List of explorations

This is a list of some of the most important explorations of State Societies, in chronological order:

Before 1400

Exploration When Who (explorer)
Northwest African coast (West Africa) about 500 BC Hanno the Navigator
The Mediterranean Sea 5th century BC Himilco the Navigator
Around western Europe to Thule Island about 330 BC Pytheas of Marseilles
Hawaiian Islands By c. 800 Hawaiʻiloa (mythical)
Greenland, Iceland, and Faroes 900 Gunnbjörn Ulfsson
Americas (North America) 999 Leif Ericson
Brazil (South America) - controversial c. 14th century CE Abu Bakr II
Sahelian kingdoms 1351–1354 Ibn Battuta

15th century

Exploration When Who (explorer) Context
Great permanent wind wheel of Volta do Mar, the North Atlantic Gyre. Recognition of the Sargasso Sea, Madeira, Azores and West African coast. Cape Verde. 1427–1460 Several navigators: Portuguese or serving Portugal, most under the sponsorship of Henry the Navigator Portuguese maritime exploration
Galápagos Islands or Rapa Nui c. 1480 Tupaq Inka Yupanki. 1594–1597.
Rediscovered by the Spanish.		 "Third Inca expansion" [es]
Congo River, Angola and Namibia 1482–1485 Diogo Cão Portuguese maritime exploration
South Africa. Connected the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. South Atlantic Volta do Mar winds. 1482–1485 Bartolomeu Dias Portuguese maritime exploration
Caribbean, Venezuela (South America) and Central America. Use and development of the North Atlantic routes. 1493–1502 Christopher Columbus Spanish colonization of the Americas
Atlantic Ocean (outer routes) and Indian Ocean, sea route to India (Europe to Asia) 1497–1499 Vasco da Gama Portuguese maritime exploration
Brazil, South Atlantic Volta do Mar, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, gate of the Red Sea (Bab-el-Mandeb Strait); India. Voyage that united Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia. 1500–1501 Pedro Álvares Cabral and Diogo Dias, among others Portuguese maritime exploration
Portuguese colonization of the Americas


16th century

Exploration When Who (explorer) Context
Timor, Moluccas (Australasia - Pacific Ocean) 1512–1513 António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão Portuguese maritime exploration
Circumnavigation of the globe. Connection from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean (Americas to Asia). 1519–1522 Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Philippines
Mexico 1519–1521 Hernán Cortés Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and east of the Inca Empire 1525–1527 Aleixo Garcia Spanish colonization of the Americas
Traveled across the Southwest of North America (completely) 1528 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Spanish colonization of the Americas
Peru, Inca Empire and Ecuador 1531–1534 Francisco Pizarro Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
Ecuador and Brazil. Length of the Amazon River. 1531–1534 Francisco de Orellana Spanish colonization of the Americas
Canada, Saint Lawrence River 1534–1542 Jacques Cartier French colonization of the Americas
Bolivia, Argentine Northwest, Chile 1535–1537 Diego de Almagro Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
Colombia, Conquest of the Muisca 1536–1537 Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Spanish colonization of the Americas
Pacific Ocean's Volta do Mar (Asia to the Americas) 1564–1565 Andrés de Urdaneta Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Philippines
North, Canada (Hudson Bay) 1574–1631 Henry Hudson
North 1594–1597 Willem Barents

17th century

Exploration When Who (explorer)
Siberia and Pacific coast 1649–1641 Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin
Australia c. 1640 Makassar People before. Explored by Abel Tasman.
Tasmania, New Zealand 1642–1643 Abel Tasman
Brazil (circumnavigation), Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru. Connected the River Plate Basin to the Andes and to the mouth of the Amazon River. 1648–1651 António Raposo Tavares
Western Patagonia [1669–1673 Nicolás Mascardi
Western Patagonia 1675–1676 Antonio de Vea

18th century

Exploration When Who (explorer)
Oceania 1768–1779 James Cook
North Pacific, western Alaska, Far East Eurasian Coast 1771 Moric Benovsky
Central America and Latin America 1799–1803 Alexander von Humboldt

19th century

Exploration When Who (explorer)
Northwest Plateau of North America 1804–1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition
The North Magnetic Pole 1831-06-01 James Clark Ross
Interior of Africa 1851–1873 David Livingstone
The Burke and Wills expedition (Central Australia) 1860–1861 Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills
Inland eastern Patagonia 1875–1877 Perito Moreno
Exploration of the Zambeze river region, Central Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zaire 1877 Serpa Pinto
The Northern Sea Route 1878 Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld

20th century

Exploration When Who (explorer)
The South Magnetic Pole January 16, 1909 Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay
The North Pole April 6, 1909 Robert Peary
The South Pole December 14, 1911 Roald Amundsen
The South Pole January 17, 1912 Robert Falcon Scott
Mount Everest summit May 29, 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
The Moon July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11)
Mars 1960–present NASA and other space agency exploration robots

See also