Who discovered Antarctica? The last unknown continent. Russian discovery In what centuries were the continents discovered?

The last unknown continent

Early in the morning of July 17, 1819, a Russian naval expedition set out from Kronstadt on a long voyage on two sloops - “Vostok” (captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen) and “Mirny” (captain Mikhail Lazarev), with 190 people on board the ships. The leaders of the expedition are experienced sailors: Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian circumnavigation under the command of Ivan Krusenstern; Lazarev completed a three-year voyage from Kronstadt to the shores of Alaska and back. This time they were given a particularly serious task: to penetrate through the ice of the Southern Ocean as close as possible to the South Pole, discovering unknown lands along the way, “without leaving this enterprise except in the face of insurmountable obstacles,” said the instructions to the head of the expedition, Bellingshausen.

Mikhail Lazarev

Only half a century has passed since the thousand-day voyage of the famous James Cook, who was stopped by the ice of the southern ocean and declared upon his return from his second circumnavigation in his book “A Voyage to the South Pole and Around the World”:

“I can safely say that no person will ever dare to penetrate further south than I managed.”

Thaddeus Bellingshausen

The Russian expedition set out with the intention of going south along the routes that the English navigator had passed. It was a long way to the goal. Copenhagen, London, Portsmouth, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro... It was only at the end of November that the Vostok and Mirny headed for the South Pole. A description of the western coast of the island of South Georgia was made, a volcanic island was discovered in the group of the South Sandwich Islands. Snow, ice, and fog accompanied the ships. The day of January 27, 1820 was just as foggy and inhospitable, when a point with coordinates 69°21’ 28” south latitude and 2°14’ 50” west longitude was reached. Bellingshausen wrote in his ship's log: “A continuous ice field dotted with hillocks.” Lazarev: “...we encountered hard ice of extreme height.” A study of the expedition's navigation maps showed that on that day they were near the coast of the Antarctic continent, which 109 years later was named Princess Martha Coast by Norwegian researchers.

Thus, a huge continent covered with ice was discovered. But the careful and precise Bellingshausen wanted to make sure of this by approaching the ground itself. Three attempts were made to approach the mainland, but blocks of ice prevented ships from entering. More than a hundred days passed in continuous sailing; they covered almost the entire continent - up to the twentieth meridian. Bellingshausen gave the order to go north to Australia for rest. The ships spent a whole month in the port of Sydney, healing the wounds inflicted by the ice, and then set off south again.

Storms, fogs, icebergs - nothing could stop the brave sailors. For the sixth time they crossed the Antarctic Circle and in January 1821 discovered the island of Peter I, and soon the mountainous coast of the south polar continent, calling it the Coast of Alexander I. From here the sloops turn to the South Shetland Islands, and Russian sailors are the first to explore them.

The approaching Antarctic winter forces Bellingshausen to leave the polar waters and begin the journey back to his homeland. On July 24, 1821, after 750 days of sailing, “Vostok” and “Mirny” arrived in Kronstadt.

Swimming of Lazarev and Bellingshausen

The results of the expedition were brilliant - 28 islands and the shore of the last continent that remained unknown to mankind were discovered in the southern polar seas...

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Wake up anyone in the middle of the night with the question: “Who discovered America first?”, and without hesitation, they will immediately give you the correct answer, calling the name of Christopher Columbus. This is for everyone known fact, which no one seems to dispute. But was Columbus the first European to set foot on new land? Not at all. There is only one question: “So who?” But they didn’t call Columbus for nothing discoverer.

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How Columbus became a discoverer

In what century did such significant changes for the world take place? The official date for the discovery of a new continent called the Americas is 1499, 15th century. At that time, the inhabitants of Europe began to have speculation that the earth was round. They began to believe about the possibility of navigation on the Atlantic Ocean and the opening of a western route directly to the shores of Asia.

The story of how Columbus discovered America is very funny. It so happened that he randomly stumbled upon the New World, heading to distant India.

Christopher was an avid sailor, who from a young age managed to visit all those known at that time. Carefully studying a huge number of geographical maps, Columbus planned to sail to India across the Atlantic, without passing through Africa.

He, like many scientists of that time, naively believed that, having gone straight from Western Europe to the east, he would reach the shores of such Asian countries as China and India. No one could even imagine what was suddenly on his way new lands will appear.

It was the day when Columbus reached the shores of the new continent and is considered the beginning of American history.

Continents discovered by Columbus

Christopher is considered the one who discovered North America. But in parallel with it, after news of the New World spread throughout all countries, the struggle for the development of the northern territories the British entered.

In total the navigator accomplished four expeditions. The continents that Columbus discovered: the island of Haiti or, as the traveler himself called it, Spain Minor, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Antigua and many other territories of North America. From 1498 to 1504, during his last expeditions, the navigator had already mastered lands of South America, where it reached the shores of not only Venezuela, but also Brazil. A little later the expedition reached Central America, where the coastlines of Nicaragua and Honduras were developed, all the way to Panama.

Who else explored America?

Formally, many sailors opened America to the world in different ways. History goes back many names related to the development of the lands of the New World. Columbus's case continued:

Alexander Mackenzie;
William Baffin;
Henry Hudson;
John Davis.

Thanks to these navigators, the entire continent was explored and developed, including Pacific coast.

Also considered another discoverer of America is an equally famous person - Amerigo Vespucci. The Portuguese navigator went on expeditions and explored the coast of Brazil.

It was he who first suggested that Christopher Columbus sailed far not to China and India, but to previously unknown. His speculations were confirmed by Ferdinand Magellan, after completing his first trip around the world.

It is believed that the continent was named precisely in honor of Vespucci, contrary to all the logic of what is happening. And today the New World is known to everyone under the name America, and not by any other name. So who really discovered America?

Pre-Columbian expeditions to America

In the legends and beliefs of the Scandinavian peoples you can often come across mention of distant lands called Vinland located near Greenland. Historians believe that it was the Vikings who discovered America and became the first Europeans to set foot on the lands of the New World, and in their legends Vinland is nothing more than Newfoundland.

Everyone knows how Columbus discovered America, but in fact Christopher was far away not the first navigator who visited this continent. Leif Erikson, who named one of the parts of the new continent Vinland, cannot be called a discoverer.

Who should be considered first? Historians dare to believe that he was a merchant from distant Scandinavia - Bjarni Herjulfsson, which is mentioned in the Greenlanders' Saga. According to this literary work, in 985 g. he set out towards Greenland to meet his father, but lost his way due to a strong storm.

Before the discovery of America, the merchant had to sail at random, since he had never seen the lands of Greenland before and did not know the specific course. Soon he reached the level shores of an unknown island, covered with forests. This description did not suit Greenland at all, which greatly surprised him. Bjarni decided not to go ashore, and turn back.

Soon he sailed to Greenland, where he told this story to Leif Erikson, the son of the discoverer of Greenland. Exactly he became the first of the Vikings who tried their luck to join to the lands of America before Columbus, which he nicknamed Vinland.

Forced search for new lands

Important! Greenland is not the most pleasant country to live in. It is poor in resources and has a harsh climate. The possibility of resettlement at that time seemed like a pipe dream for the Vikings.

Stories about fertile lands covered with dense forests only spurred them on to move. Erickson gathered himself a small team and set off on a journey in search of new territories. Leif became the one who discovered North America.

The first unexplored places they stumbled upon were rocky and mountainous. In their description today, historians see nothing more than Baffin Island. Subsequent coasts turned out to be low-lying, with green forests and long sandy beaches. This reminded historians very much of the description coast of the Labrador Peninsula in Canada.

On the new lands they mined wood, which was so difficult to find in Greenland. Subsequently, the Vikings founded the first two settlements in the New World, and all these territories were called Vinland.

The scientist nicknamed "the second Columbus"

The famous German geographer, naturalist and traveler - all this is one great man, whose name is Alexander Humboldt.

This greatest scientist discovered America before others on the scientific side, having spent many years on research, and he was not alone. Humbaldt did not think long about what kind of partner he needed and immediately made his choice in favor of Bonpland.

Humboldt and the French botanist in 1799. went on a scientific expedition to South America and Mexico, which lasted five whole years. This journey brought scientists worldwide fame, and Humboldt himself began to be called the “second Columbus.”

It is believed that in 1796 The scientist set himself the following tasks:

explore little-studied areas of the globe;
systematize all received information;
taking into account the research results of other scientists, comprehensively describe the structure of the Universe.

All tasks, of course, were successfully completed. After the discovery of America as a continent, no one dared until Humbaldt conduct similar studies. Therefore, he decides to go to the most little-studied area - the West Indies, which allows him to achieve colossal results. Humboldt created the first geographical maps discovered America almost simultaneously, but in world history the name of Christopher Columbus will always be first on the list of those who explored the territories of the New World.

January 16 (28 BC) 1820 The sailing ships Vostok and Mirny approached the coast of Antarctica “covered with lumpy ice,” as Bellingshausen indicated in his diary. Thus, the last continent on Earth was discovered - the era of great geographical discoveries successfully ended.

O. Tikhomirov

Even in ancient times, people believed that in the southern polar region there was a large, unexplored land. There were legends about her. They talked about all sorts of things, but most often about gold and diamonds, with which she was so rich. Brave sailors set off on their journey to the South Pole. In search of the mysterious land, they discovered many islands, but no one was able to see the mysterious mainland.
The famous English navigator James Cook made a special trip in 1775 to “find a continent in the Arctic Ocean,” but he too retreated before the cold, squally winds and ice.
Does it really exist, this unknown land? On July 4, 1819, two Russian ships left the port of Kronstadt. On one of them - on the sloop "Vostok" - the commander was captain Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen. The second sloop, Mirny, was commanded by Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. Both officers, experienced and fearless sailors, by that time had each already completed a trip around the world. Now they were given the task: to get as close as possible to the South Pole, “check everything that is incorrect” that was indicated on the maps, and “discover unknown lands.” Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition.
Four months later, both sloops entered the Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro. The teams got a short break. After the holds were replenished with water and food, the ships weighed anchor and continued on their way. Bad weather became more and more frequent. It was getting colder. There were squalls of rain. A thick fog enveloped everything around.
In order not to get lost, the ships had to not move far from one another. At night, by order of Bellingshausen, lanterns were lit on the masts. And if it happened that the sloops lost sight of each other, they were ordered to fire from the cannons.
Every day "Vostok" and "Mirny" came closer and closer to the mysterious land. When the wind died down and the sky cleared, the sailors admired the play of the sun in the blue-green waves of the ocean, watched with interest the whales, sharks and dolphins that appeared nearby and accompanied the ships for a long time. On the ice floes, seals began to be seen, and then penguins - large birds that walked funny, stretched out in a column. It seemed that the penguins had thrown open black cloaks over their white clothes. Russian people have never seen such amazing birds before. The first iceberg, a floating mountain of ice, also amazed travelers.
Having discovered several small islands and marked them on maps, the expedition headed for Sandwich Land, which Cook was the first to discover. The English navigator did not have the opportunity to explore it and believed that a large island lay in front of him. The shores of Sandwich Land were densely covered with snow. Ice floes were piled up near them. Having called these places the “terrible south,” the Englishman turned back. In the logbook, Cook wrote: “I take the liberty of saying that the lands that may be located in the south will never be explored.”
Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to go 37 miles further than Cook and more accurately study the Sandwich Land. They found out that this is not one island, but a whole series of islands. The Englishman was mistaken: what he called capes turned out to be islands.
Making their way between the heavy ice, "Vostok" and "Mirny" tried to find a passage to the south at every opportunity. Soon there were so many icebergs near the sloops that they had to maneuver every now and then so as not to be “shattered by these huge masses, which sometimes extended up to 100 meters above the surface of the sea.” Midshipman Novosilsky made this entry in his diary.
On January 15, 1820, a Russian expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. The next day, from Mirny and Vostok they saw a high strip of ice on the horizon. The sailors initially mistook them for clouds. But when the fog cleared, it became clear that the ships faced a coast consisting of lumpy piles of ice.
What is this? Could the mysterious Southern continent have opened up before the expedition? Bellingshausen did not allow himself to draw such a conclusion. The researchers put everything they saw on the map, but again the approaching fog and snow prevented them from determining what was behind the lumpy ice. Later, many years later, this very day - January 16 - began to be considered the day of the discovery of Antarctica. This was also confirmed by photographs from the air: “Vostok” and “Mirny” were indeed located 20 kilometers from the sixth continent.
The Russian ships were unable to advance even deeper to the south: solid ice blocked the path. The fogs did not stop, the wet snow fell continuously. And then there was a new misfortune: on the sloop “Mirny” an ice floe broke through the hull, and a leak formed in the hold. Captain Bellingshausen decided to head to the shores of Australia and there, in Port Jackson (now Sydney), to repair the Mirny.
The repair turned out to be difficult. Because of it, the sloops stood in the Australian port for almost a month. But then the Russian ships raised their sails and, having fired their cannons, left for New Zealand to explore the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean while winter lasted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now the sailors were pursued not by the icy wind and blizzard, but by the scorching rays of the sun and the sweltering heat. The expedition discovered a chain of coral islands, which were named after the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. During this voyage, the Vostok almost hit a dangerous reef - it was immediately given the name stranded Beware.
When the ships dropped anchor near the inhabited islands, many boats with natives rushed towards the sloops. The sailors were heaped with pineapples, oranges, coconuts and bananas. In exchange, the islanders received items useful to them: saws, nails, needles, dishes, fabrics, fishing gear, in a word, everything that was needed on the farm.
On July 21, "Vostok" and "Mirny" stood off the coast of the island of Tahiti. The Russian sailors felt as if they were in a fairy-tale world - this piece of land was so beautiful. Dark high mountains stuck their peaks into the bright blue sky. Lush coastal greenery glowed emerald against the background of azure waves and golden sand. The King of the Tahitians, Pomare, wished to be on board the Vostok. Bellingshausen kindly received him, treated him to lunch and even ordered him to fire several shots in honor of the king. Pomare was very pleased. True, with every shot he hid behind Bellingshausen’s back.
Returning to Port Jackson, the sloops began to prepare for a new difficult voyage to the land of eternal cold. On October 31, they weighed anchor, heading south. Three weeks later the ships entered the ice zone. Now Russian ships were going around the southern polar circle from the opposite side.
"I see land!" - such a signal came from the Mirny to the flagship on January 10, 1821. All members of the expedition flocked on board in excitement. And at this time the sun, as if wanting to congratulate the sailors, looked out for a short moment from the torn clouds. Ahead, about forty miles away, a rocky island was visible. The next day they came closer to him. The mountainous island rose 1300 meters above the ocean. Bellingshausen, having assembled the team, solemnly announced: “The open island will bear the name of the creator of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great.” Three times "Hurray!" rolled over the harsh waves.
A week later, the expedition discovered a coast with a high mountain. Bellingshausen tried to bring the sloops to him, but an impassable ice field appeared in front of them. The land was called the Coast of Alexander I. The waters themselves washing this land and the island of Peter I were later called the Bellingshausen Sea.
The journey of “Vostok” and “Mirny” continued for more than two years. It ended in his native Kronstadt on July 24, 1821. Russian navigators traveled eighty-four thousand miles on sloops - this is more than a double journey around the globe along the equator.
The first to reach the South Pole was the Norwegian Raoul Amudsen at the end of 1911. He and his expedition of several people reached the Pole on skis and dog sleds. A month later, another expedition approached the pole. It was led by the Englishman Robert Scott. This, undoubtedly, was also a very courageous and strong-willed man. But when he saw the Norwegian flag left by Amudsen, Scott experienced a terrible shock: he was only the second! We've been here before! The Englishman no longer had the strength to go back. “God Almighty, what a terrible place!” he wrote in the diary with a weakening hand.
But who owns the sixth continent, where valuable minerals and minerals have been discovered deep under the ice? Many countries claimed different parts of the continent. Mining would, of course, lead to the destruction of this cleanest continent on Earth. And the human mind won. Antarctica has become a world nature reserve - the "Land of Science". Now only scientists and researchers from 67 countries work here at 40 scientific stations. Their work will help to better know and understand our planet. In honor of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev, Russian stations in Antarctica are named “Vostok” and “Mirny”.

In what sequence the continents were discovered by Europeans, you will learn from this article.

In what centuries were the continents discovered?

The discovery of continents was consistent and natural. It is known that there are 6 continents on our planet. The largest of them is Eurasia. The second continent in terms of territorial size is Africa. Its shores are washed by two oceans - the Atlantic and Indian. The two subsequent continents, South and North America, are connected by the small Isthmus of Panama. The fifth continent is Antarctica, which is covered with a thick shell of ice. This is the only continent of all 6 continents where there are no permanent residents. A large number of polar stations have been created on it; scientists regularly visit them and conduct observations. Australia is the last and smallest continent on the planet.

How did the continents get their names?

The continents were named by the Europeans who discovered them. There is no exact date for the discovery of Eurasia and Africa. What is known is that even the ancient Greeks knew and distinguished Eurasia into Asia and Europe. Europe is the part of the territory that was located to the west of Greece, and Asia was on the eastern side. Africa became known to the world after the Romans conquered the southern part of the Mediterranean coast.

At the end of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century, namely in 1492 he made a long sea expedition and discovered America.

In the 17th century Dutch navigators discovered a fifth continent, which they called Terra Australis Incognita. It stands for Unknown Southern Land. The fifth continent was Australia.