Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0270/02707.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 39KB | 612 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02707}
$Pretitle{294N}
$Title{Oceania
Chapter 1C.   Era of European Discovery}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert C. Kiste}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{new
pacific
islands
first
australia
britain
island
british
zealand
established}
$Date{1984}
$Log{}
Country:     Oceania
Book:        Oceania, An Area Study: Introduction
Author:      Robert C. Kiste
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 1C.   Era of European Discovery

     By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had
established themselves in the East Indies, maintaining trading posts at
Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas (Spice Islands; present-day
Maluku Islands in Indonesia), and a few other locations. They arrived at
these distant outposts by voyaging around the Cape of Good Hope, up the east
coast of Africa, and east across the Indian Ocean, bringing them to the edge
of, but not into, the insular Pacific.

     Seeking to challenge Portugal's hold on the East Indies, Spain sought
alternate routes to the area as well as another potential prize. As far back
as the sixth century B.C., it had been posited that the world was a globe
and that there was a great landmass on the southern part that gave balance
to the northern landforms. Armchair geographers had come to call the unseen
southern continent Terra Australis Incognita. For Christopher Columbus and
others centuries later, the two Americas represented barriers to a western
route from Europe to the East Indies and the southern continent.

     Like Columbus, Magellan was convinced that there was a route around the
Americas, and, finding only skepticism at home, he eventually led an
expedition from Spain. He sailed around the southern tip of South America and
through the strait that now bears his name. He proceeded from southeast to
northwest across the Pacific and reached Guam in 1521. Magellan pushed on
farther westward and discovered the Philippines, where he was killed in an
encounter with the indigenous people. His voyage demonstrated the immense size
of the Pacific, and his crew continued homeward to complete the first
circumnavigation of the earth.

     The Spanish failed to dislodge the Portuguese in the East Indies, but
they eventually took possession of the Philippines in 1565. To link the
Philippines to the motherland, a trans-Pacific route was established from
Manila to Acapulco, Mexico, overland to the Caribbean, and on to Spain.

     During the remainder of the sixteenth century, the Spanish and Portuguese
were the dominant explorers in the region. Representatives of both countries
sighted and claimed the large landmass of New Guinea. Sailing to the Peruvian
port of Callao, the Spaniard Alvaro de Mendana de Neira discovered the Solomon
Islands in the late 1560s. Attempting to retrace his voyage, he sailed again
from Callao in 1595. He discovered the Marquesas Islands-the first inhabited
Polynesian islands seen by Europeans.

     Mendana did not live to see the end of his voyage, and his command passed
to his chief pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who became obsessed with
finding the southern continent. Setting sail in 1605, he traveled through the
Tuamotus, which were of little interest to him, and went on to discover the
New Hebrides Islands, which he wrongly identified as the sought-after
continent. Quiros returned to Mexico, but his own chief pilot, Luis Vaez de
Torres, sailed from Manila after passing along the southern coast of New
Guinea through what is now called the Torres Strait. His voyage demonstrated
that New Guinea is an island and not part of the undiscovered continent.

     By 1602 the Dutch had replaced the Portuguese in the East Indies, and
during the seventeenth century they made the major explorations in the
Pacific. The Dutch United East India Company monopolized trade in the
Indies, and its investors tended to be conservative. Where the Spanish and
Portuguese had been adventurers seeking gold, new lands, and souls for the
glory of church and state, the Dutch were primarily pragmatic entrepreneurs
searching for new trade routes and new markets.

     In 1606 Dutch navigators discovered northern Australia whale exploring
the southern coast of New Guinea. Several exploratory voyages sponsored by
the company in the 1620s and 1630s helped to map the northern and western
coasts of Australia, which they called New Holland. They did not establish
with certainty, however, that all the territory explored formed part of the
long-sought-after southern continent. In 1642 Captain Abel Tasman sailed
around the southern coast of Australia and encountered the island now known
as Tasmania. Continuing around Australia, he discovered New Zealand, Tonga,
and parts of Fiji early the next year. Tasman was the first European navigator
to enter the Pacific from the west; he was also the first to make a complete
circuit around Australia. After a second voyage in 1644, Tasman had
contributed more knowledge about the Pacific than any other European up to his
time.

     During the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Dutch concentrated
on their business concerns, and although voyages to New Guinea and western
Australia occurred, no vigorous exploratory effort was pursued. After Tasman's
voyages, no major discoveries were made in the South Pacific until the voyage
of another Dutchman, Admiral Jacob Roggeveen, about 80 years later. Roggeveen,
who was not affiliated with the Dutch United East India Company, discovered
exotic Easter Island, part of the Tuamotus, and the Samoa Islands in 1722. His
efforts were not appreciated by the Dutch; instead, Roggeveen was accused
of having trespassed on the company's monopoly. His discoveries rekindled
interest in Pacific geography and exploration elsewhere.

     Much of that interest, however, was carried on by armchair geographers
in Europe. The reports and maps from previous expeditions were subjected to
scrutiny and debate in academia. The Dutch had not freely shared the results
of their explorations, and for others the uncertainty about Terra Australis
Incognita remained.

     Beginning in 1764 the tempo of actual exploration in the Pacific gained
momentum, and within a relatively short time a series of voyages by four
Englishmen and one Frenchman occurred. Douglas L. Oliver, a dean of Pacific
anthropology, has described the period as one in which Oceania geography was
transformed from a speculative into an exact science. Between 1764 and 1769
the three English captains John Byron, Samuel Wallis, and Philip Carteret
made significant voyages of exploration. Wallis discovered Tahiti; Carteret
sailed over much unexplored but vacant ocean, thereby eliminating many of the
areas where the southern continent might possibly have been located.

     In an effort to challenge the British and restore prestige that had been
damaged by events in Europe, the Frenchman Louis Antoine de Bougainville was
instructed to circumnavigate the globe. Bougainville followed Wallis to
Tahiti. Thereafter, he proceeded to the Samoa Islands. His next landfalls were
the islands of the New Hebrides, New Guinea, and the Solomons.

     Although Bougainville's accomplishments were considerable, the
eighteenth-century voyages of exploration in the Pacific were dominated by the
British, Captain James Cook proving to be the most formidable of them all.
Cook made three voyages-the first in 1768-71 and the others in 1772-75 and
1776-79. Although all of Cook's accomplishments cannot be recounted here, he
further explored the Society Islands during his first voyage and surveyed the
coasts of New Zealand and most of the eastern coast of Australia. During the
second voyage he came close to Antarctica, discovered Niue, New Caledonia, and
Norfolk Island, and charted new islands in the Tuamotus, Cooks, and Marquesas.
His third voyage took Cook along the American northwest coast and Alaska in
search of the hoped-for northwest passage. Among other discoveries, Cook came
upon the Hawaiian Islands;