"Before the fifteenth century, European sailors were unsure what waited for them beyond their well-known travel routes around the Mediterranean Sea, so they kept within sight of land. But all of that changed after Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal started sending ships down the coast in the hope of finding a sea route to India and Africa. This was the beginning of a giant leap toward understanding what the globe actually looked like. Certain...

Area X has claimed the lives of members of eleven expeditions. The twelfth expedition consisting of four women hopes to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

Discover how the greatest explorers in history plunged into the unknown and boldly pieced together the picture of the world we have today. With the help of masterful cross sections, dramatic storytelling, and sidebars that highlight key concepts, places, and technology, readers explore fourteen historic journeys.

In search of a new adventure, Hippolyte Webb, quixotic spirit, modern-day explorer, and natural historian, sets his sights on the Auroras, a group of tiny islands in the middle of the South Atlantic. His destination wouldn't be so unusual, except that these islands were last spotted almost two hundred years ago. Equipped with a centuries-old map, an inadequate sailboat, and an advance payment for a book about his quest, Hippolyte embarks on an unforgettable...

The Pioneer Histories are, intended to provide a broad survey of the great migrations of European people for purposes of trade, conquest and settlement into the non-European continents. They aim to describe a racial expansion which has created the complex world of today, so nationalistic in its instincts, so internationalized in its relationships. International affairs now claim the attention of every intelligent citizen, and problems of worldwide...

"A survey of the history and future of human exploration, replete with fun facts about the results of cultural exchanges and the discovery of new frontiers"-- Provided by publisher.

"Europeans widened their world in a search for goods, land, raw materials, and other objects that created wealth in the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. View documents, maps, art, and the words from the people and events that marked this interaction of world cultures."-- Publisher's web site.