Inuit in the Arctic

In the Arctic Circle, the population living for a long time is close to 3 million. The local aborigines are mainly Inuit and Lapp. After the ancient Eskimos migrated to the north, the ancient civilizations developed in the middle and low latitudes gradually began to think about what the world they lived in was like. The oldest map found in the world today is the clay map of Babylon excavated by archaeologists. This painting depicts the Babylonian view of the world before 2800 BC. A circular river surrounds the circular earth, and Babylon is at the center of the world.

The ancient Chinese nation also experienced the stage of "taking me as the center". Han people worshipped Xuanyuan Huangdi as their ancestors, and then there was a big flood. His grandson Gun stole "fallow soil" from the Emperor of Heaven to control water for the people, and was killed by the Emperor of Heaven before his career was finished. Gun's son, Yu, continued to complete his father's career, which is what is said in the famous story of "Dayu controlling water". However, Dayu in China mythology is not only a hero who manages water for the people, but also an explorer who travels around the world. After the completion of the water control project, Dayu sent Tai Zhang Shen to explore the earth with his footsteps. Tai Zhang walked from the East Pole to the West Pole, measuring 23.35 Wan Li, with 75 steps. Dayu also sent Shu Hai, the God of Heaven, from the North Pole to the South Pole to measure the earth with a bamboo piece "suan" about 6 inches long. The result is exactly the same as the distance between east and west. It can be seen that the earth where people live should be square, and they are in the middle of a square earth surrounded by four seas, so they logically call themselves the "central country", that is, China.

Later, Dayu personally explored the horizon and carried out diplomatic activities by the way. He has been to the "Fusang" in the east, where the sun rises; I've been to Yuan Ye, Jin Jiu and Qingqiang, and I've climbed mountains with the nine-tailed fox and been to Niaogu Township, Heichi Township and Qingqiu Township. He went south, crossed the extremely hot Jiuyang Mountain, and arrived at Feather Country, Naked Republic of China and Undead Country. To the west, I have been to the "Three Dangers Mountain Country" where the Queen Mother Sanqingniao lives, and I have seen people who only drink dew and don't eat whole grains. I have also been to the "Golden Mountain" full of gold, and I have seen "strange brain people" and "people with one arm and three faces". I've been to the "Lingzhengguo" and "Canrongguo" in the north, and I've been to Yujiang over Jishishan. Yujiang is also a sea god and a wind god. After saying goodbye to Yujiang, Dayu planned to go home, but he got lost in the snowstorm. Instead, he went further and further north, and finally he came to a place called "Eventually Northland". This "The Last arctic blue" may be the first and only written record of China's Arctic exploration. Although this record comes from fairy tales, although Dayu's footprint may not have reached the shore of the Arctic Ocean at that time, it is an impressive stroke related to the Arctic in the 5,000-year civilization history of the Chinese people. Most historians believe that civilized human beings turned their eyes to the North Pole, starting from ancient Greece at the earliest. Because it is said that the Arctic Circle was first determined by the ancient Greeks. They found that the stars in the sky can be divided into two groups. One group is in the north of the world and can be seen all year round. The other group is near the zenith and the south, and they only appear periodically with the seasons. The dividing line between the two groups of stars is the circle drawn by Ursa Major, which happens to be the latitude circle of 66 33' north latitude, that is, the Arctic Circle.

In fact, Pythagoras (582-500 BC) and his school extremely despised the statement that the earth is square or rectangular, and their philosophical thoughts convinced them that the earth is perfect only if it is spherical, so as to meet the needs of "cosmic harmony" and "number". Plato's student Aristotle (384 ~ 322 BC) laid the foundation of the concept of "earth". He even considered that there should be a continent in the southern hemisphere in order to balance the vast land in the northern hemisphere. Moreover, in order to avoid the embarrassing situation that the earth is "top-heavy" and its big head (North Pole) is facing down, the area around the North Pole should be a relatively light ocean. So, more than 2000 years ago, a Greek named Bizeas bravely set sail and began the first impact of civilized human beings on the Arctic. It took him about six years to complete the voyage, and he reached Iceland or central Norway as far north as possible, possibly entering the Arctic Circle. In 325 BC, Bezias returned to Marseille (now Marseille). After Bizeus 1200, in 870 AD, an ancient Scandinavian nobleman named Otta bypassed the northernmost cape of Scandinavia for the first time, bypassed kola peninsula and entered the White Sea. At about the same time as Ota, a Norwegian named Loki was sent to the northwest to find a new continent and discovered Iceland.

The discoverer of Greenland was a Norwegian pirate named Eric the Red Face. He was deported after two consecutive murders in Iceland, which was then under Norwegian jurisdiction. In the case of no choice, he had to pack his family and everything into a small boat without a canopy, and with a glimmer of hope, he crustily skin of head and rowed westward. After a rather difficult voyage, he finally saw a piece of land. At that time, the climate was at the best stage of the global mini-warm period (which Europeans called the "medieval warm period"), which might make high-latitude areas like Greenland a suitable environment for life. Eric the Red Face lived there for three years and thought it was a good land, so he decided to go back to Iceland to recruit immigrants. In order to make this place sound more attractive, he gave a nice name, Greenland, a green land. Of course, at that time, the summer in the southern coastal areas of Greenland was probably really green. Sure enough, groups of immigrants came across the sea with their property and livestock. Since then, Greenland has flourished. At the peak, there were more than 280 residential areas with thousands of people, 17 churches. Not only did he establish trade relations with Europe, but the Pope even sent someone to collect parish taxes. However, 500 years later, around 1500, with the world climate fluctuating again (entering the Little Ice Age), the weather there became cold, so this once prosperous paradise gradually entered a state of silence. This period of human activities in the Arctic can be called spontaneous regional discovery period. Discovery of northeast and northwest routes in the Arctic Ocean

Kyle Poirot's trip to China convinced westerners that China is a paradise on earth with arachis duranensis, mountains of jewels and clouds of beautiful women. As a result, westerners began to look for the shortest route to China-the Maritime Silk Road. At that time, Europeans thought that as long as they sailed north from the Norwegian Sea and then sailed east or west along the coast, they would surely reach China in the east. Therefore, the history of Arctic exploration in the Middle Ages is closely related to the discovery of the northeast and northwest routes of the Arctic Ocean.

1500, Portuguese brother Courtrell sailed north to Newfoundland along the west coast of Europe. The next year, they continued to go north, hoping to find a way to China, but it was gone forever. They became the first explorers who died for the "Northwest Route".

From 1594, the Dutchman Barents started his three arctic blue. 1596, he not only discovered the island of Spitsbergen, but also reached the place of 79 49'' north latitude, setting a new record for human beings to move northward and becoming the first European to spend the winter in the Arctic. 1597 On June 20th, Barents, who was only 37 years old, died of hunger, cold and fatigue on a floating ice block.

16 10, an Englishman Hudson, who was employed by a commercial exploration company, launched an attack on the northwest channel with his ship Discovery, and they later arrived at the bay named after Hudson. Unfortunately, of the 22 explorers, 9 were frozen to death, 5 were killed by Eskimos, 1 died of illness, and only 7 returned to England alive.

16 16 In the spring, Eight Commanders Xiao Discovery went north again. This is the fifth time/kloc-0 that the ship entered the unknown waters in the northwest and found the open Baffin Bay.

1725 65438+ 10, Peter the Great appointed Bering, a Danish, as the captain of the Russian expedition, and completed the arduous task of "determining whether Asia and America are connected". Bering and his 25 members left Petersburg, crossed Russia from west to east, traveled more than 8,000 kilometers, and arrived at the Pacific coast. Then, they boarded a ship from there and sailed northwest. In the following 17 years, Bering completed two extremely difficult explorations. On his first voyage, he drew a map of kamchatka peninsula and successfully passed the Bering Strait, a waterway between Alaska and Siberia. On his second voyage from 1739, he reached the west coast of North America and discovered the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. It was because of his discovery that Russia's territorial claim to Alaska was recognized. However, more than1000 people died in these two expeditions, including Bering himself.

18 19 captain parry, an Englishman, insisted on rushing into the frozen arctic waters in winter and almost got through the northwest passage. Although they failed, they found an extremely important fact, that is, the Arctic ice sheet is constantly moving. They walked on the ice floe for 6 1 day, worked hard and walked 1600 km. In fact, they only advanced 270 km. This is because the ice sheets are moving in the opposite direction to them. When they travel north, the ice sheet will take them to the south. As a result, they only reached 82o45' north latitude.

1 831June1day, the famous British explorers john ross and james ross discovered the north magnetic pole.

On May 1845 and 19, the Admiralty of the British Empire sent Sir sir john franklin, an experienced Arctic explorer, to start his third voyage to the Arctic. The whole team 129 people died of hunger, cold and illness after more than three years of arduous trekking. This lifeless expedition is the greatest tragedy in the history of Arctic exploration, but Sir Franklin's heroic behavior and dedication have greatly admired future generations.

1878, the Finnish Swedish navy captain Louis Pan Langdell led a 30-member international expedition, which was composed of Russian, Danish and Italian naval personnel. Four exploration ships, including Vega, first opened the northeast route.

1905, Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer who later conquered the Antarctic, successfully opened the northwest route. Their success brought a successful conclusion to the efforts to find the way to the East in the Arctic.

However, these successes, which were bought at a very heavy price, did not bring much joy to mankind. Because the voyage across the Arctic Ocean is so difficult, it has no commercial value. This expedition, which lasted for about 400 years, opened up the northeast route and northwest route, which we can call the Arctic route period.