The meaning of the discovery of Australia what was brought. Who discovered Australia? History of the discovery and exploration of Australia. Last honors to the captain

Australia - amazing place on Earth. Its nature is unique. Animals live here that you won't find anywhere else. This is the most small continent and at the same time a country with one of the leading economies in the world. The state of Australia came into being through the unification of the British colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. And after 30 years it gained complete independence in external and internal affairs. Who discovered Australia? More on this later.

Who discovered Australia and in what year?

Australia, although remote, is an attractive place to live. But who was the first to discover this land and move it from the category of legends to reality? All school history textbooks say that the discoverer of the fifth continent is James Cook, the famous navigator and cartographer.

In the middle of the 18th century, Captain Cook explored the southern waters of the World Ocean. After an unsuccessful attempt to discover Antarctica, the ship Endeavor approached the shores of Australia in 1770. After this, James Cook visited the continent twice more. He proved that New Zealand is an archipelago and does not belong to Antarctica. Then the active development of the new land began.

However, the first explorer of Australia was the Dutchman Willem Janszoon. This happened 165 years before Cook's expedition. In 1605, the ship of the Dutch fleet "Dyfken" set sail from the port of Bantam to the shores of New Guinea.

Without knowing it, Admiral Janszoon landed in northwestern Australia. In total, he mapped 320 km coastline. The explorer decided that this was part of New Guinea, and declared these lands the property of the Netherlands.

Some scientists believe that before the Dutch, the fifth continent was secretly explored by the Portuguese in the early 20s of the 16th century. In 1916, in northwestern Australia, scientists found Portuguese cannons from that era. Also in favor of this theory are maps that partially depict the shores of the continent south of the island of Java. However, no documents exist about Portuguese expeditions to this region.

Australia: the first people on the mainland

The ancestors of the indigenous population of Australia appeared on the mainland about 70 thousand years ago. This is evidenced by fossils found at the bottom of the dried-up Lake Mungo and in the area of the Swan River.

It is believed that the first people arrived by sea when New Guinea adjacent to the continent. It is unknown where they came from. However, archaeologists believe that at least three different nationalities settled on the mainland at that time.

East of the city of Darwin is National Park Cockatoo. Here you can see the oldest rock paintings. Ancient drawings are at least 30 thousand years old. Images of beetles resembling scarabs have also been found in Australia.

In this regard, some scientists think that the Egyptians visited the mainland during the era of the pharaohs. Presumably they came this way for the sake of eucalyptus leaves. They were used to make embalming oil.

Today, to visit Australia, you need to travel a long way. Even by plane, a flight with transfers will take 15–20 hours. It is difficult to imagine what kind of tests the discoverers of the fifth continent were subjected to. One can only envy their courage and ambitions. They went down in history, and we expanded our knowledge about the world. Would you like to visit Australia?

Who discovered Australia? Amazingly, there is still debate about this. Some are sure that this honor belongs to famous navigator James Cook, others give priority to the Portuguese, still others to the Dutch, and still others to the Spaniards or Danes. Well, the most interesting thing is that many facts have appeared indicating that the ancient Egyptians were the first to land on the Australian coast.

Who visited Australia before the Europeans?

According to scientists, the first people in Australia appeared 40-50 thousand years ago; they came from the southern regions of Asia. For a long time they lived in isolation until Europeans arrived on their continent. Scientists are still arguing about who first discovered Australia, although, according to the official point of view, it was James Cook. It is worth noting that ancient geographers already knew about the mysterious terra incognita australius (unknown southern land), who put the mysterious continent on their maps back in the 15th century. Only its outlines were very far from reality.

Ships of the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, British and French set off in search of this unknown land. However, there is an assumption that medieval geographers inherited knowledge of the existence of lands in the southern hemisphere from ancient sailors. A number of scientists have no doubt that even in ancient times, sailors could reach the shores of Australia. It is believed that the ancient Egyptians did this 4.5 thousand years ago, as we described in the previous material. This is evidenced by ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved on rocks, images of scarabs, sphinxes, and other finds discovered on this continent. Perhaps it was from Egypt that fragmentary information about the existence in the southern hemisphere of a huge area of land with strange plants and animals could reach the Europeans.

However, this information could also come from other sources, for example Chinese. At one time, retired British sailor Gavin Menzies proposed a hypothesis that was indignantly rejected by many historians. In his opinion, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He, during his fifth last voyage (1421-1423), visited America, Australia and even Antarctica! To make his hypothesis more convincing, Menzies suggested that these geographical discoveries were made by separate squadrons of the powerful fleet of Zheng He.

Of course, Menzies's hypothesis is quite controversial, but in the 15th century, maps actually appeared in China, which supposedly showed not only Australia, but also America. In the spring of 2006, scientists from the University of New Zealand said that the Chinese map they examined from 1763 with America, Australia and New Zealand depicted on it may be a copy of a much more ancient map 1418.

There are three antique Chinese porcelain vases on which there are maps clearly depicting certain parts of the Australian coastline. One of them, stored in Taiwan, according to scientists, shows the east and southeast coast of Australia up to the Melbourne area, a rough outline of Tasmania and the southern coast of New Guinea. Another, dating from 1477, depicts New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea in addition to the west coast of America.

But in the Vatican Library, on the so-called Fra Ricci map, created in 1602 in Beijing by the Jesuit missionary Ricci, based on Chinese cards of that time, part was applied north coast Queensland. By the way, Franciscan missionaries who visited China in the 16th century saw a rather primitive map of Australia engraved on copper.

Some researchers believe that even during the Sui Dynasty (581 -618 AD), the Chinese already knew about the existence big land, where people who threw boomerangs lived. In the sources of that period there is a description of the outlandish animal Shang-lai-zhi, which has the head of a deer, powerful hind legs and another head on its stomach. This description clearly suggests a kangaroo, because the second head is undoubtedly the head of a baby kangaroo, sticking out of a pouch on its stomach.

It is worth noting that, despite the unconvincing nature of Menzies’ hypothesis, historians recognize the ability of the Chinese fleet of the X-XV centuries. make ocean voyages. The Chinese
there were huge ships, from several dozen to hundreds of ships took part in Zheng He’s voyages: for example, in his first expedition there were 317 ships with 27,870 people on board. Such a fleet was actually capable of a lot; it even used special supply ships: some of them carried food, others water, and others animals, to obtain fresh meat during the voyage.

The mystery of the missing caravel

In 1916, small bronze cannons (caronades) with an image of the Portuguese crown minted on them, dating back to the beginning of the 16th century, were discovered on the shores of Roebuck Bay (Western Australia). This was a very powerful argument in favor of the fact that it was the Portuguese who were the first Europeans to reach Australia. Now many historians consider the Portuguese navigator Cristiano Mendonço to be the discoverer of the Green Continent. According to them, in 1522 this navigator reached the northern coast of Australia. There were three caravels under his command, only two returned from the voyage.

In the book “The Secret Discovery of Australia,” its author, Australian historian Kenneth MacIntyre, draws attention to the fact that around 1530, the so-called Dauphin’s Map appeared in France, on which there are contours of a land previously unknown to Europeans. In these contours, part of the Australian coastline is quite recognizable; Port Phillip Bay and the mouth of the Yarra River are distinguishable on it. The contour line ends somewhere near modern Melbourne.

The question arises: why did Mendonça’s discovery elude historians for so long? It's all about the fierce competition that arose on the seas at the beginning of the 16th century. No one wanted the information obtained about distant countries and routes to them to be used by sailors from other countries. That is why, already from the 1510s, the Spaniards and Portuguese began to classify all information about the new lands they discovered. Later, the Dutch, British and French began to do the same. Most likely, some of the information about Mendonça’s discovery leaked to the French, which was reflected on the Dauphin’s Map.

There are references to the fact that Captain Cook in 1768, before his voyage to South Seas allegedly received a secret map of the Southern Continent from the British Admiralty. It was compiled back in 1522 by Cristován Mendonça! This map showed the northern and eastern coasts of Australia up to modern city Warrnambool in Victoria. The map showed that Mendonça was the first in the history of navigation to pass through the Bass Strait. By the way, it was in the area of the city of Warrnambool on the coast that an ancient caravel was discovered.

The mystery of the missing ship

The story of this mysterious caravel began in January 1836. Three whalers - Smith, Wilson and Gibbs - sailed along the coast in a sailing boat South Australia. A sudden squall capsized their boat, and only Wilson and Gibbs managed to escape. They headed down the coast to Port Fairy. Having covered half the distance, the whalers, to their surprise, noticed an ancient ship among the dunes. In Port Fairy, they told the head of the whaling station, Captain John B. Mills, about the ship.

Mills found a ship half buried in sand and climbed onto its deck. There was no doubt that it was a European ship, but a very old one. He later wrote: “I was very intrigued; this ship clearly had ancient origin, I’ve never seen anything like it, either in Australia or anywhere else.” Of course, Mills could not see ships of this type, because caravels had not sailed the seas for several centuries. The captain tried to cut off a piece of time-darkened wood, reminiscent of mahogany, with a knife, but “the knife slid along the wood as if it were iron.”

The fact that the mysterious ship was located 90 meters from the coastline was also striking. Most likely, a storm once threw it onto the shoreline, and then the ocean retreated, and
the ship ended up in sand dunes. The captain decided to go around the nearest Aboriginal sites, hoping to learn from the old people some information about the ship. But they said it “has always been there.”

The mysterious ship was seen by many in the period 1840-1880; more than 30 written eyewitness reports were found in the archives. Unfortunately, the farmers' sheep later ate and trampled the little vegetation cover, causing sand dunes began to move and swallowed up the ship. The last mention of it dates back to the 1880s. Scientists, unfortunately, realized it too late. Since 1890, numerous search parties have been intensively searching for the “mahogany ship” on the stretch of coast between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, but all was in vain.

Historians believe that the ship that disappeared under the sands was the caravel of Cristová Mendonça, which did not return from his voyage. Maybe someday the sands will again reveal this mysterious ship to the eyes of people, and then it will become irrefutable proof that the Portuguese discovered Australia two and a half centuries before Cook. In the meantime, the authorities of the Australian state of Victoria have offered a reward of $250,000 to anyone who finds the Portuguese caravel; this reward has remained unclaimed since 1992.

Cook was the last, but became the first!

There is also an opinion that the first Europeans to discover Australia were the Dutch, because once upon a time the western part of this continent was even called New Holland. In 1606, Bill Janszoon from Holland explored the Cape York Peninsula, which is the northeastern part of Australia. Some scientists are sure that it was in 1606 that Australia was discovered. In 1616, D. Hartog continued his research on Janszoon, describing part of the western coast of the continent, and in 1627, its southern coast was studied by F. Theisen and P. Neates.

In 1642, the ruler of the Netherlands Indies, Anton Van Diemen, sent an expedition of the famous navigator Abel Tasman to search for new lands. He managed to discover the land, which he named after Van Diemen, now the island of Tasmania. But Holland already had convenient naval bases in southern Africa and Java, spices did not grow in Australia, and there was nothing to say about valuable minerals here, so the Dutch safely forgot about New Holland. And then, when more than half a century had passed, the “discoverers” - the British - had already taken up Australia. As it turned out relatively recently, even before Cook, the northwestern part of Australia was explored by his compatriot William Damlier, and he also managed to discover a number of islands in this area. But in 1770, James Cook finally reached Australia and discovered it once again. Unlike others, Cook was not at a loss and immediately proclaimed the mainland an English possession. The British continued their exploration of the mainland. In 1798, D. Basho discovered the strait between the mainland and the island of Tasmania, and in the period 1797-1803, the continent was studied by the hydrographer M. Flinders. He made a more accurate map of it south coast. By the way, it was M. Flinders who proposed in 1814 to rename New Holland to Australia. By the 1840s, F. King and D. Wicken had practically completed the study and mapping of the Australian coastline. Full map Australia, which was a British colony, was formed by the British only at the beginning of the 20th century.

James Cook ($1728$–$1779$) was an English naval sailor, explorer, cartographer and discoverer, Fellow of the Royal Society and Captain of the Royal Navy. He headed $3$ expeditions to explore the World Ocean, all of which circumnavigated the world. During these expeditions he made a number of geographical discoveries.

J. Cook's first trip around the world

Barque "Endeavour"

In $1769$ the expedition bark Endeavor (Effort) left London with the purpose of observing the passage of Venus through the Sun. Captain Cook was appointed its leader, who, together with astronomer Charles Green, was supposed to conduct research on the island of Tahiti. In January $1769$ they rounded Cape Horn and reached the shores of Tahiti. Having landed astronomers on the island, Cook began exploring the archipelago and along the way discovered the Partnership Islands. Having gone in search of New Earth, seen by Tasman in $1642$, in October he approached the eastern shores of New Zealand. More three months Cook swam along its shores and became convinced that these were two large islands, separated by a strait (later named after him). Dislike local residents prevented him from penetrating deep into the islands.

Then he headed to the shores of Australia. In $1770$ he approached the unknown east coast Australian mainland(called New Holland at that time). By August of the same year, Cook had reached its northern tip. He gave the name New South Wales to the entire eastern coast of the continent, and declared Australia the property of England. Cook was the first to explore and map about $4$ thousand km of its eastern coast and almost the entire ($2300$ km) discovered by him Great Barrier Reef.

On the mainland, Cook saw strange animals with long legs and a strong tail. These animals moved by jumping. When Cook asked the locals what these animals were called, they replied “we don’t understand,” which sounded like “kangaro” in the Aboriginal language. This is how the name appeared - kangaroo.

Cook passed through the Torres Strait to the island of Java and, rounding the cape Good Hope, $13$ July $1771$ returned home, having lost $31$ a person due to tropical fever. Thanks to the diet he developed, none of the team suffered from scurvy. First circumnavigation Cook's service lasted a little over three years, after which he was awarded the rank of captain $I$ rank.

J. Cook's second trip around the world

During the first round the world expedition Cook failed to discover the large Southern Continent south of Australia. To finally find out whether this continent exists or not, the British government equipped a new expedition under the command of Captain Cook, consisting of two ships - “Resolution” (“Decision”) and “Adventure” (“Adventure”).

The ships left England in $1772$. Having reached the Cape of Good Hope, they headed south. Soon it got colder and they started dating floating ice, fog appeared. Having encountered a solid ice field, Cook was forced to turn east. After numerous attempts to break through to the south, Cook turned north. He came to the firm conviction that there was no vast land near the South Pole. This erroneous conclusion was refuted only in the 19th century. Russian navigators Bellingshausen and Lazarev.

"Resolution" and "Adventure" in Matavai Bay (Tahiti). Painting. $1776$

Swimming in Pacific Ocean, Cook again visited the island of Tahiti, part of the Society (Partnership) archipelago, discovered many new islands, including New Caledonia. Cook's second voyage lasted $3$ years and $18$ days.

J. Cook's third trip around the world

After some time, Cook accepted the offer to become the head of a new expedition, which was supposed to go from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic along the coast North America. In $1776$ he set off on his third and final voyage on the ship "Resolution" and the new ship "Discovery".

For a long time, ships sailed in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Several new islands were discovered there. Cook then headed north. Soon the ships spotted land again. They were unknown then Hawaiian Islands .

The islanders greeted the British friendly: they brought a lot of fruits and edible roots, brought in pigs, helped the sailors fill barrels with fresh water and load them into boats. Scientists - members of the expedition - went deep into the islands for their research.

From the Hawaiian Islands, the ships headed east, to the shores of America, and then went north along them. Coming out through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, they came across solid floating ice. Cook decided to return to the Hawaiian Islands for the winter. This time the British did not get along with the local population and turned the Hawaiians against themselves. In a fierce battle, Captain Cook was killed.

"The Death of Captain Cook." Painting by Sean Linehan

James Cook's travels provided a lot of new information for the development of Earth science. He penetrated further than his predecessors into the southern latitudes. Natural scientists took part in his expeditions, collecting a variety of scientific material about the nature and population of the numerous islands he discovered. His voyages are valuable for the development of geographical science in that they refined knowledge about southern parts Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

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In 1565, the Spanish monk Andre de Urdaneta was the first European to cross. His travel journal led many to believe that somewhere west of the southern tip South America may be large southern continent(Australia). In 1606, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese captain serving Spain, reached the shores of what he mistook for the continent. Quiros named it "Australia" in honor of the Spanish king, who was also the Grand Duke of Austria. However, in fact, the land discovered by Quiros turned out to be one of the islands of the New Hebrides archipelago.

Discovery of a new continent

At the end of the 16th century. Holland became a powerful maritime power. In 1606, the Dutch captain from Amsterdam, Billem Jantszoon, was the first European to reach Australia. He sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria off its northern coast. In 1642, another Dutchman, Abel Tasman, saw the island (now the island of Tasmania) and named it Van Diemen's Land - in honor of the manager of the Dutch East India Company, where Tasman served. He then headed towards New Zealand and reached the islands of Tonga and Fiji. After this, the Dutch lost interest in geographical exploration. Further exploration of Australia was resumed only more than a century later.

Captain Cook

James Cook (1728-1779) was born in Yorkshire (England). He was the son of a farmer and received only an elementary education at a local school, and at the age of 12 he already went to work: first in a shop, and then in a ship company. In 1756 Cook entered the navy. He was an extraordinary man, with a strong character and great intelligence. He became a skilled navigator and astronomer, and in 1768 received the rank of lieutenant and took command of the ship Endever. The ship Endever was built in Whitby (Yorkshire, England) and was intended to transport coal to the ports of the British coast.

Disease Control

In the 18th century on long voyages, out of every 100 sailors, an average of 60 people died, and 50 of them died from various diseases. To reduce the incidence of disease, Cook introduced strict rules. Crew members had to bathe every day, their clothes and beds were aired twice a week, and the entire ship was regularly fumigated with smoke. Cook always carried a large supply of fresh fruit with him to prevent scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C in the body. Scurvy was perhaps the main cause of high mortality among sailors. He also took care of purchasing fresh meat and vegetables. These measures had a beneficial effect on the health of sailors.

Man and his purpose

Imbued with the scientific ideas of his time, Cook did not miss the opportunity to send his ship to the shores of Tahiti to observe the planet Venus: in 1769 it passed between the Earth and the Sun. Along with Cook, a naturalist, a botanist and two artists took part in the expedition. Cook carried with him a special package, which was to be opened only after the observations were completed and described. The package contained a secret order to try to find the fifth continent, with the help of scientists to study its flora and fauna, as well as the life of the native population, and declare these lands the possessions of Great Britain. In April 1769, the expedition reached the island of Tahiti. On June 3, scientists made observations of Venus, and 10 days later the ships continued sailing. Two islanders went with the expedition as guides to help explore the small islands. The ships were heading towards New Zealand. There the Maori natives met them with hostility. A real battle broke out: the Endever was attacked by more than a hundred warriors in canoes.

Landing on the continent

In April 1770, ships entered the bay at east coast Australia, Cook landed on shore. He named the bay Bothnic - in memory of the large botanical collection that was able to be collected here. Sailing north along the coast of the continent, the ship encountered the reefs of the Great Barrier Reef and was wrecked. After lengthy repairs, the expedition set course for its homeland and in July 1771 returned to England.

Cook's last voyages

Cook carried out two more expeditions and made important discoveries. He set out on the first of them in July 1772 from Plymouth on two ships. In January 1774, Cook's ships crossed latitude 70, the southernmost latitude hitherto reached by Europeans. The sailors visited Easter Island. In 1778, Cook sailed to the Commonwealth Islands (now the Hawaiian Islands). At first, the Hawaiians took him for a god, but very soon they became disappointed in their guests. Cook hastily sailed from Hawaii, but six days later was forced to return, as his ship, the Resolve, was caught in a storm and was thoroughly battered. A fight broke out, during which Cook was killed.

Settlements on the continent

In January 1788, a French expedition arrived in Australia under the command of Captain Jean François La Perouse. He expected to declare Australia a possession of France, but was too late: just a day earlier, the British had created their colony on the continent. On Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean there are huge stone statues. The height of some of them reaches 12 m.

Australia is the smallest and furthest continent from Eurasia. During the Middle Ages it was called Terra Australis Incognita, which translated meant “unknown southern land" Who discovered the mainland of Australia, and in what year did this happen?

Official version

Humanity became aware of the new territory thanks to the traveler and navigator James Cook. His goals included studying the passage of Venus through the solar disk. It is assumed that the real reason for Cook's trip was the search for uncharted lands in the southern latitudes of Terra Australis Incognita. He set out on a trip around the world and discovered distant lands, reaching the coast of the mainland in 1770. This date is considered historically accurate. But the existence of a piece of land “at the ends of the earth” was known much earlier. In addition, there were human settlements there. It is difficult to determine the date of their foundation; approximately it happened 40 - 60 thousand years ago. Artifacts found in western Australia on the Swan River date back to that period.

Who discovered the mainland of Australia in prehistoric times?

Scientists suggest that the first travelers to travel to land by ocean were the ancient Egyptians. They brought eucalyptus oil from these regions.

This version is confirmed by cave paintings with insects similar to Egyptian sacred scarabs. In addition, mummies were found in tombs in Egypt, embalming them with oil from eucalyptus trees grown in Australia.

However, all these theories are not officially accepted, since the existence of a continent lost in the sea in Europe became known much later.

Who first discovered Australia?

Attempts to reach the continent were made several times. In the 16th century, the Portuguese set off on the sea route. In 1509 they reached the Moluccas, and in 1522 they found themselves in the north west coast. These dates are considered the first time the continent was founded by Europeans.

There is also a hypothesis that Australia was discovered by Admiral Willem Janszoon, who arrived on the continent on behalf of the Dutch authorities. He undertook a campaign in 1605. The ship Dyfken was equipped for this purpose. He followed the direction of New Guinea and after three months of travel he reached the Cape York Peninsula. The navigator compiled detailed map coastline with a length of 320 km. He had no idea that he had discovered a new continent, considering the lands to be the territories of New Guinea. Therefore they were given the name "New Holland".

Abel Tasman sailed after him to the mainland. He explored the islands on the west coast and plotted their outlines on the world map. One of the islands, Tasmania, is named after the discoverer.

So, to XVII century, thanks to the efforts of Dutch travelers, the position of the continent of Australia and its islands on the world map became known.

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