Searching for the Northwest Passage
The Arctic routes probed by European expeditions hunting for a northern sea road to Asia.
The passage was worth searching for because the southern routes were held by others: Spain and Portugal controlled the ways around Africa and South America, so English and Dutch merchants funded voyages north instead. Expedition after expedition found ice rather than a channel. What they did bring back was charts, contact with Inuit communities, and a much better sense of how far the Arctic reached. Read the full story in our article on Navigating the Northwest Passage: European Exploration and Arctic Trade Ambitions, 1550–1700.
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