A somewhat breathless and episodic story of recorded world exploration, mainly from a European viewpoint, feeling more like a “coffee table “ book rushing on towards the next map, rather than providing more detail and context. Physically, the hardback is also slightly smaller than I would have liked and as there are reasonable white borders on the pages, this makes the maps smaller than I would wish.
Having outlined Marco Polo’s travels along the Silk Road and the exploration of the Indian Ocean and Arabia by the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He, the book then turns to the search for sea routes to India and the Spice Isles by the Portuguese and Spanish. These sea voyages resulted in navigating the west coast of Africa and rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese to discover a sea route. Also due to a treaty between Spain and Portugal, it had been agreed that Spain would not use this route, so that Spanish explorers headed west to discover the West Indies (Caribbean, not India!), although the Portuguese discover Brazil (by accident, trying to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, but having sailed too far west to catch the current). The maps to illustrate these discoveries are sometimes dated far later, due to problems of survival, although this is not discussed.
There follows the voyages to Australia and New Zealand, exploration of the interior of Africa, and finally Arctic and Antarctic travels.
A useful introduction to the history of exploration, but really using maps only to illustrate that exploration. ( )