THE GEOGRAPHY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

THE GEOGRAPHY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY • Critical part of the human condition

CONNECTIONS • How are people and places connected? • Why these connections? • When did they develop? • What trade networks, or accessibility links, are there between places?

Expansion from core area (Out of Africa)

Rise of cultural hearths • (sedentary settlements) • Nile, Fertile Crescent, • Americas, Indus Valley, • Ganges, etc.

MOTIVATIONS FOR EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY • HUMAN DESIRE TO SEE • “WHAT’S OVER THE HILL” • NEED FOR MORE RESOURCES • TRIBAL / IMPERIALISTIC / EMPIRE AMBITIONS • (TERRITORY)

Political geography of territory and resources TERRITORY = RESOURCES RESOURCES = POWER POWER = MORE TERRITORY

Venetian and Genoan Trade Networks

GOING GLOBAL …… • GREAT CHINESE FLEETS - • early 15TH CENT. • (Indian and Pacific Ocean voyages)

GOING GLOBAL …… • EUROPEAN VOYAGES - • 1450s onwards • (Caravelle, astrolabe, gunpowder, etc.) • GREAT CHINESE FLEETS - • 15TH CENTURY • (Indian and Pacific Ocean voyages)

EUROPEANEXPLORATION 15TH – 18TH centuries Sub-Saharan Africa/Asia Slowly incorporated into the Atlantic trade system

AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT • Belief in power of science to help humans understand their place in the world - • The Age of Reason ● Scientific expeditions across the planet

EXPLORATION-DISCOVERY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • FIRST CYCLE = 1760s to 1820s • Technology = Steam, Mining, Factories The Industrial Revolution Cycle is a +/- 30-year rise on innovation and a +/- 30-year decline until next innovation

PACIFIC EXPLORATION • Britain’s James Cook (1728-1779)

KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • SECOND CYCLE = 1820s to 1880s (Empire Building) • Technology = Railroad, Steamships, Telegraph

PLANNED RAILROAD ROUTES - FRENCH WEST AFRICA

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY EXPLORATIONS • Founded in 1851 in New York • The AGS mission – exploration and discovery • Research focus – Arctic and Antarctic • Notables – Grinnell, Muir, Pres. Wilson, Isaiah Bowman, FDR ……..

KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • THIRD CYCLE = 1880s to 1945 • Technology = Automobiles, airplanes, telephones, weaponry. The Age of the great European out-migrations….. (1830s to 1930s)

AGE OF EMPIRES • 1886 CONFERENCE OF BERLIN • Opening up Africa – scramble for resources and territory

FRENCH INDO-CHINA1850s – 1950s

KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • FOURTH CYCLE = 1945 to early 1990s • Technology = Space, communications, the quantitative revolution The Atomic Age……. The Cold War …….

KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • FIFTH CYCLE = early 1990s to 2050s ?? • Technology = digital, biotech, nanotechnology, GPS/GIS (spatial mapping), massive infrastructure (renewal?)

KONDRATIEFF CYCLES • FIFTH CYCLE = early 1990s to 2050s ?? • The Age of Globalization The Age of Cultural Conflicts ???? The Age of Climate Change !!!!! (Human Impacts)

21st CENTURY EXPLORATION • What are the new exploration and discovery challenges for the 21st century?

21st CENTURY EXPLORATION • Oceans ? • Space ? • The Human Genome project ? • Human – Environment Relationships ?

THANK YOU!

THE GEOGRAPHY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY