The question of who discovered Eurasia arises sooner or later in front of every lover of history and geography. After all, everyone heard wonderful stories about Columbus, Vasco da Gama and the numerous conquistadors who conquered the vastness of North and South America. However, with Eurasia, everything is not so simple, because there was not one traveler who owned the laurels of the discoverer of the largest continent on the planet. Therefore, it will be problematic to name the one who discovered Eurasia. The name of this person is unknown.
It would be more correct to focus on the main stages of the study and description of the peculiarities of the geographical location of the mainland and the people who took part in numerous expeditions, the purpose of which was to study the surrounding world.
Who first discovered Eurasia. First people on the continent
All the main stages of evolution, the human species passed in Africa and, only fully formed, began expansion into the neighboring continent. Until recently, Africa and Eurasia were connected by the relatively wide Suez Isthmus and only in the XlX century. it was torn apart by an artificially created shipping channel.
It was along this isthmus and the Red Sea, which was very shallow at that time, that the first Homo sapiens moved to the Middle East, settling on the Arabian Peninsula. Such a significant event happened, according to some estimates, about 70,000 years ago.
According to the theory prevalent among modern scholars, people, leaving Africa, slowly moved east along the coasts in search of new sources of food, which were served by mollusks that lived in shallow water. This path was long and difficult and took about 25,000 years, and of course, the route was not so straightforward - numerous groups fought back and went deeper into the continent. Thus, those who discovered the continent of Eurasia were the first people to leave the African continent, but humanity will need many millennia to comprehend its place in the world.
Who discovered Eurasia and in what year. The appearance of the term
Europeans are accustomed to believing that superiority in geographical discoveries unconditionally belongs to them. And although the contribution of European sailors, traders and travelers is really great, you should not discount Asian researchers, who also contributed to the study of the geography of the continent.
However, the name was given to the mainland by the Europeans. For a long time, after the outline of the continent was more defined, in the scientific literature used a variety of terms to refer to the largest continent of the Earth.
For example, Alexander Humboldt, a great German scientist, one of whose specializations was geography, used the name Asia for the entire continent, without dividing it into parts of the world. But his Austrian colleague, Eduard Suess, in the 1880s already added the prefix "euro" and thereby formed the name Eurasia, which quickly became part of scientific use.
Great Northern Expeditions
If the southern coast of Eurasia was mastered by mankind for many tens of thousands of years, the northern outskirts of the continent remained unexplored for a long time, as harsh climatic conditions prevented this.
First of all, the powers that had access to the North Atlantic and especially the Russian Empire, whose borders passed through uncharted and indescribable lands, were interested in exploring the northern regions. The Russians began to move north in the XVl century, but reached Kamchatka only in the XVll century.
The first Russian subjects to enter the Kamchatka Peninsula were people from the detachment of the great Russian explorer and discoverer of the north-east of Siberia, Mikhail Stadukhin. This, however, was a land expedition.
Bering Strait
For a long time, researchers were interested in the question of the existence of a jumper between Eurasia and North America, but it was not so easy to answer. When answering a question about who discovered Eurasia, one cannot avoid mentioning the name of the famous Danish navigator and Russian citizen Vitus Bering, who made a huge contribution to the study of the shores of the north-eastern part of the Eurasian continent.
The first sea expedition, the purpose of which was to find the strait or to prove its absence, took place in 1724, when, by personal order of Peter l Bering, set sail, following which he went to the Chukchi Sea, without encountering obstacles and not seeing the American coast. Thus, it was proved that the two continents are separated by a strait, which was named after its discoverer.
The success of the first Kamchatka expedition inspired researchers to organize a series of campaigns that went down in history as the Great Northern Expedition. Each of these campaigns brought more and more information about the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and the outline of the mainland became increasingly clear, as if floating out of a sea haze.
Colonization and international cooperation
Speaking about who was the first to discover and explore Eurasia, one name can not be called, but you can recall the many travelers who contributed to the study of unknown lands and cartography.
At the turn of the XV-XVl centuries, the Portuguese were leaders in the study of overseas lands, but they were in no hurry to share their knowledge, rightly fearing competition. However, the competitors' curiosity was so great that no obstacles could stop the spies of neighboring states from penetrating the holy of holies of Portuguese cartography - the Indian House, a place where information about newly discovered lands was stored.
It was as a result of an espionage special operation planned by order of the Duke Ercole l d'Este that the famous map, which went down in history under the name Planisfera Cantino, was stolen from this vault. On this map you can see the world as it appeared to the Portuguese in the 15th century. On this map you can see the coast of Brazil and a narrow strip of the southern and southeastern coasts of Eurasia.
Great explorers
Today we can confidently say that such researchers as Vasco da Gama, who reached the coast of India, and Willem Barents, who stubbornly searched for the northern route to the East Indies, but discovered and explored the Arctic, made a special contribution to the study of Eurasia.
The era of great geographical discoveries stretched over more than two centuries and included studies of Spanish and Portuguese navigators looking for new routes to India, as well as Russian Cossack campaigns in Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, in response to the question of who discovered and explored Eurasia, one can name the following names: Bering, Vasco da Gama, Timothy Ermak, as well as the names of many other wonderful people.