First Explorer To Reach China

Timeline of exploration of Asia by Europeans

This is a chronology of the early European exploration of Asia.^[ane]

First wave of exploration (mainly past land) [edit]

Antiquity [edit]

515 BC: Scylax explores the Indus and the bounding main road across the Indian Ocean to Arab republic of egypt.
330 BC: Alexander the Swell conquers parts of Central Asia and parts of northwestern Bharat
300 BC: Seleucus Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire, forays into northwestern India merely is defeated by Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire, and they go allies soon after.
250 – 120 BC: Greco-Bactrian states in parts of Central Asia and Due south Asia, including the Fergana Valley (Alexandria Eschate), Transoxiana (Alexandria on the Oxus) and Punjab (Alexandria on the Indus).
180 BC – 10 Advertizement: The Indo-Greek Kingdom was located in areas now function of Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-w India.
30 BC – 640 AD: With the acquisition of Ptolemaic Egypt, The Romans begin trading with India. The Empire now has a directly connection to the Spice trade Arab republic of egypt had established start in 118 BC.
Ad 41 - 54: Roman Mediterranean revenue enhancement collector Annius Plocamus, facilitated direct trade and beginning contact between Sri Lanka and the Roman Empire. The Romans already knew about Sri Lanka under the name of Taprobane, the Greek name for the isle. It is co-ordinate to Pliny as said in Natural History that the two civilizations met after the landing of Plocamus.
100 Advertizing – 166 Ad: Romano-Chinese relations begin. Ptolemy writes of the Golden Chersonese (i.due east. Malay Peninsula) and the trade port of Kattigara, now identified as Óc Eo in southern Vietnam, then part of Jiaozhou, a province of the Chinese Han Empire. The Chinese historical texts draw Roman embassies, from a land they called Daqin.
2nd century: Roman traders reach Siam, Cambodia, Sumatra, and Java to their mode to China.
161: An diplomatic mission from Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius or his successor Marcus Aurelius reaches Chinese Emperor Huan of Han at Luoyang.
226: A Roman diplomat or merchant lands in northern Vietnam and visits Nanjing, China and the court of Dominicus Quan, ruler of Eastern Wu

Heart Ages [edit]

Trade routes in Eurasia and north Africa c. 870 CE

~500–yard: The Radhanites were medieval Jewish merchants who dominated trade betwixt the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages and travelled as far as Tang-dynasty Communist china.
~550: Byzantine traveler and author Cosmas Indicopleustes completes his work Christian Topography describing geographical features gleaned from his ain travels to Eritrea, Federal democratic republic of ethiopia, India, and Sri Lanka.
~552: 2 Persian monks (or perhaps emissaries disguised as monks), at the behest of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor Justinian I, travel to China and smuggle silkworms back to the Eastern Roman Empire, thus enabling silk production in Europe and Asia Minor.
568: The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) full general Zemarchus travels to Samarkand and the court of the Western Turkic Kaganate.
639–640: The Muslims subjugate Egypt, thus severing almost direct Eastern-Roman (and hence European) trade with Bharat and east asia.
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.
13th century: Silk Road merchandise reaches its height during the height of the Pax Mongolica, the relative peace in Asia during the widespread unification under the Mongol Empire.
1245–1247: The Italian Franciscan Giovanni da Pian del Carpine appointed Papal Legate and accompanied by Stephen of Bohemia, and later by Benedykt Polak, reaches Karakorum in present-mean solar day Mongolia. Commencement European embassy to the Great Khan.
1245–1248: The Italian Ascelin of Lombardia, Simon of St Quentin and Andrew of Longjumeau go to Armenia and Persia.
1249–1251: Andrew of Longjumeau guides a French ambassador to the not bad Kuyuk Khan. Andrew'southward 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 reach Talas in northwestern Kyrgyzstan.
≈1254: The Flemish William of Rubruck reaches Mongolia through Central Asia.
1264–≈1269: Get-go expedition of the Italians Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to China. In 1266 they reach Kublai Khan's seat at Dadu (now known equally Beijing) in Prc.
1271–1295: 2d trip of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo to People's republic of china. This fourth dimension with Marco, Niccolo'southward son, who would pass downwards a colourful business relationship of their experiences. The details of this account are currently debated.
1275–1289 & 1289–1328: The Italian John of Montecorvino (1246–1328), a Franciscan missionary, traveller and statesman, founds the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China, and becomes archbishop of Peking, and Patriarch of the Orient.
≈1318–1329: Travels of the Franciscan friars, the Italian Odoric of Pordenone and James of Ireland via Republic of india, Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula to China where they stayed in Dadu (present day Beijing) for approximately three years before returning to Italy overland through Fundamental Asia.
≈1321–1330/1338(?): The French Dominican missionary Jordanus, fabricated bishop over the whole Indian subcontinent in 1329, wrote down his travels through India and the Middle East in his volume Mirabilia.
1322: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Mandeville was said to exist a knight from St.Albans in England. Although the book is real, it is widely believed that "Sir John Mandeville" was not. The book describes the travels of Mandeville going through Turkey (Asia minor and Cilicia), Persia, Tartary, Syrian arab republic, Arabia, India and many countries effectually Bharat (including Tarpobane).
1338–1353: Trek of the Italian Giovanni de' Marignolli, one of four principal envoys sent by Pope Benedict XII to Peking.
1401–1402: Travel of Payo Gómez de Sotomayor, first administrator of Henry Three of Castile to the Timurid Empire.
1403–1404: Travel of Ruy González de Clavijo, second administrator of Henry III of Castile to the Timurid Empire. He passed along the Black Ocean coast of Turkey to Trabzon then overland through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan. He too visited Tehran.
1420–1436: Travels of the Italian explorer Niccolò de' Conti to India and Southeast Asia.
1436–1439: Travels of Pedro Tafur across Center Eastward.
1453: Constantinople falls to the Muslim Ottoman Turks; this marks the cease of Christian rule in the Eastern Mediterranean.
1470: Travels of Afanasy Nikitin, the first Russian to visit India.
1471–1479: The Italian Venetian diplomats Caterino Zeno, Ambrogio Contarini and Giosafat Barbaro travel to Persia.
1487–1491: Portuguese explorer and spy Pêro da Covilhã travels to the Near E and India nether the orders of the King of Portugal to gather information necessary for successfully establishing a ocean route between Portugal and India.
1557–1572: The English traveler, diplomat and explorer Anthony Jenkinson travels across the Caspian Sea to Bukhara and Persia.
≈1580–1585:The Cossack Yermak Timofeyevich reaches the Siberian Tatar city of Qashliq near the correct banking company of Irtysh.
1583–1591: The English language merchant Ralph Fitch, together with John Newberry and John Eldred, a jeweller named William Leedes and a painter, James Story, travelled via the Levant and Mesopotamia to Bharat and Portuguese Malacca (in modern Malaysia). Eldred stayed in Basra, Iraq; Story joined the Jesuits in Goa; Leedes stayed in Agra to work for Akbar and Newberry decided to brainstorm his return journey. Fitch went past himself to Burma and Malacca (today in Malaysia). He returned to London in 1591.
1643: Kurbat Ivanov reaches Lake Baikal.
1644: Vasily Poyarkov, travelling overland from Siberia, reaches the mouth of the Amur on the Pacific Ocean.

Second wave of exploration (past body of water) [edit]

The ships which were used past Vasco da Gama on his start voyage. (Illustration from 1558).

The Cantino planisphere (or Cantino Earth Map) of 1502 is the primeval surviving map showing Portuguese Discoveries in the eastward and west.

1488: Bartolomeu Dias reaches the Cape of Expert Hope in Due south Africa. This was an of import milestone because this allowed hereafter sailors like Vasco da Gama to sail to Republic of india and Southeast Asia.
1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Espana in search of a western route to Asia, somewhen landing in the Americas. Though unsuccessful in reaching Asia his successes propelled eventual European expansion, including Asia.
1497–1499: The Portuguese Vasco da Gama, accompanied by Nicolau Coelho and Bartolomeu Dias, is the first European to reach India by an all-sea road from Europe.
1500–1501: Afterward discovering Brazil, Pedro Álvares Cabral, with the one-half of an original armada of xiii ships and 1,500 men, accomplished the second Portuguese trip to Bharat. Boats were allowable 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.^[two] 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 merely afterwards reaching Cape verde. Vasco de Ataíde, Bartolomeu Dias, Simão de Pina and Aires Gomes' ships were lost well-nigh the Cape of Good Hope. The ship commanded by Diogo Dias separated and discovered Madagascar. He was then the first to achieve the Red Body of water past gunkhole. 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 tertiary Portuguese expedition to Republic of india. He discovers Ascension Island (1501) and Saint Helena (1502) forth the way.
1502–1503:Second trip of Vasco da Gama to Republic of india.
1503–1504: Afonso de Albuquerque establishes the first Portuguese fort in Kochi, Republic of india, during the fifth Portuguese India Armada.
1505: Francisco de Almeida is appointed as the starting time viceroy of Portuguese Bharat (Estado da Índia). He leaves Lisbon at the command of the seventh Portuguese India Armada, with 22 ships, including 14 carracks and six caravels carrying a crew of 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers. His son, Lourenço de Almeida, explores the southern coast and reaches the modernistic island of Sri Lanka.
1507–1513: In 1507, Afonso de Albuquerque captures the kingdom of Ormus in the Persian Gulf. He is and so appointed second viceroy of India in 1508. In 1510 he conquers Goa, shortly to become the near flourishing of the Portuguese settlements in India.
1511: Albuquerque conquers Malacca discovered by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1509. Malacca becomes a strategic base for Portuguese expansion in the Due east Indies. In November of that twelvemonth, afterward having secured Malacca and learning of the "Spice islands" (Banda Islands) location, in Maluku Albuquerque sent an expedition of three vessels led past António de Abreu to find them. In 1511 Ayutthaya Kingdom (Thailand) received a diplomatic mission from the Portuguese. These were probably the commencement 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.^[iii] The starting time Europeans to attain the Banda Islands, the expedition remained in Banda for about one calendar month, purchasing nutmeg and mace, and cloves in which Banda had a thriving entrepôt trade.^[4] D'Abreu sailed through Ambon while his 2nd 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, just was repulsed. He then led a voyage into the Red Sea, the first ever made by a European fleet.
1513: Jorge Álvares is the first European to land in China at Tamão in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) estuary.
1516–1517: Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, leads a small Portuguese merchandise mission to Canton (Guangzhou), then under the Ming Dynasty.
1517: The Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade establishes the first European trade post on the Chinese coast at Tamão in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) estuary and and then in Canton (Guangzhou).
1519–?: Leaving Kingdom of 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 at present known equally the Strait of Magellan. In 1521 he reaches the Marianas and and then the isle of Homonhon in the Philippines. Some time after, Magellan is killed in what is known as the Battle of Mactan. The remainder of the crew sails to Palawan (Philippines), and so to Brunei and Borneo. They and so attain Tidore in the Maluku Islands avoiding the Portuguese. Only one ship, allowable by Juan Sebastián Elcano, returns to Spain in 1522 with 18 men remaining, accomplishing the first Globe circumnavigation in History.
1524: Third trip of Vasco da Gama to Bharat.
1542: António da Mota is thrown by a tempest to the island of Tanegashima, establishing the beginning European contact with Japan.
1549: Saint Francis Xavier arrives in Japan accompanied past Begetter Cosme de Torrès, Brother Juan Fernández, the Japanese Anjiro, ii baptized Japanese named Antonio and Joane, a Chinese named Manuel, and an Indian named Amador. The captain of the send is named Avan aka "The Pirate".
1556: The Dominican Gaspar da Cruz is the outset modern missionary to go in China. He traveled to Guangzhou in 1556 and wrote the start complete book on China and the Ming Dynasty that was published in Europe; it included data on its geography, provinces, royalty, official course, hierarchy, aircraft, architecture, farming, craftsmanship, merchant affairs, article of clothing, religious and social customs, music and instruments, writing, teaching, and justice. (See too Jesuit China missions)

Left panels 1-iii

Correct panels iv-6

1582: The Italian Jesuit priest and missionary Matteo Ricci reaches the Portuguese settlement of Macau in Ming China and in 1601 becomes the first European to be invited into the Ming imperial palace of the Forbidden City in Beijing, at the behest of the Wanli Emperor who sought his services at court, peculiarly for his expertise in astronomy. In 1602 Ricci and his Chinese translator Li Zhizao would co-publish the first world map in Chinese, the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu which greatly expanded both Chinese and Japanese noesis of global geography.
1595: The Dutchman January Huyghen van Linschoten published his Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten ("Travel Accounts of Portuguese Navigation in the Orient") which was translated into English and High german in 1598. It gave access to secret Portuguese information, including the nautical maps which had been well guarded for over a century. The book thus broke the Portuguese monopoly on the sea trade with Asia.

Other noteworthy Europeans [edit]

1579–1619: Thomas Stephens, a Jesuit, was probably the starting time Englishman to set foot in India where he died in 1619.
1599–1614: John Mildenhall, with Richard Newman, reach Agra, India, overland in 1614.
1600–1610: William Adams's boat arrives in Nihon where he spends the next 10 years as counselor to the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
1602–1607: Bento de Góis, first European to travel overland from India to China.
160?–1611: Robert Coverte comes back from India past foot subsequently his ship runs aground near Surat.
1612–1617: Thomas Coryat travels by foot to India.
1615–1618: Thomas Roe is ambassador to the court at Agra, India of the Great Mogul, Jahangir.
1624: António de Andrade, commencement European to reach Tibet.
1626–1627: Estêvão Cacella with João Cabral are the first Europeans to reach Bhutan.
1631–1668: Jean-Baptiste Tavernier travels six times to Asia, mostly in Persia, Republic of india and Java.
1656–1669: François Bernier travels to Egypt, Saudi arabia and so spend eight years at the court of the mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
1664–1680: Jean Chardin travels two times to Persia (as well as its dependencies in the Caucasus such as Georgia) and India.
1675–1678: The moldavian boyar Nicolae Milescu travels to People's republic of china.

Noteworthy others [edit]

~118 BCE: Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a Greek navigator from the Asian-Greek metropolis of Cyzicus who explored the Arabian Sea for Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Arab republic of egypt.
522–550: Cosmas Indicopleustes (lit. "who sailed to India") of Alexandria was a Greek merchant, and after monk, who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His Topografia Christiana contained some of the earliest and most famous earth maps.
1154: Although not known for his travels, Muhammad al-Idrisi was most important for the exploration of Asia for Europeans when he made the Tabula Rogeriana, a map of the whole known world, in 1154 for the Norman Rex Roger II of Sicily, based on his knowledge of the Arab trade routes.
1247 and 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 Due east and Europe. The Rabban Bar Sauma met with many of the European monarchs, every bit 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 Onetime World. His Travels would be influential with Europeans starting in the 19th century.

See as well [edit]

Silk Road
Listing of explorers
Listing of Russian explorers
European exploration of Arabia
Timeline of European exploration
Ancient Greece–Ancient Bharat relations

References [edit]

^ ANCIENT SILK Route TRAVELERS
^ Vera Lucia Bottrel Tostes, Bravos homens de outrora Archived 2007-01-07 at the Wayback Car, Camoes - Revista de Latras e Culturas Lusofonas, no. 8, January - March 2000
^ Hannard (1991), page 7; Milton, Giles (1999). Nathaniel's Nutmeg. London: Sceptre. pp. 5 and vii. ISBN978-0-340-69676-7.
^ Hannard (1991), folio 7
^ Ricklefs, Thousand. C. (1993). A History of Modernistic Indonesia Since c.1300, 2nd Edition. London: MacMillan. p. 25. ISBN0-333-57689-six.