The international geography . hey made a few fantasticguesses to account for such natural phenomena as they could not overlook ;but they did some service to geography by recording the travels of manyzealous missionaries, who penetrated to all parts of Europe and made somedaring journeys through Asia. These records, however, were for the mostpart rendered ridiculous by the stories of mythical wonders which wereaccepted greedily in a credulous age. The great journey of Marco Polo(i271-1295) across Asia and through the eastern archipelagoes was madepossible by the conquests of the Mongol emperor
The international geography . hey made a few fantasticguesses to account for such natural phenomena as they could not overlook ;but they did some service to geography by recording the travels of manyzealous missionaries, who penetrated to all parts of Europe and made somedaring journeys through Asia. These records, however, were for the mostpart rendered ridiculous by the stories of mythical wonders which wereaccepted greedily in a credulous age. The great journey of Marco Polo(i271-1295) across Asia and through the eastern archipelagoes was madepossible by the conquests of the Mongol emperor Jenghiz Khan, whosepower, though a menace to Christian Europe, was a guarantee of peaceand security throughout the vast breadth of Asia. The one class inEurope who utilised correct geographical methods at this period was theseafaring population of the Mediterranean, whose compass-charts of thatsea were remarkably accurate. The Arabs, however, had kept up theknowledge of Ptolemys work, which they had translated from the Greek;. Kncncti World according to Ptolemy, ISO. lo The International Geography Arab geographers throughout the Middle Ages were familiar with thespherical form of the Earth, and their travellers added much to the know-ledge of the interior of Africa. The power of this cultured people wasbroken by the crusading armies and by the incursions of the barbarousTurks who, sweeping across Asia Minor, threw themselves into Europe,and capturing Constantinople in 1453 scattered all over Christendom thelearned men who had preserved there the Greek language and this time onwards Ptolemys work, which was translated into Latinand printed in 1462, was accepted as the standard in all matters ofgeography, until the great explorations of the succeeding period madefresh works necessary. The Era of Voyages of Discovery.—The desire to find a sea-route from the Mediterranean to the spice-yielding lands of the East wasgreatly strengthened in the first quarter of t
Size: 1903px × 1313px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgeography, bookyear19
