Geographical Discoveries

What knowledge they do in ancient times and middle Ages, Europeans mostly after swimming in the Mediterranean Sea and along the European continent. Their knowledge of the world was limited to areas of Europe and North Africa. Much less, know about Asia. Information about it came from the merchants, diplomats and spies, for example, of the existence of China and Japan, known from the works of Marc Fields - the thirteenth century explorer. The geographical knowledge of Europeans to have increased sharply in the early sixteenth century. This was the result of, inter alia, the introduction of technological innovations by the Portuguese. They used in their boats based on commonly used by Arab. As a result, at the beginning of XV century caravel was created - a small vessel with axial tiller and a triangular sail known as Latin. We allow the wind swimming at both the inter and from the side. In this situation, even once the adverse winds to a lesser extent, endanger seafarers. They can swim to the port and make inventories of food or water if so desired. Caravel was a faster and can take more food than previously used types of vessels.