Question

Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Ibn Battuta, Amerigo Vespucci, Xuanzang, Ferdinand Magellan, Bartolomeu Dias, Herodotus, Captain James Cook, Vasco De Gama.

What is common among these individuals? Browse Internet or refer books and share some information about them.

Answer 1

Marco Polo was an Italian merchant, explorer, and writer, born in the Republic of Venice. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist, who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Ibn Battuta was a Muslim Moroccan scholar and explorer, who widely travelled the medieval world.

Amerigo Vespucci was a Florentine merchant and navigator, who made at least two transatlantic trips to the New World, voyages that inspired cartographer Martin Wardseemiiller to label the new continent “America” in 1507. Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator, who travelled to India in the seventh century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the early Tang Dynasty.

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route, he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. Bartolomeu Dias was a Portugese navigator whose 1487-88 Atlantic voyage around the southern tip of Africa opened sea routes between Europe and Asia.

Herodotus is the ancient writer and reporter called “The Father of History.” He was a colorful writer and commentator; his most famous work, The Histories, remains a widely-read account of ancient facts and legends of the Persian invasion of ancient Greece.

Captain James Cook was an English naval explorer whose expeditions in the 1770s charted much of the lands of the Pacific, including New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. Naval commander Vasco da Gama’s 1497 expedition from Lisbon opened a route to India and led to Portugese dominance of the Eastern spice trade.