Prior to the major European voyages of discovery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European knowledge of other cultures was limited and often second hand. However, many seafaring cultures of the ancient world had a wealth of information about world geography and culture. Most information was gleaned from merchants looking for trade routes, or kings looking for territory to conquer.

As early as 2750 B.C., Egyptians were sailing their papyrus boats in search of spices, precious stones, and other valuables. Starting in the seventh century B.C., Phoenician merchant seamen were searching the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the African coast for opportunities to increase their vast economic empire. Through both military victories and trading expeditions, the ancient Greeks expanded their knowledge of geography by adding England and India to their maps by the fourth century B.C. Medieval Arabian travelers knew much of the geography of Asia well before Europeans made their presence known in that area. Chinese explorers anticipated European exploration in the South Pacific by almost half a century. Polynesian seafarers, using their own traditional means of open-ocean navigation, explored the islands in the South Pacific well before the time of recorded history.

ancient world
egypt | phoenicians | greece | china | polynesia | arab explorers