This is a list of some of the most important explorations of State Societies, in chronological order:
Before 1400
15th century
| Exploration
|
When
|
Who (explorer)
|
Context
|
| Great permanent wind wheel of Volta do Mar, the North Atlantic Gyre. Recognition of the Sargasso Sea, Madeira, Azores and West African coast. Cape Verde.
|
1427–1460
|
Several navigators: Portuguese or serving Portugal, most under the sponsorship of Henry the Navigator
|
Portuguese maritime exploration
|
| Galápagos Islands or Rapa Nui
|
c. 1480
|
Tupaq Inka Yupanki. 1594–1597. Rediscovered by the Spanish.
|
"Third Inca expansion"
|
| Congo River, Angola and Namibia
|
1482–1485
|
Diogo Cão
|
Portuguese maritime exploration
|
| South Africa. Connected the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. South Atlantic Volta do Mar winds.
|
1482–1485
|
Bartolomeu Dias
|
Portuguese maritime exploration
|
| Caribbean, Venezuela (South America) and Central America. Use and development of the North Atlantic routes.
|
1493–1502
|
Christopher Columbus
|
Spanish colonization of the Americas
|
| Atlantic Ocean (outer routes) and Indian Ocean, sea route to India (Europe to Asia)
|
1497–1499
|
Vasco da Gama
|
Portuguese maritime exploration
|
| Brazil, South Atlantic Volta do Mar, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, gate of the Red Sea (Bab-el-Mandeb Strait); India. Voyage that united Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia.
|
1500–1501
|
Pedro Álvares Cabral and Diogo Dias, among others
|
Portuguese maritime exploration Portuguese colonization of the Americas
|
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
| Exploration
|
When
|
Who (explorer)
|
| The South Magnetic Pole
|
January 16, 1909
|
Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay
|
| The North Pole
|
April 6, 1909
|
Robert Peary
|
| The South Pole
|
December 14, 1911
|
Roald Amundsen
|
| The South Pole
|
January 17, 1912
|
Robert Falcon Scott
|
| Mount Everest summit
|
May 29, 1953
|
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
|
| The Moon
|
July 20, 1969
|
Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11)
|
| Mars
|
1960–present
|
NASA and other space agency exploration robots
|
See also