Chronology of European exploration of Asia

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This article attempts to list every significant event in the history of the European exploration of Asia.^[1] It proposes a chronological inventory of these events including every people involved and the places they helped to demystify (from a European point of view).

Contents 1 First wave of exploration (by land) 1.1 Antiquity 1.2 Middle ages 2 Second wave of exploration (by sea) 3 Noteworthy non-Europeans 4 See also 5 References

[edit] First wave of exploration (by land)

[edit] Antiquity

330 BCE

Alexander the Great conquers parts of Central Asia and parts of northwestern India (modern-day Pakistan)

300 BCE

Seleucus Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire, forays into northwestern India but is defeated by Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire, and they both become allies soon after.

250-120 BCE

Greco-Bactrian rule in parts of Central Asia and parts of the Punjab region.

180 BCE-10 CE

Rule of the Indo-Greek kingdom in parts of northwestern India.

30 BCE-640 CE

The Romans begin trading with India.

100 CE-166 CE

Sino-Roman relations begin.

[edit] Middle ages

568

The Byzantine general Zemarchus travels to Samarkand and the court of the Western Turkic Kaganate.

1160-1173

The Navarrese Jewish Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visits Syria, Palestine, Baghdad, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula.

1180-1186

Pethahiah of Regensburg goes to Baghdad.

1245-1247

The Italian Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, accompagnied by Stephen of Bohemia, and later by Benedykt Polak, reaches Karakorum in present-day Mongolia. First European embassy to the Great Khan.

1245-1248

Ascelin of Lombardia, Simon of St Quentin and Andrew of Longjumeau go to Armenia and Persia.

1249-1251

Andrew of Longjumeau guide a French ambassador to the great Kuyuk Khan. His brother Guy and several others — John Goderiche, John of Carcassonne, Herbert "Le Sommelier", Gerbert of Sens, Robert (a clerk), a certain William, and an unnamed clerk of Poissy go with him. They reached Talas in northwestern Kyrgyzstan.

≈1254

The Flemish William of Rubruck reached China and Mongolia through Central Asia.

1264-≈1269

First travel of the Venitian Niccolò and Maffio Polo to China. In 1266, they reach Kublai Khan's seat at Dadu, now known as Beijing, China.

1271-1295

Second trip of Niccolò and Maffio Polo to China. This time with Marco, Niccolo's son, who would write a colorful account of their experiences.

≈1318-1329

Travels of the Franciscan monk Odoric of Pordenone via India and the Malay Peninsula to China where he stayed in Dadu (present day Beijing) for approximately three years before returning to Italy overland through Central Asia.

1403-1404

Travel of Ruy González de Clavijo, ambassador of Henry III of Castile to the Timurid Empire. He passed along the Black Sea coast of Turkey to Trabzon and then overland through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan. He also visited Tehran

1420-1436

Travels of Niccolò Da Conti to India and Southeast Asia.

1470

Travels of Afanasy Nikitin, the first Russian to visit India.

1557-1572

The English Anthony Jenkinson traveled across the Caspian Sea to Bukhara and Persia.

≈1580-1585

The Cossack Yermak Timofeyevich reaches the Siberian Tatar city of Qashliq near the right bank of Irtysh.

1583-1591

The English merchant Ralph Fitch traveled via the Levant and Mesopotamia to India and Malacca (in Malaysia).

[edit] Second wave of exploration (by sea)

1497-1499

The Portuguese Vasco de Gama, accompagnied by Nicolau Coelho and Bartolomeu Dias, is the first European to reach India by an all-sea route from Europe.

1500-1501

After discovering Brazil, Pedro Álvares Cabral, with the half of an original fleet of 13 ships and 1,500 men, accomplished the second Portuguese trip to India. Boats were commanded by Cabral, Bartolomeu Dias, Nicolau Coelho, Sancho de Tovar, Simão de Miranda, Aires Gomes da Silva, Vasco de Ataíde, Diogo Dias, Simão de Pina, Luís Pires, Pêro de Ataíde and Nuno Leitão da Cunha.^[2] It is not known which one between Gaspar de Lemos and André Gonçalves, commanded the ship which returned to Portugal with the news of the discovery. Luís Pires returned to Portugal just after reaching Cape Verde. Vasco de Ataíde, Bartolomeu Dias, Simão de Pina and Aires Gomes' ships were lost near the Cape of Good Hope. The ship commanded by Diogo Dias separated and discovered Madagascar. He was then the first to reach the Red Sea by boat. Nuno Leitão da Cunha, Nicolau Coelho, Sancho de Tovar, Simão de Miranda, Pero de Ataíde did the entire trip to India. Among other passengers were: Pêro Vaz de Caminha and the Franciscan father, Frei Henrique de Coimbra.

1501-?

João da Nova commands the third Portuguese expedition to India. He discovers Ascension Island (1501) and Saint Helena (1502) along the way.

1502-1503

Second trip of Vasco de Gama to India.

1503-1504

Afonso de Albuquerque establishes the first Portuguese fort in Kochi, India.

1505

Francisco de Almeida is appointed as the first viceroy of Portuguese India (Estado da Índiahe armada). He leaves Lisbon with an armada of 22 ships, including 14 carracks and 6 caravels carrying a crew of 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers. His son, Lourenço de Almeida, explores the southern coast and reaches the modern island of Sri Lanka.

1507-1513

In 1507, Afonso de Albuquerque captures the kingdom of Ormus in the Persian Gulf. He is then appointed second viceroy of India in 1508. In 1510 he captures Goa, soon to became the most flourishing of the Portuguese settlements in India.

1511

Albuquerque conquers Malacca discovered by Lopes de Sequeira in 1509. Malacca becomes a strategic base for Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. In November of that year, after having secured Malacca and learning of the "Spice islands" (Banda Islands) location, in Maluku Albuquerque sent an expedition of three vessels led by António de Abreu to find them. In 1511 Ayutthaya Kingdom (Thailand) received a diplomatic mission from the Portuguese. These were probably the first Europeans to visit the country. Five years after that initial contact, Ayutthaya and Portugal concluded a treaty granting the Portuguese permission to trade in the kingdom.

1512

Malay pilots guided the portuguese via Java, the Lesser Sundas and Ambon to Banda, arriving in early 1512.^[3] The first Europeans to reach the Banda Islands, the expedition remained in Banda for about one month, purchasing nutmeg and mace, and cloves in which Banda had a thriving entrepôt trade.^[4] D'Abreu sailed through Ambon while his second in command Francisco Serrão went ahead towards Maluku islands, was shipwrecked and ended up in Ternate.^[5]. Francisco Serrão establishes a fort on Ternate Island.

1513

Albuquerque laid siege to Aden in 1513, but was repulsed. He then led a voyage into the Red Sea, the first ever made by a European fleet.

Jorge Álvares is the first European to land in China at Lintin Island in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) estuary.

1517

The Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade establishes the first modern trading contact with the Chinese at the Zhujiang (Pearl River) estuary and then in Canton (Guangzhou).

1519-

Leaving Spain with five ships and 270 men in 1519, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan is the first to reach Asia from the East. In 1520, he discovers what is now known as the Strait of Magellan. In 1521 he reaches the Marianas and then the island of Homonhon in the Philippines. Some time after, Magellan is killed in what is known as the Battle of Mactan. The rest of the crew sails to Palawan (Philippines), and then to Brunei and Borneo. They then reach Tidore in the Maluku Islands avoiding the Portuguese. Only one ship, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, returns to Spain in 1522 with 18 men remaining.

1524

Third trip of Vasco de Gama to India.

1542

After a journey through Sumatra, Malaysia, Siam (Thailand), China, possibly Korea and Cochinchina (Vietnam), Fernão Mendes Pinto is one of the first Europeans to land in Japan.

1542

António de Mota is thrown by a storm on the island of Nison, called by the Chinese Jepwen (Japan).

1549

On return of his second trip to Japan Fernão Mendes Pinto takes with him a Japanese fugitive known as Anjiro and introduces him to the Jesuit Saint Francis Xavier.

1549

Saint Francis Xavier arrive in Japan accompanied by Father Cosme de Torrès, Brother Juan Fernández, the Japanese Anjiro, two baptized Japanese named Antonio and Joane, a Chinese named Manuel, and an Indian named Amador. The captain of the ship is named Avan aka "The Pirate".

1555

The Dominican Gaspar da Cruz is the first modern missionary to go in China. (See also Jesuit China missions)

[edit] Noteworthy non-Europeans

~118 BCE

Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a Greek navigator from the Asian-Greek city of Cyzicus who explored the Arabian Sea for Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

1247 & 1254

Hetoum I, king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and ally of the Frankish crusader states, visits the Mongol court in Karakoram in 1254 after first sending his brother Sempad in 1247.

1275-1288

Rabban Bar Sauma and Markos, the Turkic/Chinese Nestorian monks, traveled to the Middle East and Europe. The Rabban Bar Sauma met with many of the European monarchs, as well as the Pope, in attempts to arrange a Franco-Mongol alliance.

1325-1355

Travels of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveller from Morocco, across much of the Old World. His Travels would be influential with Europeans starting in the 19th century.

[edit] See also

• Silk Road
• List of explorers

[edit] References