes the problem of social progress in the context of the historical stages of development: savagery – barbarism – civilization. I show how, under the influence of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the variety of continental empires was replenished with maritime (colonial) empires. Globalization has given them a powerful impetus for their development. Then, from the XX century, empires ceased to meet the requirements of the changed times. The empire, as a form of organization of social life, turned out to be ineffective in the modern global world and entered into an acute phase of antagonistic contradictions with it.

Антонио Дженкинсонның жаңа анықталған бірегей картасының аясында XVI ғасырдың ортасындағы Қазақ даласы

The article is devoted to the study of a genuine copy of the map of Russia and Tartaria by Antonio Jenkinson of 1562, discovered by a Polish researcher from Wroclaw Krystyna Szykula in the late 1980s. The announcement of the original map aroused great interest in the academic world of cartography historians and representatives of other related disciplines, because for almost more than four centuries this important historical document testifying to the results of the activities of the first English travelers who opened the way to China and India through the expanses of Muscovy and Tartary was considered irretrievably lost and was known only in its main copy derivatives from the Cosmography of Abraham Ortelius and Gerard de Yoda. As it turned out, both copies are only a pale and emasculated reflection of their prototype. The “Wroclaw Find” presented us with a completely new image of the map associated with the name of Antonio Jenkinson, which has allowed us to significantly deepen and expand our knowledge about the history of geographical discoveries in Eurasia, relations between Western Europe and Russia, Russia’s relations with its western and eastern neighbors, as well as about history and ethnography of some regions of the East. At the same time, it should be noted that the newly acquired original map of Jenkinson - a good third of the displayed cartographic space of which is occupied by the territory of modern Qazaqstan - is still little known in our country. The purpose of our publication is to fill the gap by providing researchers with a fairly complete coverage of this most valuable historical and geographical source. The acquaintance with it may be useful and entertaining also for any Qazaqstani reader, since the map is a kind of a message from the middle of the 16th century, “written” in the most perceptible figurative language, i.e. the language of lines, colors, drawings, icons and brief explanatory texts. This message shows the world as it was seen by the majority of medieval Europeans, and moreover, allows to extract specific information about the historically significant events of the reflected era and, finally, to understand the mentality of the society to which the creators of the map belonged.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE 'S JOURNEY TO AFRICA ( 1813 - 1873)

The fifteenth century for Europe represents the beginning of the modern era, and it is at the same time for Africa the era in which the continent lost its independence, and became plundered by the European powers, especially Britain، which contributed to the movement of geographical discoveries، which is one of the most important stations in the history of Africa during this era, as a precursor to European colonialism in general and the British in particular. The topic has a special importance because the European countries during this period showed the factors of the colonial movement represented by the industrial revolution، the imbalance between the West and the East, the growth of nationalism, demographic pressures and internal conditions in Europe، economic greed, strategic motives, the weakness of non-European powers, the call to embrace Christian religion, geographical discoveries and their role in exploiting the continent and then occupying it As for the research problem, it is represented by the following question: Did the scouting movement provide a great service to Britain for the colonization of Africa? Did the information sent by the explorers, including David Livingstone, help Britain extend its political influence and economic exploitation of the continent? Did the geographical discoveries open Africa to the missionaries? In order to answer these questions, the research was divided into an introduction, two sections, and a conclusion that included the most prominent findings of the study. The first topic entitled (David Livingston... birth and upbringing 1813-1840) was devoted. It contained the second topic entitled (David Livingstone's scout trips in Africa 1841-1873). The research required relying on the inductive historical scientific method to clarify past historical events and facts dating back to the nineteenth century, based on several sources that will be mentioned among the folds of the research

Eurocentric Historiography: An Analysis of International Politics in the 21st Century and Its Effect on Changes in Historiography of Countries in Europe

History is a form of the collective memory of societies. The history of any society is not independent of others. Historiography traditionally focused on relations among political authorities, namely, states. Within this context, societies had been equated with states. Geographical discoveries, which began at the end of 15th century, culminated in the emergence of a Eurocentric view of world history. The development of Eurocentric historiography was not an outcome of convention, but rather a reflection of world politics at that time. Historians began to write history by treating states dominant at regional and global scale as basic to their work. In this study, it is explained that international politics has had an important role in the development of Eurocentric historiography. To this end, historiography and the links between society and modern states are examined; the development of the Eurocentric international system is reviewed; the re-construction of non-European society by modern states is assessed; whether or not non-European societies are capable of an alternative historiography is debated; and, finally, it is claimed that modern international practices have determinative influence in the development of Eurocentric historiography.

Belgium: a History of African Exploration

In the late 19th — early 20th centuries, the European states paid special attention to the African continent, which for many was then terra incognita, despite geographical discoveries and scientific information available. The rumors that spread in Europe about barbaric tribes, cannibals and wild animals frightened and repelled ordinary people. However, businessmen and merchants saw enormous benefits in the acquisition of colonies. The distant continent promised them fabulous profits from colonial goods, raw materials for new industry and cheap labor. In addition, having overseas territories was prestigious for European states and became a symbol of national pride. “At the beginning of the 20th century, white Europe was the recognized as the master of the world, and white people were almost universally considered as rulers for which the rest of the world exists” — this is how the British writer, Africanist Winston Dubois saw Europe. New approaches in the foreign policy of European states have become characteristic not only for England and France, who were the “pioneers” of colonial conquests, but also for the little Belgium. The cunning and enterprising Belgian king Leopold II, having circumvented England and France, which competed for success on the Black continent, thanks to numerous manipulations in the business and political sphere, was able to secure for himself huge “ownerless” territories in the center of Africa, which later transformed into three states. These are the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.

The Geographical Discoveries in the East of Europe and Their Influence on the Self-Consciousness of the Renaissance Culture

In this article the author examines the news of European cosmographers of the first quarter of the 16th century about the lands of Eastern Europe discovered at that time. In this article the author examines the news of European cosmographers of the first quarter of the sixteenth century about the lands of Eastern Europe discovered at that time. In the cosmographic work of the Polish author Mathias de Miechow, who relied on the observations of his predecessors – Julius Pomponius Laetus, Pius II, as well as Catalan, Genoese, Venetian cartographers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries – a significant part of the data about the most important geographical objects in Eastern Europe, contained in the works of ancient scholars, was rejected or clarified. In the short time since the first publication of Mathias de Miechow's book, the view he expressed on the geography of Eastern Europe had become predominant, if not universally accepted. Its positive and even enthusiastic perception is to be found in the closely related works on Muscovy by European authors such as Albertus Campensis, Paolo Giovio, Ulrich von Gutten. In particular, these authors confirmed the non-existence of of the so-called Riphean and Hyperborean Mountains, the existence of which had been reported by the most eminent scholars of antiquity; they had also reinterpreted reports of their predecessors about the sources of the great rivers of this region, about peoples and tribes which inhabited it.However, as the author emphasises, these new data about geography and ethnography of Eastern Europe, obtained by humanists-cosmographers should be considered not only as a kind of manifestation of the general processes of global reappraisal of classical inheritance but as an important step in the development of Renaissance self-consciousness revealed in the affirmation of intellectual superiority of Modern epoch in comparison with Antiquity.

Are They Fruits of Ancient or Modern Knowledge? Geographical Discoveries in the Commentary of Heinrich Salmuth to the Treatise of Guido Panciroli “Rerum Memorabilium” (1602)

In the 1570s and 1580s, the Italian jurist Guido Panciroli (1523–1599) compiled a collection of brief notes on ancient and new inventions. In one of them, the author put forward the thesis that ancient thinkers knew nothing about the existence of the Americas. In an effort to prove the primacy of the Europeans in the discovery of the New World, Heinrich Salmuth, compiler of the commentary on Panchiroli's notes, made a number of arguments for and against this position. Thus in Panciroli's treatise “New Discoveries, or Two Books of Venerable Things”, first published in 1602, together with a commentary by Salmuth and initiated by the latter, the question of the possibility of discovering America before Columbus was raised. The purpose of this paper is to analyse grounds on which the time and essence of the discovery of the New World were perceived. To this end, the author examines the logic of the two authors' reasoning about European primacy and the differences in the justifications for this claim. On the basis of the research undertaken, it can be concluded that this work revisits not only the corpus of ancient worldviews, but also the exploratory, creative potential of Europeans to discover a new continent. In their work they try to find an explanation for the break with the preceding tradition and thus find themselves at the origins of the dispute over the significance of ancient knowledge for the new European science.

“Our World Has Just Discovered Another Worldˮ: How the Discovery of the New World Influenced the Historical Consciousness of the Sixteenth-Century French Humanists

The author examines the influence of the discovery of the New World on the historical consciousness of the French humanists of the sixteenth century. A study of the Latin treatises of Jean Fernel (1548), Jean Bodin (1566), the French works of Louis Le Roy (1567, 1575) and Michel de Montaigne (1580, 1588), allows one to challenge the idea established in historiography, according to which the discovery of the New World, the appreciation of new achievements, such as the compass, artillery, and printing, led humanists not only to recognise the superiority of their time over the antiquity, but also to the “idea of progress”. Indeed, French humanists, referring to modern geographical discoveries and unprecedented inventions, proclaimed the superiority of their era over antiquity in knowledge of the world, declared that their contemporaries had transcended antique experience, learned the whole of the globe and transformed the world into a single space of exchange and trade for the first time. Critical position of De Montaigne, who disputed the exhaustive nature of modern geographical discoveries and the innovative nature of a number of inventions, did not spread, because it did not meet the needs of humanists in high historical self-esteem. It was this need that often led intellectuals of the epoch to compare “our age” and antiquity and to be convinced of the superiority of modernity. However, the idea of the superiority of the modern era never developed into the “idea of progress” in the culture of French humanism. For humanists, this complex conception, according to which humanity moved successively towards a desirable image of the future, was both superfluous (in terms of satisfying the need for a high historical self-esteem) and inconsistent with their world view. The conditions for the birth of the idea of progress emerged only in the eighteenth century, within the culture of the Enlightenment. The humanists' understanding of history was based on the idea of cycles, the idea that human civilization, once established, would periodically reach its peak and then inevitably decline. This was borne out by all the historical experience available to humanists.

International Conference “Great Geographical Discoveries and the Culture of Renaissance”

International Conference “Great Geographical Discoveries and the Culture of Renaissance”

The significance of geographical discoveries in Antarctica and the images of the first explorers

The significance of geographical discoveries in Antarctica and the images of the first explorers

ТОРГОВЫЕ СВЯЗИ АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНА С РОССИЕЙ В ПЕРВОЙ ПОЛОВИНЕ XVIII В.

The article mitropolitan the influence of changes in the region caused by the great geographical discoveries and of the development of capitalist relations during the late Middle Ages on the foreign trade relations of Azerbaijan, and, first of all, on the nature and scope of the Azerbaijan-Russia economic relations carried out through the Volga-Caspian transit trade route. The article shows that Russian Tsar Peter I, taking advantage of the new situation in the region due to the loss of the importance of the “Great Silk Road” and the deep decline of the Safavid state bigan strengthening Russia’s position in international trade, turning the Volga-Caspian trade route into the main artery of east-west trade, and most importantly, for establishing direct trade relations with India. In the article, while addressing that very topical issuesolving that issue which is quite relevant for Azerbaijani historiography, the author abandoned the traditional approaches left over from the Soviet era and tried to create an objective picture of Azerbaijan-Russia trade relations in the first half of the 18th century based on reliable sources.