Changes

Prior to Columbus, trade goods came to Europe from China and India via overland routes like the Silk Road, which had its terminus in Constantinople.  The conquest of that city as well as much of the Middle East by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-15th century prompted the first series of explorations westward by sea.  Before the 1490s had ended it had been realized that the new lands found by Columbus were not part of the Far East; this prompted Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 to sail to India by way of a southern voyage around Africa, and another Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, to sail to what was then called the East Indies (Indonesia) by going around the southern tip of South America and into the Pacific Ocean.

Prior to Columbus, trade goods came to Europe from China and India via overland routes like the Silk Road, which had its terminus in Constantinople.  The conquest of that city as well as much of the Middle East by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-15th century prompted the first series of explorations westward by sea.  Before the 1490s had ended it had been realized that the new lands found by Columbus were not part of the Far East; this prompted Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 to sail to India by way of a southern voyage around Africa, and another Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, to sail to what was then called the East Indies (Indonesia) by going around the southern tip of South America and into the Pacific Ocean.

It was also realized that a northern route to the Far East would be shorter in terms of distance (about 8,000 miles) and time.  John Cabot was sent by King Henry VII in the first search for a northwestern passage, reaching [[Newfoundland]] in 1496, and making an attempt for [[Japan]] in a second, ill-fated expedition in 1498.  Exploration for the route would be in small steps; the Frenchman [[Jacques Cartier]] would chart the eastern Canadian coast and [[St.Lawrence River]]; Sir [[Martin Frobisher]] explored the northern areas around Baffin Bay and attempted a colony at Frobisher Bay; and Henry Hudson would search for the passage in 1610, entering the vast bay which bears his name before being cast adrift by a mutinous crew in 1611.

It was also realized that a northern route to the Far East would be shorter in terms of distance (about 8,000 miles) and time.  John Cabot was sent by King Henry VII in the first search for a northwestern passage, reaching [[Newfoundland]] in 1496, and making an attempt for [[Japan]] in a second, ill-fated expedition in 1498.  Exploration for the route would be in small steps; the Frenchman [[Jacques Cartier]] would chart the eastern Canadian coast and [[St. Lawrence River]]; Sir [[Martin Frobisher]] explored the northern areas around Baffin Bay and attempted a colony at Frobisher Bay; and Henry Hudson would search for the passage in 1610, entering the vast bay which bears his name before being cast adrift by a mutinous crew in 1611.

Two centuries of trial and error at sea by explorers John Davis (1585), William Baffin (1615, 1616), Sir John Ross (1829-33), Sir William Parry (1819), Frederick William Beechey (1825-28), and Sir George Back (1836-37) did much to add to the knowledge of the Canadian Arctic; this was supplemented by overland explorers Henry Kelsey (1688-91), Samuel Hearne (1770-72), and Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1789) as they explored much of Canada west of Hudson Bay to the Arctic.

Two centuries of trial and error at sea by explorers John Davis (1585), William Baffin (1615, 1616), Sir John Ross (1829-33), Sir William Parry (1819), Frederick William Beechey (1825-28), and Sir George Back (1836-37) did much to add to the knowledge of the Canadian Arctic; this was supplemented by overland explorers Henry Kelsey (1688-91), Samuel Hearne (1770-72), and Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1789) as they explored much of Canada west of Hudson Bay to the Arctic.