Timeline of maritime migration and exploration

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**1. Early Human Migrations and Austronesian Expansion:**

– ~128,000BCE: Archaic humans migrate from North Africa to Crete.
– ~53,000BCE: Modern humans migrate from Southeast Asia to Sahul.
– 1074: People from East Asia inhabit Honshu and Kyushu in Japan.
– ~33,000BCE: People from Southeast Asia migrate to the Maluku Islands, Talaud Islands, and Palawan.
– ~30,000BCE: People from eastern Siberia may have migrated into the Americas.
– ~3,000-2,200BCE: Austronesian peoples from Taiwan migrate to the Batanes Archipelago and northern Luzon.
– ~1,500BCE: Austronesians establish maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean.
– ~1,300BCE: Austronesians migrate to the Schouten Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea.
– ~1,200BCE: Austronesians from Island Melanesia migrate to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji.

**2. Early Seafaring Explorations:**

– ~600BCE: Egyptian ship sails around Africa to the Nile River.
– ~500BCE: Carthaginian Hanno explores the Atlantic Coast of Africa.
– ~325BCE: Greek geographer explores the British Isles and North Sea.
– ~200BCE: Austronesians migrate to eastern Micronesia.
– ~200: Chinese envoys sail to India through the Strait of Malacca.

**3. European Colonial Expansion and Settlements:**

– ~750: Monks from Dál Riata settle on Iceland.
– 793: Norse Vikings raid Lindisfarne Priory in Great Britain.
– 870: Norwegian Náttfari settles on Iceland.
– ~900: Polynesians colonize the Hawaiian Islands.
– 982: Erik the Red leads Icelandic settlement of Greenland.
– 1493: Columbus establishes settlement in the Caribbean.
– 1501: Portuguese settlement in India.
– 1505: Start of Atlantic slave trade.
– 1508: European settlements in Puerto Rico and Brazil.
– 1510: European settlements in Colombia and Cuba.

**4. Major Exploration Voyages:**

– 1403: Yongle Emperor orders Armada to explore the Indian Ocean.
– 1405: Zheng He departs with 255 ships on a two-year voyage.
– 1407: Zheng He departs on a second voyage with 247 ships.
– 1409: Zheng He departs on a third voyage with 27,000 men.
– 1434: Start of Portuguese exploration and exploitation of Africa.
– 1482: Diogo Cão explores Atlantic Coast of Africa.
– 1488: Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope.
– 1497: Vasco da Gama’s expedition to seek a sea route to India.
– 1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral’s expedition to India and Brazil.

**5. Exploration and Colonization in the Americas and Pacific:**

– 1497: John Cabot explores Newfoundland.
– 1498: Columbus lands on the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela.
– 1511: European settlement in Colombia.
– 1513: Ponce de León explores Florida.
– 1515: First European settlement in Venezuela.
– Dutch captain Willem Janszoon explores New Guinea and Australia in 1606.
– British explorer Samuel Wallis lands on Tahiti in 1767.
– James Cook explores and circumnavigates New Zealand in 1770.
– Cook explores Botany Bay in Australia in 1770.
– Cook explores the Hawaiian Islands and the Northwestern Coast of North America in 1778.

This timeline is an incomplete list of significant events of human migration and exploration by sea. This timeline does not include migration and exploration over land, including migration across land that has subsequently submerged beneath the sea, such as the initial settlement of Great Britain and Ireland.

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