South America. The history of Exploration
First stage of the exploration of South America. Expeditions of 15-18 centuries.
The existence of South America became known to Europeans only after Columbus’ voyage in 1498, when he discovered Trinidad and Margarita Islands, explored the part of the coast from the estuary of the Orinoco River to Paria Peninsula. The Spanish expeditions of 15-16 centuries made the biggest contribution to the exploration of the continent. In 1499-1500 The Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda led the expedition to the north coast of South America, reached the coast of modern Guyana and, moving to the north-west, explored the cost from the latitude of 5-6 ° S to the Gulf of Venezuela. Later Ojeda explored the north coast of Colombia and built a fortress that marked the beginning of Spanish conquests on this continent.
Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas completed the discovery of the northern coast of South America by exploring the estuary of the Magdalena River in 1501 and reaching the Gulf of Urabá. Expedition crews of Vincente Pinzon and Diego de Lepe continued moving along the Atlantic coast of South America; in 1500 they discovered one of the arms of the Amazon River’s estuary and explored the Brazilian coast till the latitude of 10° S.
Juan Díaz de Solís sailed further south (till the latitude of 35° S) and discovered the Río de la Plata, formed by the combination of Uruguay and Paraná Rivers. In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan explored the coast of Patagonia, then crossed the Pacific Ocean through the straight, later named after him, and thus completed the exploration of the Atlantic coast.
The 1522-1558 marked the exploration of the Pacific coast of South America. Francisco Pizarro traveled along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean till the latitude of 8° S. In1531-1533 he conquered Peru brutally and quickly, devastating and totally destroying the Incan empire. There he founded the City of the Kings (which then was named Lima). Later, in 1535-1552 Spanish conquistadors Diego de Almagro and Pedro de Valdivia sailed down the coast till the latitude of 40° S.
The exploration of the inland territories were induced by the legends telling about the hypothetical “land of gold” - El Dorado. In 1529-1546, in search of this territory Spanish expedition crews of Diego de Ordaz, Pedro de Heredia and others crossed the north-west of Ands in different directions and sailed along the courses of many rivers. Explorers in the service of German bankers, Ambrosius Ehinger, Nikolaus Federmann and others mainly explored the north-east of the continent and the head of the Orinoco River. In 1541 Francisco de Orellana with his crew completed the first known navigation through the length of the Amazon River. In 1527-1548 Sebastian Cabot, Pedro de Mendoza and others sailed the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers.
The southern tip of the continent, Cape Horn, was discovered by the Dutch navigators Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten in 1616. In 1592 the English navigator John Davis discovered the large group of islands, assuming it was a one land. Only in1690 John Strong proved that it includes the group of islands which he named the Falkland Islands.
In the 16-18 centuries the organized bands of mestizos (mamelucos) repeatedly crossed the Brazilian highlands and sailed many of the Amazon’s tributaries, invading the territories in search of gold and jewels. Jesuit missionaries also contributed to the exploration of these territories.
Second stage of the exploration of South America. Scientific expeditions of 18-20 centuries.
In order to prove the theory of our Earth having a spherical shape, the French Academy of Science sent Pierre Bouguer and Charles de La Condamine with a scientific mission to Peru in1736-1743 to measure the degree of the meridian near the equator. The expedition proved the theory to be correct. In 1781-1801 Spanish topographer Félix de Azara surveyed the Río de la Plata, as well as the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers. Alexander von Humboldt explored Orinoco River basin and Quito plateau; visited the city of Lima and described the results of his research in the book Travels to the Equinoxial Regions of the New Continent (1799-1804). English hydrographer and meteorologist Robert FitzRoy (in Phillip King’ expedition of 1828-1830) made a survey of the southern coast of South America, and later led the famous circumnavigation on the ship named Beagle, together with Charles Darwin. The Amazon River and the neighboring Brazilian Highlands were explored by German scientist Wilhelm Eschwege in 1811-1814; by French biologist Étienne Saint-Hilaire in 1816-1822; by Russian expedition crew led by Georg Langsdorff in 1822-1828; by English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848-1852 and by French scientist Henri Coudreau in 1895-1898. German and French scientists explored the basins of Orinoco River and Guiana Highlands; while American and Argentinean explores sailed the area of the Río de la Plata where the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers combine. A big contribution to the exploration of this continent was made by Russian scientists Nicholai Albov who was researching Tierra del Fuego in 1895-1896; Henry Manizer in 1914-1915 and Nikolai Vavilov in 1930, 1932-1933.
S.Vladimirov "At the Indians of upper Amazon. Voyage of Updegraf"