Dear all,
Sorry for the delay in putting up this post. I can read that some of you have done your research and are eager to share your work.
First, please tell us the name of the explorer that you had done your research on and gave a short introduction.
Secondly, tell us an interesting fact of the explorer and why you chose to do your research on this explorer instead of the others.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Explorers
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Mr Tan Kah Kee was born in Jimei, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, and went to Singapore in 1890, when he was 16 years old, he had to work for his father's rice store. After his father's business collapsed in 1903, Tan Kah Kee started his own business and built an empire from rubber plantations and manufacturing, sawmills, canneries, real estate, import and export brokerage, ocean transport to rice trading. His business was at its prime from 1912-1914, where he was known as "Henry Ford of Malaya".
Statue of Mr Tan Kah Kee in front of his memorial hall in Xiamen University.
With the profit that he made from his business empire, Tan Kah Kee contributed greatly to the community, both in Malaya and his native Fujian Province. He set up the Jimei Schools (now Jimei University) in 1913. In 1919, he set up The Chinese High School, now named Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore, while in 1921, he set up the Xiamen University and financially supported it until the Government of the Republic of China took over it in 1937. In 1920, he married his daughter Tan Ai Li to Lee Kong Chian, who worked under him and who later became a famous Singaporean philanthropist and businessman.
Lee Kong Chian, like Tan Kah Kee, was a great philanthropist and patron of education. Lee Kong Chian was a pupil in the prestigious Tao Nan School. Tan Kah Kee was one of the 110 founding members of Tao Nan School. Famed for its traditional Chinese culture and excellent pupils, Tao Nan School is now a greatly respected and prestigious school. The school's current location is in Marine Parade, Singapore, and has attracted many students.
Tan Kah Kee was one of the prominent ethnic Chinese Malayans to financially support Chinese efforts in the Second Sino-Japanese War which broke out in 1937,
and organized many relief funds under his name. . He was also a participant in the Legislative Yuan of the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing. After the Japanese invaded and occupied Malaya and Singapore during the Battle of Malaya and the Battle of Singapore, these contributors were defined as "undesirables" and were subjected to systematic extermination in the Sook Ching Massacre, although Tan Kah Kee survived. Tan Kah Kee strongly rejected proposals to attempt to negotiate with the Japanese, regarding any such attempts as characteristic of a hanjian (traitor of the Chinese), and petitioned the pessimistic Wang Jingwei to dissuade him from any such activities.
Tan Kah Kee was the de facto leader of the Singaporean Chinese community, serving as a chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and helped organise the Hokkien clan association. However, he lost this role when the Chinese Civil War divided the Singaporean Chinese community into Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Kuomintang sympathizers. Tan Kah Kee was a CCP supporter as he was disillusioned with the corruption within the Nationalists. After the Communist victory in China, Tan Kah Kee tried to return to Singapore in 1950, but was denied entry by British colonial authority which was concerned about communist influence in Singapore and Malaya. He then moved permanently to China and served in numerous positions within the CCP. He died in 1961 in Beijing and was given a state funeral by the People's Republic of China. In Singapore, the Tan Kah Kee Scholarship Fund, which later became the Tan Kah Kee Foundation, was established in memory of this philanthropy.
I want to do about James Cook as I did a powerpoint about him so I already know a little about him.James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in Marton, (near modern Middlesborough), Yorkshire, Britain. Cook commanded three voyages of discovery for Great Britain, and sailed around the world twice. He was the first British ship commander to circumnavigate the globe in a lone ship. Cook was also the first British commander to prevent the outbreak of scurvy by regulating his crew’s diet, serving them citrus fruit and sauerkraut to prevent the disease. He is considered one of the world’s greatest explorers.
Cook was an apprentice to a shipping company at age 15, and joined the British Navy in 1755 at the age of 27. In 1768, the British Admiralty appointed Cook, then a Lieutenant, to lead a scientific expedition that would sail to the island of Tahiti in the south Pacific to establish an astronomical observatory. Their mission was to measure an eclipse of the sun by Venus. The Admiralty selected Cook because of his proven skills as a navigator, and for his interest in astronomy. He set out on August 12, 1768 in His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour, arriving in Tahiti on April 13, 1769. On June 3, 1769, Cook successfully measured the time it took Venus to transit the sun, and by doing so obtained data that would help scientists to accurately determine the size of the solar system.
Cook was also issued secret orders to seek the great southern continent (“Terres Australes Incognita” or unknown lands in the south) that geographers long believed kept the world in balance. In Cook’s day, the discovery of new lands often lead to great wealth for the nation claiming those lands. His orders were secret because the Admiralty did not want Britain’s international competitors to know about this aspect of Cook’s expedition. Cook searched for Terres Australes to no avail, determining that no such great continent existed.
In October 1769, he was the first European to land on New Zealand. The Islands were sighted previously by Dutch Captain Able Tasman in 1642, 127 years before Cook’s landing. New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeelandt (meaning Sea Land).
In 1770, Cook conducted a comprehensive survey of the eastern coast of New Holland (now Australia), the part of the continent the Dutch had not technically mapped. On August 22, 1770, he claimed those lands for Great Britain. The name “Australia” was not used until the early 1800s.
On Cook’s second journey he sailed farther south than any other European. He circled Antarctica in his famous ship Resolution, but the ice surrounding the continent prevented the sighting of land. The existence of the Antarctica remained unproved until 1840. Upon his return to England in 1775, Cook was promoted to Captain and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In July of 1776, Cook set sail on his third voyage, again in Resolution. His mission was to look for a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778, Cook became the first know European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Later in 1778, he sailed up the northwest coast of North America, and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He continued up the coast through the Bering Strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. Great walls of ice blocked the expedition, so Cook headed back for the Hawaiian Islands.
On February 14, 1779, Cook was stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives while investigating a theft of a boat by an islander. The expedition arrived back in England in October of 1780.
And he said this:
“I now once more hoisted English Coulers and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third, took possession of the whole Eastern Coast [of New Holland] from the above Latitude down to this place by the name of New South Wales.”- JAMES COOK
My research is on Sang nila Utama.
What i have found is this :
Sang Nila Utama, also known as Sri Tri Buana, is a legendary Indonesia prince who founded ancient Singapore in the country's ancient history. According to the Malay annals, he ruled the island from 1299 to 1347.
Sang Nila Utama was a prince of Sumatra. Wanting to find a suitable place for a new city, he decided to visit the islands off the coast of Sumatra. He set sail from Palembang in a number of ships. He and his men reached an island and were welcomed by the queen. A few days later, Sang Nila Utama went to a nearby island on a hunting trip. While hunting, he spotted a deer and started chasing it. He came to a very large rock and decided to climb it. When he reached the top, he looked across the sea and saw another island with a sandy beach had the appearance of a white sheet of cloth.
Asking one of his ministers what land it was, he was told that it was the island of Temasek. He then decided to visit it. However, when his ship was out into the sea, a great storm blew up and the ship was tossed about in the huge waves. The ship began to take in water.
To prevent it from sinking, his men threw all the heavy things on board into the sea to lighten the ship. Still water kept entering the ship so Sang Nila Utama, on the advice of a ship's officer, threw his heavy crown overboard. At once, the storm died down and he reached Temasek safely.
They went inland to hunt wild animals. Suddenly, he saw a strange animal with a red body and black head. It was a fine-looking animal and moved with great speed as it disappeared into the jungle.
He asked his chief minister what animal it was, and was told that it probably was a lion. However, recent studies of Singapore indicate that lions have never lived there and the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama was likely a tiger, most likely the Malayan Tiger. He was pleased with that, he believed it to be a good omen - a sign of good fortune coming his way. Thus, he decided to build his new city in Temasek. He and his men stayed on the island and founded a city.
He named this city "Singapura". "Singa" means lion and "pura" means city. The name thus means the Lion City. Sang Nila Utama ruled Singapore for 48 years.
I would like all of you to read my post carefully. What do I expect in your comments?
I am going to tell you about Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Finnes.
Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (March 7, 1944 - ) is an English explorer. He was also an author who has led over 30 expeditions to the North and South Poles, the Arabian desert, the Nile, and many other remote places.
In 1982, on his Transglobe Expedition, Fiennes led the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth. This 52,000-mile expedition took three years to accomplish! It included Charles Burton. Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton were the first men to reach both the North and South Poles. Fiennes' Jack Russell dog, called Bothie, also accompanied them. The expedition began in 1979 and ended in August 29, 1982 successfully.
In 1992, Fiennes, Nick Clapp, Ronald Blom, archaeologist Juris Zarins, and others found the legendary Lost City of Ubar in the Rub al Khali desert of Oman near Ash Shisr (this ancient city disappeared around A.D. 300)!
In 1993, Fiennes and Dr. Mike Stroud made the first unsupported walk across the continent of Antarctica, where each man dragging a 500-pound sledge. This ninety-seven day trip was the longest polar journey in history.
Fiennes holds many world exploration records. The Guinness Book of Records described Fiennes as "the world's greatest living explorer."
I chose this explorer because I knew this explorer from a book when I was 8.
My research is on William Adams.
This is what I have found about him:
William Adams, also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama (anjin, "pilot"; sama, a Japanese honorific) and Miura Anjin ("the pilot of Miura"), was born in Gillingham, Kent, England at September 24, 1564. He was an English navigator who travelled to Japan and is believed to be the first Briton ever to reach that country. He was the inspiration for the character of John Blackthorne in James Clavell's bestselling novel Shogun.
After losing his father at the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to shipyard owner Master Nicholas Diggins at Limehouse for the seafaring life. He spent the next twelve years learning shipbuilding, astronomy, and navigation before entering the Royal Navy.
Adams served in the Royal Navy under Sir Francis Drake and saw naval service against the Spanish Armada in 1588 as master of the Richarde Dyffylde, a resupply ship.
Adams then became a pilot for the Barbary Company. During this service, according to Jesuit sources, he took part in an expedition to the Arctic that lasted about two years, in search of a Northeast Passage along the coast of Siberia to the Far East.
Attracted by the Dutch trade with India, Adams, then 34 years old, shipped as pilot major with a five ship fleet dispatched from the isle of Texel to the Far East in 1598 by a company of Rotterdam merchants (a voorcompagnie, anterior to the Dutch East India Company).
He set sail from Rotterdam in June 1598 on the Hoop and joined up with the rest of the fleet on June 24.
Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and built for him Japan's first Western-style ships. Adams was later the key player in the establishment of trading factories by the Netherlands and England. He was also highly involved in Japan's Red Seal Asian trade, chartering and captaining several sailboats to Southeast Asia. He died in Hirado, Kyushu, Japan at May 16, 1620 (aged 55), and is recognized to this day as one of the most influential foreigners during Japan's first period of opening to the West.
I chose this explorer, because he was the first Briton who reached Japan and his story was interesting.
This is what I found out about Christopher Columbus after doing some research:
Christopher Columbus, born in 1451 and died on May 20, 1506, was born in Genova, Italy. He was called Cristoforo Colombo in Spanish. He discovered America on July fourth, 1776. He was the eldest child of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna Fontanarossa and has three younger brothers, Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo and a sister, Bianchinetta.
The interesting fact about him:
Christopher Columbus travelled the seas as a pirate, or Privateer, attacking ships belonging to the Moors.
Why I choose to do research on him:
The facts about him are really easy to find and I would like to share with everyone about how great he is.
Vasco Nùñez de Balboa
Intro :
He was born in Jerez de los Caballeros in Estremadura, Spain.
Balboa led an expedition across Panama looking for gold, instead, he found the Pacific Ocean. His group of 190 Spaniards and 1000 Natives took 24 days to cross the 45 miles jungle. On September 23, 1513 they reached the Pacific Ocean and claimed all the land that touched the Pacific Ocean for Spain.
Here are some years of Balboa's accomplishments.
1500 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa sailed with Rodrigo de Bastidas from Spain to explore Colombia, South America
1511 - The king of Spain then appointed Balboa as the interim governor
1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa was appointed supreme commander of the colony but Encisco levelled charges of usurpation against Balboa
1513 September 1: Vasco Nunez de Balboa sailed with hundreds of Spaniards and Indians across the Gulf of Uraba to the Darien Peninsula. The famous explorer Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Incas of Peru, was in his party
1513 - Balboa and his party explored overland through dense rainforests in a west direction
1513 September 27: Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from a peak in Darien, Panama - he had climbed the peak alone
How I feel :
I think that discovering the world's largest ocean is a big accomplishment and claiming all the land for Spain must be really satisfying. Balboa was appointed as many leaders and he had good leadership qualities and a nose for curiosity. I did research on him in order to learn about his success and what helped him become so famous.
Hi,I will like to talk about Christopher Columbus...
Cristoforo Colombo,or Christopher Columbus,was born on 1451 in Genoa,Italy. His father was a great wool merchant and weaver. Christopher went to sea at the age of 13 and found sea journeys exciting and was exhilirated about them. Columbus travelled to many lands. He tried for many years to persuade kings and queens to give him money for food and ships so that he could find a new route to China. In one particular incident,Columbus persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to give him money. In return,he promised to give them new lands, spices, money and new people to become Christian. He then succeeded to fulfil the King and Queen's request.
Unfortunately,Columbus died of a heart attack due to reactive arthritis (Reiter's Syndrome)on May 20, 1506,at the age of 55.
Two facts that amazes me the most about Columbus are:
1)Columbus never set foot or even saw North America.
2)Columbus was not the first person to find America, the vikings were.
I decided to do research on Christopher Columbus because I had heard a lot of rumours about him and I want to find out the truth about him once and for all.
Looks like my work is done here...*whew*. LOL!!
The name of the explorer i chose is Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American continents. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps by others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans. With his several hapless attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he personally initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World." (The term "pre-Columbian" is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.)
His initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched scheme won the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain. Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he hypothesized that a westward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter and more direct than the overland trade route through Arabia. If true, this would ensure for Spain control of the lucrative spice trade — heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at a locale he named San Salvador. Mistaking the North-American island for the East-Asian mainland, he referred to its inhabitants as "Indians" (a generic European term for people of the Far East).
Academic consensus establishes that Columbus was born in Genoa, though other, minor theories have been posited. The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. The name is rendered in modern Italian as Cristoforo Colombo, in Portuguese as Cristóvão Colombo (formerly Christovam Colom), and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.
The anniversary of Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas (Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain on October 12.
I choose him because to me, he is not only an explorer but also a person that i admire because he is the one who discovered America-the only super power and the biggest economy in the world today.
I am doing on Christopher Columbus. (:
Columbus is a well-known explorer that did not actually discover America, but no one is sure who discovered it.
I found this on wikipedia and I think it is quite interesting because this is Columbus' last voyage.
Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son Fernando, he left Cádiz, Spain, on May 11, 1502, with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos. He sailed to Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue Portuguese soldiers whom he had heard were under siege by the Moors. On June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane was brewing, so he continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. Instead, while Columbus' ships sheltered at the mouth of the Rio Jaina, the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. Columbus' ships survived with only minor damage, while twenty-nine of the thirty ships in the governor's fleet were lost to the July 1st storm. In addition to the ships, 500 lives (including that of the governor, Francisco de Bobadilla) and an immense cargo of gold were surrendered to the sea.
I chose to do my research on Christopher Columbus because people say he discovered America but actually did not, so I decided to research on the countries that he discovered. But I found this and decided to put up this up instead of others.
Hi everyone! I would like to share what I found about Sir Edmund Hillary(we learned abouted him in class right?)...
Edmund Hillary(20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008)was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
Hillary was educated at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School.He finished primary school two years early, but struggled at high school, achieving only average marks.
His daily train journey to and from high school was over two hours each way, during which he regularly used the time to read. He gained confidence after he learnt to box. At 16 his interest in climbing was sparked during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu. Though gangly at 6 ft 5 in (195cm) and uncoordinated, he found that he was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his tramping companions.He studied mathematics and science at The University of Auckland, and in 1939 completed his first major climb, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, near Mt. Cook in the Southern Alps.
After World War II, Hillary became part of a British reconnaissance expedition to Everest in 1951 led by Eric Shipton.
The Hunt expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters, twenty Sherpa guides and 10,000 lbs of baggage.
The expedition set up base camp in March 1953. Working slowly it set up its final camp at the South Col at 25,900 feet (7,890 m). On 26 May Bourdillon and Evans attempted the climb but turned back when Evans' oxygen system failed. The pair had reached the South Summit, coming within 300 vertical feet (91 m) of the summit. Hunt then directed Hillary and Tenzing to go for the summit.
Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. They set out on 28 May with a support trio of Lowe, Alfred Gregory and Ang Nyima. The two pitched a tent at 27,900 feet (8,500 m) on 28 May while their support group returned down the mountain. On the following morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent wearing 30-pound (14 kg) packs.
They reached Everest's 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit, the highest point on earth, at 11:30 am. As Hillary put it, "A few more whacks of the ice axe in the firm snow, and we stood on top."
They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit. They looked for evidence of the 1924 Mallory expedition, but found none. Hillary took Tenzing's photo, Tenzing left chocolates in the snow as an offering, and Hillary left a cross that he had been given. Because Tenzing did not know how to use a camera, there are no pictures of Hillary there. Hillary climbed ten other peaks in the Himalayas on further visits in 1956, 1960–61, and 1963–65. He also reached the South Pole as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, for which he led the New Zealand section, on 4 January 1958.
On 11 January 2008, Hillary died of heart failure at the Auckland City Hospital at around 9 am at the age of 88. He was in hospital at the time of his death but was expected to come home that day according to his family. The local press emphasized Hillary's humble and congenial personality and his life of hard work.
I'm done with my write-up, and now I'm going to tell you the reasons for chosing to write about Hillary...
We learned about Hillary in class before, but I didn't know that he just died the month before we knew about him. So, I did some reasearch and found out a lot about him, and so I chose to write about him and to put my knowledge about him to good use(and that's why I didn't write about anyone else)
I chose to research on Francis Drake. He was a pirate-turned-explorer.( A pirate-turned-explorer means to be a pirate and an explorer.)During his lifetime, Englad and Spain were bitter rivals. And so, Queen Elizabeth I ( queen of England and Ireland) sent Francis Drake to explore for treasure and spices. He sat sail from England in 1577 and took 165 crew man and 5 ships with him. He abandoned 2 of his ships off the coast of South America and was separated from the other two ships in the Straits of Magellan. He was able to establish that the Tierra del Fuego area was an island and not a continent, as many Europeans believed following Magellan's expedition. Drake plundered Spanish shipping in the Caribbean and in Central America and loaded his ship with treasure to take back to Queen Elizabeth.In June, 1579, Drake landed off the coast of present-day California and sailed as far north as the area that would become the United States-Canadian border. He then turned southwest and crossed the Pacific Ocean in two months time. It took another year to make his way through the Indies, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and back to England. Sir Francis Drake devoted the rest of his life to the harassment of the Spanish. He mounted another expedition to the Caribbean and led the attack on the Great Spanish Armada. He died from dysentery near Panama in 1596.
Sorry for the second comment. I forgot to put in the second part from my first comment on Francis Drake.
When he returned to England, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I ( as mentioned in my first comment) He was also the second explorer to circumnavigate the globe.
I chose to research on Francis Drake because no one was reaserched on him.
Name:Fanning Edmund
Date of birth/death: 1769—1841
Job: American trader, explorer, and promoter of trade and exploration in the South Seas, b. Stonington, Conn.
Introduction: At the age of 14 he went to sea. In command of a trading vessel, he realized a large profit from an expedition in 1797—98. In the course of the voyage he traded a cargo of trinkets for seal skins in the islands off the coast of Chile and exchanged them for valuable Chinese goods at Guangzhou, returning around the Cape of Good Hope. During the expedition he discovered Fanning Island, Washington Island, and other islands. Convinced of the profits to be made from trade in the South Seas, he became the agent for a group of New York City merchants, supervising over 70 expeditions and participating in some of them. His Voyages around the World (1833), which shed light on some of the little-known parts of the globe, passed through several editions.
Reason I chose him instead of others:When I was browsing in the internet on the topic:explorers, I saw Fanning Edmund.I looked at the others and there was not much to write about them.That's why I chose to do him instead of others.In fact, I have learned a lot about him.
I chose to do on Christopher because he is the only explorer I know.
Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American continents. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps by others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans. With his several hapless attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he personally initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World." (The term "pre-Columbian" is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.)
His initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched scheme won the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain. Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he hypothesized that a westward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter and more direct than the overland trade route through Arabia. If true, this would ensure for Spain control of the lucrative spice trade — heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at a locale he named San Salvador. Mistaking the North-American island for the East-Asian mainland, he referred to its inhabitants as "Indians".
Academic consensus establishes that Columbus was born in Genoa, though other, minor theories have been posited. The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. The name is rendered in modern Italian as Cristoforo Colombo, in Portuguese as Cristóvão Colombo (formerly Christovam Colom), and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.
The anniversary of Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas (Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain on October
Er...Sorry, I forgot to type the interesting facts about Capt. James Cok so I am typing a second post.
The Interesting facts about him are:
Cook was seen as a humanitarian commander, despite flogging more men on his ship than William Bligh (the short-tempered Captain of the Bounty who was set adrift in a small boat by his mutinous crew).
Cook prescribed carrot marmalade and sauerkraut to his crew as a cure for scurvy, however this had no real effect on the disease and possibly set back the discovery of a real cure by two decades.
Hello, sorry for the late comment and I would like to talk about the well-known chinese explorer Zheng He.
Intro: Zheng He was born in 1371 in modern-day Yunnan Province, which was at that time the last stronghold of the Yuan Dynasty in its struggle with the victorious Ming Dynasty. Like most Hui people, Zheng He was a Muslim.
Interesting fact about him: He had many voyages, 7. His first voyage consisted of many different countries, including Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Kollam, Cochin and Calicut.
Why I chose to do research on Zheng He: He was a great yet well-known explorer and I am sure many people would like to know about him.
Marco Polo was born in 1254. His father, Nicolo Polo the explorer, had left Marco’s mother when she was pregnant. Marco lived in Venice, Italy. When Marco’s father returned, Marco was already 14 years old! When his father decided to go on another exploration, he agreed to take Marco with him. A few years later, Marco his father and his father’s friend left on a long trip. On this wonderful trip, Marco Polo discovered eye glasses, ice cream, spaghetti, and the other riches of Asia! When he returned to Venice, no one believed his stories of the riches he found in Asia. When Marco Polo showed them some of the riches he had brought home, he was made famous! When Marco Polo was near his death, a priest came into his room to ask him if he liked to admit that his stories were false. Instead, Marco replied, “ I did not tell half of what I saw.” Those were his last words.
Marco Polo was a great explorer and a very brave man. He was not scared at all when he left to go on the trip. He was also a determined person. Marco Polo was very courageous too. He was not scared of all the people in the countries he visited. In conclusion, Marco Polo was a brave, determined and courageous explorer.
I choose to write about Marco Polo because he brought about culture exchange between China and Europe
Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American continents. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps by others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans. With his several hapless attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he personally initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World." (The term "pre-Columbian" is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.)
His initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched scheme won the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain. Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he hypothesized that a westward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter and more direct than the overland trade route through Arabia. If true, this would ensure for Spain control of the lucrative spice trade — heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at a locale he named San Salvador. Mistaking the North-American island for the East-Asian mainland, he referred to its inhabitants as "Indians".
Academic consensus establishes that Columbus was born in Genoa, though other, minor theories have been posited. The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. The name is rendered in modern Italian as Cristoforo Colombo, in Portuguese as Cristóvão Colombo (formerly Christovam Colom), and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.
The anniversary of Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas (Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain on October 12.
I am going to do on Marco Polo.
Introduction:
Marco Polo was a Venetian trader and explorer who gained fame for his travels.Polo, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China and visit the Great Khan, Kublai Khan.
Marco Polo's Voyages:
Marco Polo's father, Niccolò and his uncle, Maffeo,were prosperous merchants who traded with the East. The two brothers were both Venetian merchants.
In 1264, Nicolò and Maffio joined up with an embassy , the Grand Khan Kublai. In 1266, they reached the seat of the Grand Khan in the Mongol capital Khanbaliq, present day Beijing, China.
Kublai left in the middle of the journey, leaving the Polos to travel.The two brothers returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270, waiting for the nomination of the new Pope.
As soon as he was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory X received the letter from Kublai Khan.Kublai Khan was asking for a hundred missionaries and some oil from the lamp of Jerusalum. The two Polos (this time accompanied by 17 year-old Marco Polo) returned to Mongolia, accompanied by two monks. The two friars did not finish the voyage due to fear, but the Polos reached Kanbaliq and remitted the presents from the Pope to Kublai in 1274.
The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan took a liking to Marco,an engaging storyteller.He was sent on many missions. Marco carried out diplomatic assignments but also entertained the khan with stories and observations about lands he traveled.Marco reported that apart from trusting him with missions, Kublai Khan also made him governor for three years of the city of Yangzhou.An Italian community would reside there throughout the 14th century, as recored by the findings of the 1342 tombstone of Katarina Vilioni.
The Polos asked several times for permission to return to Europe but the Khan liked the visitors so much that he did not agree to the departure.In 1291 Kublai trusted Marco with his last duty, to escort the Mongol princess Koekecin to her betrothed, the Ilkhan Arghun.The party traveled by sea,sailing to Sumatra, and then to Persia, via Sri Lanka and India.Polo used the Northern Silk Road although the southern route has been advanced.
In 1293 or 1294the Polos reached the Ilkhanate, and left Koekecin with the new Ilkhan. Then they moved to Trebizond and sailed to Venice. Koekecin bacame the principal wife of the ruler Ghazan.In terms of the legacy of Polo's travel to China, it was one of the first European visitors to travel to the East. The trip also showed Europeans the value of the Silk Road in negotiating this travel; however,the use of the Silk Road actually declined within about 150 years after Polo's expedition.
On their return from China in 1295, the family settled in Venice where they became a sensation and attracted listeners who had difficulties believing their reports of China. Since they did not believe him,Polo invited them all to dinner one night,which the Polos dressed in simple clothes of a peasant in China.Before the crowds ate,the Polos opened their pockets to reveal rubies and other jewels which they had received in Asia. Though they impressed, the people of Venice still doubted the Polos.Marco Polo was later captured in a clash of the war between Venice and Genoa.He spent the few months of his imprisonment,in 1298, talking to a prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, an account of his travels in the then-unknown parts of China.
Polo was released in the summer of 1299, and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought a large house.The company continued its activities, and Marco was a wealthy merchant. While he financed other expeditions, he would never leave Venice again.
In 1300, he married Donata Badoer. Marco had three children with her. All of them later married into noble families.Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old.
I decided to on Marco Polo because his voyages are interesting and adventurous.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) was a British explorer, poet, historian, and soldier.He led expeditions to both North America and South America, he was trying to find new settlements, gold, and increase trade with the New World. In 1585, Raleigh sent colonists to the east coast of North America.
Raleigh later named that area Virginia, in honour of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen
I did some research on Christopher Columbus because he discovered America. Here's what I found out about him:
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genova, Italy. He was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American Continents. His initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched scheme won the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain.
The Interesting fact about him:
During Columbus' stint as governor and viceroy, he had been accused of governing tyrannically.
I hope it really is an interesting fact about him.
I would like to share regarding the great explorer named Marco Polo.
Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) was a Venetian trader and explorer, famous and well-known for being one of the first westerners to travel the Great Silk Road in China. While many earlier explorers, Spanish and Portuguese, had traveled by sea, Marco Polo was a land explorer.
Marco Polo began his life in Constantinople but the family moved gradually east over the years, as the political climate changed. As they moved east, they found themselves in the courts of the Mongol Khans, and their lives began to change from those of prosperous traders to that of a great explorer.
In 1266, Marco Polo’s uncle and father first visited the court of the Kublai Khan, located in what is now Beijing, China. They returned with news of the great court, and made a return journey, this time with young Marco Polo along, in 1271. He spent the next 17 years in the court of Kublai Khan. He served as a linguist, a diplomat, and filled a number of administrative positions during his years there. Marco Polo finally made his long return journey to Venice by sea, in a trip that sustained many losses.
Marco Polo not only allowed for trade and information to be shared between east and west, but also wrote of his journeys and his adventures in the east, leaving a record of a previously unheard of culture in the west. Marco Polo’s book became a medieval bestseller, and the information he shared remains a valuable historical record.
I chose to share on Marco Polo because I feel that he played an important role in helping the people from both China and Europe to understand about each other.
I know there are a lot of people doing on Christopher Columbus, but I still chose him as I wanted to know more about him and I saw other pupil's work and their facts about him is very interesting.
What I found about him after doing some research:
He was born in the year of 1451 in Gnoa, Itaty. His other name in Spanish is Cristobal Colon. He first went to sea at fourteen years old. His wife is Dona Felipa and his child is Diego, a boy. He discovered America and explored the northeast coast of Cuba. Of course, he also explored many other countries.
Interesting fact about Cristopher Columbus:
He kidnapped some natives and took them back with him! How interesting! I always thought that he was a good person but however, he kidnapped people!
I did my research on Vasco da Gama.
This is what I found about him:
Vasco da Gama was born on either 1460 or 1469 (not confirmed in history).He has sailed in three voyages. On the first voyage, Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497 and went to Mombasa, Malindi and Calicut, India.He set sail for home on August 29, 1498.It lasted for 132 days.
On Vasco da Gama's second voyage,he sailed with a fleet of twenty warships on 12 February 1502. He actually waited for a merchant ship and seized all the merchandise from the ship and ordered that the passengers to be in the hold and the ship,Mîrî, to be burnt. When Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut , a Zamorin was willing to sign a treaty. He returned to Portugal in September 1503.
Vasco da Gama third voyage's intention was to replace the incompetent Eduardo de Menezes as representative of the Portuguese possessions, but he fell sick and contracted malaria and died. The Monastery of the Hieronymites in Belém was erected in honour of his voyage to India.
My reason to do my research on him:
I chose to do my research on Vasco da Gama because he was the first European to find a way to India by sea.
Hi!I'm here to tell you about this explorer!
Balboa, Vasco Núñez de was born on1475 and passed away on 1519.He was a Spanish conquistador and a discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. After sailing with Bastidas in 1501, Balboa probably went to Hispaniola. In 1510,after fleeing from creditors, he hid on the vessel that took Enciso to Panama. After reaching Darién, Balboa took command,he deposed the incompetent Enciso, and sent him to Spain as a prisoner. Balboa showed only rarely the rapacity and cruelty characteristic of the conquistador. He won the friendship of the indigenous people, who accompanied him on his epic march across the isthmus. Toward the end of September 1513, he discovered the Pacific Ocean and claimed it and all shores washed by it for the Spanish crown. His discovery came too late to offset Enciso's complaints at the court of Spain. Balboa was replaced by Pedro Arias de Ávila, and while preparing an expedition to Peru, he was summarily seized, accused of treason, and beheaded.
I chose this explorer because he was the first to discover the Pacific Ocean and he was brave.
By Hugo
Hey all! Today I am sharing with you what I had found, it is really interesting and none of you have search about this yet, so I hope you'll learn more about it after you had read - happy reading! (:
Abel Janszoon Tasman (ca. 1603-1659) was a Dutch navigator who discovered Tasmania and New Zealand's South Island and charted the northwest Australian coastline.Abel Tasman was born at Lutjegast near Groningen. After his second marriage, to Joanna Tierex in 1633, he became a ship's captain in the Dutch East India Company and lived in Batavia, capital of the new Dutch commercial empire in the East Indies.
A southern continent had long been thought to exist, but Spanish navigators who crossed the Pacific Ocean from the Americas had failed to locate it. After 1611 Dutch vessels which were blown east by the "roaring forties" after rounding the Cape of Good Hope occasionally touched the coastline of "Terra Australis" en route to Java. The Batavian authorities soon decided to find out whether this "South Land" had any commercial potential, and in 1642, Governor General Anton Van Diemen chose Tasman to command an expedition.
Tasman left Djakarta in August 1642 with two ships, the Heemskerk of 60 tons and the Zeehaen of 100 tons, carrying 110 men and sufficient supplies for 18 months. From Mauritius he sped east on latitude 44°S, discovering Van Diemen's Land (renamed Tasmania after 1856) on November 24. After crossing the Tasman Sea, he reached the west coast of Staeten Landt (New Zealand's South Island) on December 13, and a landing party was attacked by Maoris at Golden Bay on December 18. Tasman then sailed up the west coast of New Zealand's North Island to the Tonga and Fiji islands and returned to Batavia along the northern coast of New Guinea in June 1643 after a voyage lasting 10 months.
Although Tasman circumnavigated a new continent, he seldom sailed close enough to the coastline to chart it accurately on a map. Sent to establish a base in the Tonga Islands in 1644, he failed to find a passage through Torres Strait, and instead he surveyed the northwestern coastline of New Holland (Australia) from Cape York Peninsula to Willem's River on the Tropic of Capricorn.
On his return to Batavia after a 6 months' voyage, Tasman was promoted to commander. But his superiors were disappointed. Although he had discovered more about "the remaining unknown part of the terrestrial globe" than any of his predecessors, his accounts of a barren landscape and primitive natives banished all prospects of trade and settlement. Europeans consequently displayed little interest in the colonization of New Holland for more than a century.
In 1647 Tasman led a mission to the king of Siam. His reputation subsequently suffered owing to the way in which he commanded a fleet against the Spaniards in 1648-1649. Soon afterward he left the service of the East India Company and became a merchant. He died in Batavia, a wealthy man.
This is all about John Smith.
Born/died: 1579 - 1631
Birth city/country: Willoughby, England
Main achievement: First permanent English settlement in North America
John Smith was born to Alice Rickard and George Smith in Lincolnshire, England, simple farmers. He was educated in a small village school. By the age of 16, John had left home and joined the army. He fought in the Netherlands and Hungary. Taken captive and then sold as a slave, John escaped in 1602 and began extensive travels through Europe and North Africa.
In December 1606, together with 105 people he left for Virginia in North America, the first settlement. In April 1607 they chose the site of Jamestown, a peninsula in the Chesapeake Bay to set up the new colony. It was full of hardships. Food and water were scarce. Indians were constantly raiding the small colony. John Smith, along with others sailed up stream to find more provisions. They traveled over 3,000 miles, and Captain Smith kept good notes of the journey. An incident with a powerful chief, Powhatan, caused him to almost lose his life. The chief's daughter, Pochontas, is said to have saved his life.
After becoming the President of the Jamestown Settlement for one year, he left Virginia and went home to England. John published several books about the New England Coast including a very important map. He took one more significant voyage back to the New England area. He searched the coast for the best places to set up colonies. Unfortunately he was not able to colonize himself, but others used his sites and succeeded.
John Smith continued writing books until his death in 1631. While he was living he was called the admiral of New England, but he never felt he received the recognition he deserved as an explorer of the Virginian Coastline.
Hi everyone, this is my second time posting because I have found about another explorer.Happy reading! :D
Cook married Elizabeth Batts (1742-1835), the daughter of Samuel Batts, keeper of the Bell Inn, Wapping[5] and one of his mentors, on December 21, 1762 at St. Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex. The couple had six children: James (1763-1794), Nathaniel (1764-1781), Elizabeth (1767-1771), Joseph (1768-1768), George (1772-1772) and Hugh (1776-1793). When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London. He attended St. Paul's Church, Shadwell, where his son James was baptised.
First voyage (1768–71)
In 1766, the Royal Society hired Cook to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun.[1] He sailed from England in 1768, rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific to arrive at Tahiti on April 13, 1769, where the observations were to be made. However, the result of the observations were not as conclusive or accurate as had been hoped. Cook later mapped the complete New Zealand coastline, making only some minor errors. He then sailed west, reaching the south-eastern coast of the Australian continent on 19 April 1770, and in doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline. [8] On 23 April he made his first recorded direct observation of indigenous Australians at Brush Island near Bawley Point, noting in his journal "...and were so near the Shore as to distinguish several people upon the Sea beach they appear'd to be of a very dark or black Colour but whether this was the real colour of their skins or the C[l]othes they might have on I know not."[9] On April 29 Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as Kurnell, which he named Botany Bay after the unique specimens retrieved by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. He continued northwards, and a mishap occurred when Endeavour ran aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef, on June 11. The ship was badly damaged and his voyage was delayed almost seven weeks while repairs were carried out on the beach (near the docks of modern Cooktown, at the mouth of the Endeavour River).[2] Once repairs were complete the voyage continued, sailing through Torres Strait and on 22 August he landed on Possession Island, where he claimed the entire coastline he had just explored as British territory. He returned to England via the Cape of Good Hope and Saint Helena, arriving on 12 July 1771.
Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.
I choose to do about James Cook because all of you have learn about him during English lessons and I want you all to know more about him.
Hey everybody,I did on Marco Polo,since no one did on him.
Info:Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner traveled on the Silk Road. He excelled all the other travelers in his determination, his writing, and his influence. His journey through Asia lasted 24 years. He reached further than any of his predecessors, beyond Mongolia to China. He became a confidant of Kublai Khan (1214-1294). He traveled the whole of China and returned to tell the tale, which became the greatest travelogue.
The Polo name originally did not belong to a family of explorers, but to a family of traders. Marco Polo's father, Niccolò (also Nicolò in Venetian) and his uncle, Maffeo (also Maffio), were prosperous merchants who traded with the East. They were partners with a third brother, named Marco il vecchio (the Elder). The three brothers were all Venetian merchants who established trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak in the Crimea, and in a western part of the Mongol Empire.
In 1252, Niccolò and Maffeo left Venice for Constantinople, where they resided for several years. The two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of Constantinople, where they enjoyed political chances and tax relief because of their country's role in establishing the Latin Empire in the Fourth Crusade of 1204. However, the family judged the political situation of the city precarious, so they decided to transfer their business northeast to Soldaia, a city in Crimea, and left Constantinople in 1259. Their decision proved wise. Constantinople was recaptured in 1261 by Michael Palaeologus, the ruler of the Empire of Nicaea, who promptly burned the Venetian quarter. Captured Venetian citizens were blinded, while many of those who managed to escape perished aboard overloaded refugee ships fleeing to other Venetian colonies in the Aegean Sea.
As their new home on the north rim of the Black Sea, Soldaia had been frequented by Venetian traders since the 12th century. The Mongol army sacked it in 1223, but the city had never been definitively conquered until 1239, when it became a part of the newly formed Mongol state known as the Golden Horde. Searching for better profits, the Polos continued their journey to Sarai, where the court of Berke Khan, the ruler of the Golden Horde, was located. At that time, the city of Sarai — already visited by William of Rubruck a few years earlier — was no more than a huge encampment, and the Polos stayed for about a year. Finally, they decided to avoid Crimea, because of a civil war between Berke and his cousin Hulagu or perhaps because of the bad relationship between Berke Khan and the Byzantine Empire. Instead, they moved further east to Bukhara, in modern day Uzbekistan, where the family lived and traded for three years.
In 1264, Nicolò and Maffio joined up with an embassy sent by the Ilkhan Hulagu to his brother, the Grand Khan Kublai. In 1266, they reached the seat of the Grand Khan in the Mongol capital Khanbaliq, present day Beijing,China.
As soon as he was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory X received the letter from Kublai Khan, remitted by Niccolo and Maffeo. Kublai Khan was asking for the dispatch of a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of Jerusalum. The two Polos (this time accompanied by the 17 year-old Marco Polo) returned to Mongolia, accompanied by two Dominican monks, Niccolo de Vicence and Guillaume de Tripoli. The two friars did not finish the voyage due to fear, but the Polos reached Kanbaliq and remitted the presents from the Pope to Kublai in 1274.
The Tibetan monk and confidant of Kublai Khan, Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (1235-1280) mentions in his diaries for 1271 a foreign friend of Kublai Khan, who was quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo, although, unfortunately, no name is given.
The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan took a liking to Marco, who was an engaging storyteller. He was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco carried out diplomatic assignments but also entertained the khan with interesting stories and observations about the lands he traveled.
Marco reported that apart from entrusting him with diplomatic missions, Kublai Khan also made him governor for three years of the large commercial city of Yangzhou.An Italian community would actually reside in Yangzhou throughout the 14th century, as documented by the findings of the 1342 tombstone of Katarina Vilioni.
Return to Europe
According to Marco’s travel account, the Polos asked several times for permission to return to Europe but the Khan appreciated the visitors so much that he would not agree to their departure.
Only in 1291 Kublai entrusted Marco with his last duty, to escort the Mongol princess Koekecin (Cocacin in Il Milione) to her betrothed, the Ilkhan Arghun. The party traveled by sea, departing from the southern port city of Quanzhou and sailing to Sumatra, and then to Persia, via Sri Lanka and India (where his visits included Mylapore, Madurai and Alleppey, which he nicknamed Venice of the East). It is usually said that Marco Polo used the Northern Silk Road although the possibility of a southern route has been advanced.
In 1293 or 1294 the Polos reached the Ilkhanate, ruled by Gaykhatu after the death of Arghun, and left Koekecin with the new Ilkhan. Then they moved to Trebizond and from that city sailed to Venice. Koekecin would become the principal wife of the Mongol Il-Khan ruler Ghazan.
In terms of the legacy of Marco Polo's travel to China, it was noteworthy as one of the first European visitors to travel to the East; considerable exposure of China's culture to the European continent resulted. The trip also showed Europeans the value of the Silk Road in negotiating this travel; however, even though this trackway was used since the first millennium BC, the use of the Silk Road actually declined markedly within about 150 years after Marco Polo's expedition, due to the opening of sea routes.
On their return from China in 1295, the family settled in Venice where they became a sensation and attracted crowds of listeners who had difficulties believing their reports of distant China. According to a late tradition, since they did not believe him, Marco Polo invited them all to dinner one night during which the Polos dressed in the simple clothes of a peasant in China. Shortly before the crowds ate, the Polos opened their pockets to reveal hundreds of rubies and other jewels which they had received in Asia. Though they were much impressed, the people of Venice still doubted the Polos.
Marco Polo was later captured in a minor clash of the war between Venice and Genoa, or in the naval battle of Curzola, according to a dubious tradition. He spent the few months of his imprisonment, in 1298, dictating to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, a detailed account of his travels in the then-unknown parts of China.
His book, Il Milione (the title comes from either "The Million", then considered an extremely large number, or from Polo's family nickname Emilione), was written in Old French, a language Polo did not speak, and entitled Le divisament dou monde ("The description of the world"). The book was soon translated into many European languages and is known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo. The original is lost and there are now several often-conflicting versions of the translations. The book became an instant success — quite an achievement at a time when the invention of the printing press was two hundred years away in Europe.
Later life
Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in the summer of 1299, and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo with the company's profits.
The company continued its activities, and Marco was now a wealthy merchant. While he personally financed other expeditions, he would never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, a woman from an old, respected patrician family. Marco would have three children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. All of them later married into noble families.
Between 1310 and 1320, he wrote a new version of his book, Il Milione, in Italian. The text was lost, but not before a Franciscan friar, named Francesco Pipino, translated it into Latin. This Latin version was then translated back into the Italian, creating conflicts between different editions of the book.
Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old. He was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.
Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in the summer of 1299, and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo with the company's profits.
The company continued its activities, and Marco was now a wealthy merchant. While he personally financed other expeditions, he would never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, a woman from an old, respected patrician family. Marco would have three children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. All of them later married into noble families.
Between 1310 and 1320, he wrote a new version of his book, Il Milione, in Italian. The text was lost, but not before a Franciscan friar, named Francesco Pipino, translated it into Latin. This Latin version was then translated back into the Italian, creating conflicts between different editions of the book.
Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old. He was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.
Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in the summer of 1299, and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo with the company's profits.
The company continued its activities, and Marco was now a wealthy merchant. While he personally financed other expeditions, he would never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, a woman from an old, respected patrician family. Marco would have three children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. All of them later married into noble families.
Between 1310 and 1320, he wrote a new version of his book, Il Milione, in Italian. The text was lost, but not before a Franciscan friar, named Francesco Pipino, translated it into Latin. This Latin version was then translated back into the Italian, creating conflicts between different editions of the book.
Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old. He was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.
Cartography
Marco Polo's travels may have had some impact on the development of European cartography, ultimately leading to the European voyages of exploration a century later. The 1453 Fra Mauro map is said by Ramusio to have been an improved copy of the one brought from Cathay by Marco Polo:
"That fine illuminated world map on parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery (The Calmoldese monastery of Santo Michele on Murano) was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old nautical map and a world map that had been brought from Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father."
"He was the first traveler to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom.....". Today topographers have called his work the precursor of scientific geography.
However Marco Polo's best achievement is best said with his own words in his own book:
" I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice."
I chose to do my researh on him as he excelled all the other travelers in his determination, his writing, and his influence while travelling on the silk road.
I am going to tell you about a sailor called Horatio Nelson Horatio Nelson had a passionate belief in his ability to become a hero. His famous naval career began in 1771 when he was only 12 years old, and ended with his death at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. His victories and great courage caught the public imagination, and he was indeed considered a hero, both in his own lifetime and in the Victorian period following his death.
Almost 200 years later, he is still a character that arouses great interest. Nelson himself, his family and friends left a great many letters, diaries and other materials that give us the evidence on which to base a study of his life.
The period of Nelson's lifetime was one in which agricultural and industrial revolution and population growth led to enormous economic and social changes. The tremendous expansion of manufacture was to provide the impetus for British expansion into the world in a search for markets in which to trade its goods. The Royal Navy would thus assume a vital role in protecting British ships trading throughout the world, to the Baltic, India, the North American colonies and the West Indies
The period of Nelson's lifetime was one of many wars. He was born during the Seven Years War (1756–63) between Britain and France. The alliance of the French with America in the War of American Independence (1775–82) led to further war between the two countries. The Revolutionary Wars (1793–1801) marked a renewal of hostilities. The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) followed the French attempt to extend their revolution across Europe. Britain was thus at war again, at times with Spain as well as France. These events provide the setting for the powerful hostility felt by Nelson towards the French throughout his lifetime.
Nelson's major battles, promotions and injuries
1777 - Lieutenant
1779 - Post-captain
1796 - Commodore
1794 - Campaign in Corsica; loss of sight in right eye after struck in face by flying stones and sand at Calvi
1797 - Battle of Cape St Vincent; promoted rear-admiral of the Blue
1797 - Right arm amputated after being hit above elbow with grapeshot at Santa Cruz, Tenerife; Nelson knighted
1798 - Battle of the Nile, Aboukir Bay, Egypt; Nelson receives the title Baron of the Nile
Also of interest >>Leadership lessons from Horatio Nelson (e-learning resource)
Dear all, I would like to introduce you to Marco Polo, a trader and a explorer.
Intro on 1 of Marco's so-called adventures: Marco Polo went to China to explore with his father, Niccolo Polo, his uncle, Maffeo Polo. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China at that time, was interested in the Europeans, hence hewelcomed the Polos to his empire.
Later, Kublai appointed Marco as a court official. Marco was sent on long journeys to distant parts of China as a messenger or a spy.
While Marco was away, Niccolo and Maffeo were working as traders.
In 1292, when Marco was fourty, the Polos left China with many jewels and treasure. They reached their hometown, Venice, Italy. The folks there admired the Polo's treasures and most of all they were fascinated by Marco's tales.
I choose Marco because he is famous and there's even a game named Micro-Polo.
And pai siah hor Yoke yue I did it on him on 6 July but did'nt sent to ms Pang so I dunno.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. He was the first European to see the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean (in 1513), after crossing the Isthmus of Panama overland.
I did some research on Christopher Columbus because he was the first person that popped into my mind.
Born: 1951
Died: May 20 1506 at the age of 55
Born in: Genova, Italy
Name in Spanish: Christoforo Columbo
Father: Domenico Columbo
Mother: Suzanna Fontanarossa
Siblings: Giovanni, Bartolomeo, Pellegrimo, Giocoso (brothers), Bianchinettta (sister)
Discovered: America on July 4 1776
Interesting facts:
1) Christopher Columbos (Christoforo Columbo) not only sailed the seas, he sailed as a Privateeer, attacking ships that belong to the Moors.
2) Columbos never set foot on North America.
3) Columbos is not the first to find America.
Columbos was a successful explorer, but unfortunately he died of heart attack.
Columbos also tried to persuade kings and queens into giving him money for food and ships so he could find a new route to China.
I think Columbos is a brave and determined person with strong will power and mental strength.
This article is about the explorer,Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American continents. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps by others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans. With his several hapless attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he personally initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World." (The term "pre-Columbian" is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.)
His initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched scheme won the attention of Queen Isabella of Spain. Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he hypothesized that a westward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter and more direct than the overland trade route through Arabia. If true, this would ensure for Spain control of the lucrative spice trade — heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at a locale he named San Salvador. Mistaking the North-American island for the East-Asian mainland, he referred to its inhabitants as "Indians".
Academic consensus establishes that Columbus was born in Genoa, though other, minor theories have been posited. The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. The name is rendered in modern Italian as Cristoforo Colombo, in Portuguese as Cristóvão Colombo (formerly Christovam Colom), and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.
The anniversary of Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas (Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain on October 12.
Note: I copied this information from "Wikepidia.com" Hope you don't Mind.
"James Cook was born on October 27, 1728,in Marton, Yorkshire, England.
He studied at Postgate School, Great Ayton. His occupation is being an explorer, navigator, cartographer.
Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Cook charted many areas and recorded several islands and coastlines on Europeans' maps for the first time. His achievements can be attributed to a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, courage in exploring dangerous locations to confirm the facts (for example dipping into the Antarctic circle repeatedly and exploring around the Great Barrier Reef), an ability to lead men in adverse conditions, and boldness both with regard to the extent of his explorations and his willingness to exceed the instructions given to him by the Admiralty."
My thouhts:
I chose James Cook because he was the greatest explorer of our planet. In three epic voyages, he discovered more of this planet's surface than any other man.
i posted but mine not out nvm i doing another one now. Name: Christopher Columbus
Christopher was born between August and October in 1451 in Genoa.Domonico Colombo was his father ,Susanna Fontarossa was his mother. And his brothers, Bartomolo,Bortolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino , Glacomo.
In one of Columbus writings, he was said to have gone to sea at the age of ten. In 1470 the Columbus family moved to Savona where Domenico owned a tavern.
In the same year Columbus was on a Geneose ship hired in the service of Rene I of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the kingdom od naples.
In 1473 Columbus began his apprenticeship as bussiness agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola families of Genoa. Later he alledgedly made a trip to Chios, a Genoese colony in the Aegean Sea. In may 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a cargo to Northen Europe. He docked in Bristol, Galways in Ireland and was possibly in I celand in 1477.
I chose on Chirstopher Colum bus because when i first published my comment no one wrote about it and his life was really interesting. His interesting fact is that his son never used Perestrello in his name although it is part of his name.
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. Living by the Mediterranean Sea he longed to be a sailor. He began sailing on Italian ships at the age of 14. When Columbus was 25 he was sailing on a ship headed for England. A group of French pirates attacked his ship. Columbus was hurt, but managed to grab onto some floating wood and make his way to shore.
Columbus opened a shop that sold maps and books for sailors. There he became a map maker and began reading books. He read a book written by Marco Polo. Columbus was fascinated by Polo's book. After reading this book Columbus was sure he could reach the Indies by traveling west. He wanted to go to the Indies to get jewels and spices.
Columbus asked King John II of Portugal for three ships to try out his idea of traveling west to reach the East. The king refused to give him the ships. Columbus tried going to other kings in France and England. They would not give him the ships. Finally Columbus went to the king and queen of Spain; King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He asked them for money to try out his idea of traveling west to reach the East. Queen Isabella refused Columbus at first. Later King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave Columbus three ships, a crew of about ninety men, and some money. The three ships were the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María.
On August 2, 1492 the voyage began. The trip was not easy. Columbus's crew was afraid of the unknown seas. They believed monsters were in the waters. Some thought the world was flat, and that their ships were sailing too far from the shore and would fall off the end of the earth. On September 1, 1492 Columbus's ships passed an active volcano on the island of Teneriffe. They also reported seeing a bolt of fire fall from the heavens into the sea. The men took these as a bad signs.
On October 12 after 71 days at sea land was sighted. Columbus and his men rowed ashore and planted a flag in the sand. They claimed the island which they named San Salvador for Spain. Since Columbus believed he was in the Indies he called the natives Indians. Columbus had really landed on an island southeast of what is now Florida.
In March 1493 Columbus sailed back to Spain with a few Indians. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella named him Admiral of the Ocean Sea.
Columbus sailed to American three more times in 1493, 1498, and 1502. He found San Salvador and then Cuba which he called Juana, but he found few riches on his voyages. He died a man of average wealth on May 20, 1506 in Spain.
I decided to research on Christopher Columbus as he is well-known. He was born on 25 August 1451 in a town in Genoa. Since his town was by the sea, he was very interested in sea activities. He later grew up to be an avid navigator. During his time, there were many voyages aimed at discovering the West Indies which was rumoured to have streets paved with gold. Columbus had a very bright idea one day. He did some calculations and figured out that you could reach the West Indies by going eastwards. He went to the King of Portugal and asked the royalty to fund his expedition. However, the King found Columbus' idea amusing and refused his request. Columbus in turn approached the Queen of Spain. The latter was interested and had enough faith in Columbus' novel expedition. She supplied Columbus with three ships for his eastward journey. Unfortunately, Columbus miscalculated his voyage and arrived at a continent before the West Indies. He thought he was already at his destination and mistook the natives on the continent to be the indigenous Indians of the West Indies. But in actual fact these natives were the indigenous Red Indians of today's American continent. Ironically, Columbus was conferred the title of "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" by the Queen of Spain for "discovering the West Indies". Columbus married Filipa Moniz and fathered two sons; Diego and Fernando. The great expeditioner died on 20 May 1506 and left behind a strong legacy for many to follow.
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