Fernandez-Armesto argues that there were two major periods of exploration in human history, the first and by far the longer of the two periods concerned the earliest migrations of humans across the world where peoples and cultures separated, diverging and colonising new regions. The second concerns a mere ten thousand years of convergence where culture, language and religion were brought face-to-face, new cultures were explored, trade routes set up and empires created. Pathfinders examines the history of world exploration beginning with the early investigations of the oceans by the Polynesians, early trade and exchange across the Indian Ocean, and the first Norse colonists to explore the Arctic and Atlantic. The development of the Silk Roads, the expansion of Latin Christendom, early explorations of Africa and the Americas, and much more, all culminate in Fernandez-Armesto's discussion of the 1490s, a major turning point in global exploration when Old and New Worlds were joined and European imperialism became a reality. Columbus, Cabot, Da Gama and Vespucci are some of the names discussed as the history of global exploration continues through the Renaissance and into the early modern period. An impressive and interesting study.
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