Editing Geographical exploration (section)

{{Short description|Act of searching for unknown space}}

[[File:Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, by Abraham Ortelius, World, 1572.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Abraham Ortelius]]'s 1570 world map, the world's first modern atlas.]]
'''Geographical exploration''', sometimes considered the default meaning for the more general term '''exploration''', refers to the practice of discovering remote lands and regions of the planet [[Earth]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |author=[[Royal Geographical Society]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uo8SAQAAIAAJ |title=Atlas of Exploration |date=2008 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-534318-2 |language=en |access-date=October 6, 2022 |archive-date=October 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016144552/https://books.google.com/books?id=uo8SAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}{{page needed|date=January 2023}}</ref> It is studied by geographers and historians.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence.{{clarify|What do convergence and divergence mean in this context? are they in the right order?|date=January 2023}} The first, covering most of ''[[Human|Homo sapiens]]'' history, saw humans [[Recent African origin of modern humans|moving out of Africa]], settling in new lands, and developing distinct cultures in relative isolation.<ref name=":1" /> Early explorers settled in Europe and Asia; 14,000 years ago, some crossed the [[Settlement of the Americas|Ice Age land bridge]] from Siberia to Alaska, and moved southbound to settle in the Americas.<ref name=":0" /> For the most part, these cultures were ignorant of each other's existence.<ref name=":1" /> The second period of exploration, occurring over the last 10,000 years, saw increased cross-cultural exchange through trade and exploration, and marked a new era of cultural intermingling, and more recently, convergence.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Fernández-Armesto |first=Felipe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bYQAAAAQBAJ |title=Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration |date=October 17, 2007 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-24247-8 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=October 6, 2022 |archive-date=October 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016144552/https://books.google.com/books?id=6bYQAAAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Early writings about exploration date back to the 4th millennium B.C. in [[ancient Egypt]]. One of the earliest and most impactful thinkers of exploration was [[Ptolemy]] in the 2nd century AD.{{clarify|Impactful in what way?|date=January 2023}} Between the 5th century and 15th century AD, most exploration was done by Chinese and Arab explorers. This was followed by the [[Age of Discovery]] after European scholars rediscovered the works of early Latin and Greek geographers. While the Age of Discovery was partly driven by European land routes becoming unsafe,<ref>{{Cite web |title=European exploration – The Age of Discovery {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-exploration/The-Age-of-Discovery |access-date=2022-10-06 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> and a desire for conquest, the 17th century saw exploration driven by nobler motives, including scientific discovery and the expansion of knowledge about the world.<ref name=":0" /><!-- citation applies to the entire paragraph (see the Royal Geographic Society Atlas's Foreword page) --> This broader knowledge of the world's geography meant that people were able to make [[world map]]s, depicting all land known. The first modern [[atlas]] was the ''[[Theatrum Orbis Terrarum]]'', published by [[Abraham Ortelius]], which included a world map that depicted all of Earth's continents.<ref name="GLO Chapter 2">{{cite report |title=Global Land Outlook |date=2017 |publisher=[[United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification]] |isbn=978-92-95110-48-9 |access-date=November 3, 2022 |chapter-url=https://www.unccd.int/sites/default/files/2018-06/GLO%20English_Ch2.pdf |chapter=Chapter 2 – Brief History of Land Use—}}</ref>{{rp|page=32}}