• Arctic

  / Study and exploration
• Baltic Sea

  / Study and exploration
• Black Sea

  / Study and exploration
• Caribbean Sea

  / Study and exploration
• Columbian Exchange
• cultural evolution

  / Unilinear theory
• history of Europe

  / Discovery of the New World
• English Channel

  / Study and exploration
• history of Latin America

  / The overseas tradition
• Oceanic art and architecture

  / Oceanic art and architecture after European contact
• Pacific Ocean

  / European exploration
• Pacific Islands

  / The 16th and 17th centuries
• Portugal

  / Conquest and exploration
• spice trade
• urban culture

  / The colonial city
• Western literature

  / The Renaissance

• Congo River

  / Study and exploration
• East African lakes

  / Study and exploration
• East African mountains

  / Study and exploration
• eastern Africa

  / The colonial era
• Ghana

  / Contact with Europe and its effects
• western Africa

  / The beginnings of European activity
• western Africa

  / Decolonization and the regaining of independence

• Arabian Desert

  / Study and exploration
• Brahmaputra River

  / Study and exploration
• Gobi

  / Study and exploration
• Himalayas

  / Study and exploration
• Hindu Kush

  / Study and exploration
• India

  / India and European expansion, c. 1500–1858
• Japan

  / The arrival of the Europeans
• Karakoram Range

  / Study and exploration
• China

  / Foreign relations
• Pamirs

  / Study and exploration
• Persian Gulf

  / Study and exploration
• Red Sea

  / Study and exploration
• Sea of Okhotsk

  / Study and exploration
• history of Southeast Asia

  / Chinese and Western incursions

• race

  / The many meanings of race

• Canada

  / European contact and early exploration
• Mackenzie River

  / History of Mackenzie River
• Great Lakes

  / Study and exploration
• North American Desert

  / Study and exploration
• Northwest Passage

  / History of exploration
• Pacific mountain system

  / Study and exploration
• Rio Grande

  / Study and exploration
• Rocky Mountains

  / Study and exploration

• Atlantic Ocean

  / Ancient exploration
• Gulf of Mexico / Gulf of America

  / European exploration and naming
• Sea of Japan / East Sea

  / Study and exploration

• Amazon River

  / Early European exploration
• Andes Mountains

  / Study and exploration
• Gran Chaco

  / European colonization and economic activity
• Orinoco River

  / History of exploration
• Patagonia

  / History
• Río de la Plata

  / Early European exploration and settlement

General works

Broad surveys may be found in J.N.L. Baker, A History of Geographical Discovery and Exploration, rev. ed. (1937, reissued 1967); and Percy Sykes, A History of Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 3rd ed. (1949, reprinted 1975), a very readable account.

The exploration of the Old World

Herodotus, Herodotus, trans. by J. Enoch Powell, 2 vol. (1949), a good edition of his History; and Strabo, The Geography, trans. by Horace Leonard Jones, 8 vol. (1917–33), are two early accounts. Other studies of exploration in the classical period include E.H. Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography Among the Greeks and Romans, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1883, reissued 1959), a standard work; M.P. Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed. rev. (1926, reprinted 1974); J. Oliver Thomson, History of Ancient Geography (1948, reissued 1965), a well-documented review of the geographic knowledge of the period and a discussion of the geographic theories; M. Cary and E.H. Warmington, The Ancient Explorers, rev. ed. (1963), a readable account of recorded exploratory journeys; Peter Foote and David M. Wilson, The Viking Achievement (1970, reprinted 1990); and Anne Stine Ingstad, The Discovery of a Norse Settlement in America (1977, reprinted with corrections as The Norse Discovery of America, 1985), on 11th-century contact between Europeans and America.

The medieval period is treated in C. Raymond Beazley, The Dawn of Modern Geography, 3 vol. (1897–1906, reissued 1949), a standard work on geographic ideas and knowledge during ad 300–1420; A.P. Newton (ed.), Travel and Travellers of the Middle Ages (1926, reprinted 1968); George H.T. Kimble, Geography in the Middle Ages (1938, reissued 1968); John Kirtland Wright, The Geographical Lore of the Time of the Crusades (1925, reissued 1965); and Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Venitian, trans. and ed. by Henry Yule, 3rd ed. rev. by Henri Cordier (1903, reissued in 2 vol. as The Travels of Marco Polo, 1993).

The Age of Discovery

Boies Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420–1620 (1952, reprinted 1975), is still one of the most readable and comprehensive surveys of 15th- and 16th-century European overseas travels. A.P. Newton (ed.), The Great Age of Discovery (1932, reprinted 1969), is also a useful overview. Works on specific voyages include Cecil Jane (ed.), Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of Columbus, 2 vol. (1930–33, reprinted 1967); James A. Williamson, The Voyages of the Cabots and the English Discovery of North America (1929, reprinted 1971), and The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII (1962, reprinted 1986); E.G.R. Taylor, Tudor Geography, 1485–1583 (1930, reprinted 1968); F.H.H. Guillemard, Life of Ferdinand Magellan (1890, reprinted 1971); and Edouard Roditi, Magellan of the Pacific (1972).

The emergence of the modern world

Edward Heawood, A History of Geographical Discovery in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1912, reprinted 1965), treats the topic in a broad context. Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation . . . (1589, reissued in 2 vol., 1965), also available in an abridged edition, Voyages and Discoveries, ed. by Jack Beeching (1972, reissued 1985), contains voluminous information on the early English travels to North America. Later voyages are detailed by E.G.R. Taylor, Late Tudor and Early Stuart Geography, 1583–1650 (1934, reprinted 1968). Voyages to the Pacific are chronicled in J.C. Beaglehole, The Exploration of the Pacific, 3rd ed. (1966), and The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, 4 vol. (1955–74); and Andrew Sharp, The Discovery of the Pacific Islands (1960, reprinted 1985). Exploration of the continental interiors is described by Margery Perham and J. Simmons (eds.), African Discovery, 2nd ed. (1957, reissued 1971); Ernest Scott (ed.), Australian Discovery, 2 vol. (1929, reprinted 1966), containing a wide selection of passages from the journals of explorers, with comment; Günter Schilder, Australia Unveiled: The Share of Dutch Navigators in the Discovery of Australia (1976); Clements R. Markham, The Lands of Silence: A History of Arctic and Antarctic Exploration (1921); and R.F. Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition, 2 vol. (1946, reissued in 1 vol., 1983), from his journals. William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society Since ad 1000 (1982), argues that military power and its economic base have been prime movers in both innovation and the expansionist urge.