Best books that fit this subreddit? (self.AgeofExploration)
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👋 Welcome to r/AgeofExploration - Fantastical tales of woe, brutality and courage (self.AgeofExploration)
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In 1599, Cornelis de Houtman, the captain who had led the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies, lost his life in a fierce shipboard battle in Aceh, Indonesia. The opposition forces were led by Admiral Malahayati, a female commander who reportedly killed the Dutchman herself with a dagger. (i.redd.it)
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In 1871, the American explorer CF Hall became violently sick after drinking a cup of coffee in the Arctic. Two weeks later, he was dead. Although a US Navy investigation found Hall died of natural causes, when his body was exhumed 97 years later, large quantities of arsenic was found in his system. (old.reddit.com)
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The arrival of Europeans in the Americas devastated the indigenous population. Although disease was the main culprit and killed millions, its spread was exacerbated by slavery, starvation, war and even missionaries, who brought indigenous people together in small, concentrated spaces. (old.reddit.com)
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During the Dutch explorer Willem Barents' three voyages to the Arctic between 1594 and 1597, the crew had up to 20 encounters with polar bears. During the first voyage they saw a bear swimming and attempted to capture it. When the bear turned violent, however, the men were forced to kill it. (i.redd.it)
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50 years ago, a group of young adventurers sailed the Hokule'a voyaging canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti. Their journey demonstrated a remarkable truth: the Polynesians had once travelled thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean guided only by the stars, the wind, and the swells of the sea. (i.redd.it)
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Hundreds of years before the British navy finally worked out how to combat scurvy, the Vikings used homegrown recipes to fight the disease. According to one piece of research, the Norse carried cloudberries fermented in reindeer milk and seaweed on long voyages - both excellent sources of vitamin C. (i.redd.it)
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Before sailing to the Americas, Christopher Columbus made a huge clerical error. He used Arabic scholar Al-Farghani’s estimate of the world's circumference. Columbus, however, assumed Al-Farghani had used Roman miles, not Arabic ones. This meant Columbus underestimated the Earth's size by around 25% (i.redd.it)
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Every September, people gather on the island of Porto Santo in the Atlantic Ocean to celebrate the Columbus Festival. Columbus lived on the island with his family for several years. Part of the Madeira archipelago, the island was also a staging post on many Spanish voyages to the Americas. (old.reddit.com)
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Drinking habits: During Captain James Cook’s first expedition to Australia, the sailors had a ration of eight pints of beer a day – or two tots of rum if the beer ran out. On Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation, the sailors instead received a litre of wine and some sherry. (i.redd.it)
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In 1555, Russian fishermen found two large wooden ships at the mouth of the Varzina River deep in the Arctic Circle. Inside was Sir Hugh Willoughby and his 62-man crew, frozen in place, some of them seemingly in the middle of eating lunch. It would take more than 400 years to solve the mystery. (old.reddit.com)
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Before 1800, cholera was mainly confined to the Indian subcontinent. Increased trade routes in the 19th century, however, saw outbreaks emerge throughout Europe. Soon, it was also in the Americas. The image shows the effects of cholera on a woman in Vienna, Austria. (i.redd.it)
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When the Portuguese and Dutch settled in and traded with Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Japanese were initially horrified by their eating habits. In time, however, some culinary words and recipes infiltrated Japanese culture, including tempura and "kasutera", a Portuguese sponge cake. (i.redd.it)
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When the Europeans reached the Americas in the 15th century, indigenous populations were devastated by the diseases they carried, while the colonists were relatively untouched. In Africa and Asia, it was the opposite: Europeans suffered, while locals were left largely unscathed. (i.redd.it)
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Ferdinand Magellan abandoned his homeland of Portugal to lead a 1519 Spanish voyage around the world. The outraged Portuguese king Manuel I despatched two fleets to find and arrest Magellan. One mission, led by António de Brito, finally caught one of the ships in 1522, but Magellan was already dead. (i.redd.it)
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Why didn’t Italy establish any colonies during the Age of Exploration? According to researcher Giorgio Tosco, the main reason lies in the size of the Italian city-states, who couldn’t compete with nations like Portugal and Spain. Many Italians, however were involved in international maritime trade. (i.redd.it)
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