Voyages & exploration

Twenty-one-year-old Ibn Battuta leaves Tangier for a pilgrimage to Mecca and never really stops traveling.

He covers roughly 75,000 miles over 29 years — more than three times the distance Marco Polo traveled — largely on foot and camel.

Ibn Battuta was a Maghrebi Muslim traveller, explorer and scholar from Tangier. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, commonly known as The Rihla. Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo with 24,000 km (15,000 mi).

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A 21-year-old Moroccan scholar named Ibn Battuta leaves Tangier for a pilgrimage to Mecca.

What starts as a hajj spirals into 29 years of wandering — he ends up visiting more countries than Marco Polo ever did.

Ibn Battuta was a Maghrebi Muslim traveller, explorer and scholar from Tangier. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, commonly known as The Rihla. Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo with 24,000 km (15,000 mi).

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Jacques Cartier sails into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and plants a 10-metre cross on the Gaspé Peninsula, claiming the land for France.

The local Iroquoian chief Donnacona protests the cross's planting on the spot — Cartier insists it is merely a navigation marker.

Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga.

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French navigator Jacques Cartier plants a large cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and claims the land for France.

The local Iroquoian chief, Donnacona, is furious — he makes clear with gestures that the land already belongs to his people.

Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga.

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Samuel de Champlain builds a fortified habitation on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, founding Quebec.

Of the 28 men who winter there the first year, only 8 survive — scurvy and dysentery kill the rest before spring.

Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer, navigator, cartographer, soldier, geographer, diplomat, and chronicler who founded Quebec City and established New France as a permanent French colony in North America.

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Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European to sight the island that will one day bear his name — Tasmania.

He names it 'Van Diemen's Land' after his boss, the Dutch East India Company governor — Tasmanians rename it in his honor only in 1856.

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt. He also discovered and was the eponym of Tasmania.

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French naval officer Louis Antoine de Bougainville departs on the first French circumnavigation of the globe.

Hidden aboard the entire voyage is Jeanne Barret, disguised as a male valet — she becomes the first woman known to circumnavigate the globe.

Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French military officer and explorer. After having served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War, Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the flowering plant Bougainvillea are named in his honour.

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French naval officer Louis Antoine de Bougainville departs on France's first circumnavigation of the globe.

His crew unknowingly includes a woman, Jeanne Barret, disguised as a male servant — making her the first woman to sail around the world.

Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French military officer and explorer. After having served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War, Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the flowering plant Bougainvillea are named in his honour.

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Captain James Cook charts the entire eastern coastline of Australia and claims it for Britain, naming it New South Wales.

Cook's botanist Joseph Banks is so overwhelmed by the plant specimens at their first landing that Cook names the spot Botany Bay.

James Cook's charting of Australia's eastern coastline and his formal claim for Britain opens the continent to European settlement.

Robert Burke and William Wills set out from Melbourne to cross the Australian continent from south to north.

They succeed in reaching the northern coast — then die on the return journey largely because their supply team abandoned the depot just hours before Burke staggered back.

The Burke and Wills expedition, originally called the Victorian Exploring Expedition, was an exploration expedition organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61.

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