Pacific Ocean: Exploration and Settlement

The Pacific islands of the south and west were populated by migrants from Asia who crossed long distances of open sea in primitive boats, beginning some 3,400 years ago. Polynesian voyagers reached Easter Island, in the E South Pacific perhaps as early as a.d. 800, by which time they had also reached Hawaii. European travelers including Marco Polo had reported an ocean off Asia, and in the late 15th cent. trading ships had sailed around Africa to the western rim of the Pacific, but European recognition of the Pacific as distinct from the Atlantic Ocean dates from Balboa's sighting of its eastern shore (1513).

Magellan's crossing of the Philippines (1520–21) initiated a series of explorations, including those of Drake, Tasman, Dampier, Cook, Bering, and Vancouver, which by the end of the 18th cent. had disclosed the coastline and the major islands. In the 16th cent. supremacy in the Pacific area was shared by Spain and Portugal. The English and the Dutch established footholds in the 17th cent., France and Russia in the 18th, and Germany, Japan, and the United States in the 19th. Sealers and whalers sailed the Pacific from the late 18th cent., and Yankee clippers entered Pacific trade in the early 19th cent.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Exploration and Settlement
• Commerce and Shipping
• Currents
• Ocean Floor
• Coastline and Islands
• Extent and Seas
• Bibliography

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