Early maps of the Arctic Coast of Russia

The attempt, from the 16th century on, to open up the Northeast \nPassage for marine trade in East Asian textiles and exotic spices was a driving \nforce belund the exploration of the Russian Arctic eoast. The aim in doing this \nwas to brcak the Portugucsc and Spanisch trade monopoly. Until the late \nMiddle Ages thcre existed antique notions of a ring-like ocean surrounding \nthe Earth's land mass. These formed part of the background to the quest for \nthe passage. In addition thcre was vague information garnered from Pliny the \nEIder that was used for eartographical purposes until the beginning of the 18th \ncentury. Aecording to Pliny the eoast of North Siberia was formed by a vast \nbay flanked by two promontories, the Scythian Cape and Cape Tabin. Following \nsome fairly unsuccessful British attempts, Dutch explorers succeeded in \ndrawing up maps which reached the western coast of the island of Novaya \nZemlya. These maps were produced before the end of the 16th century, \nHowever, because of icc conditions, the Dutch did not manage to find thcir \nway into the Kara Sea at the island's southern end. \nIt was not until the 18th century that new progress was made. The progress \nresulted from Peter the Great's re-orientation of Russia towards the west which \nentailed extending invitations to western specialists. He also initiated the \n"Great Northern Expedition" (1733-1743) during which large parts of the \ncoast east of Novaya Zemlya were mapped for the first time. It is interesting \nthat c1imatic conditions in Siberia made it necessary to explore downriver, in \ncontrast to normal mapping procedures during the Age of Discovery, these \nnormally involved exploring continents in the opposite direction, i.e. upriver \nfrom the coasts. One of the results of the Great Northern Expedition was that \nVitus Jonassen Bering confirmed that Asia is not physically connected to \nAmerica. In addition, improved astronomieal positioning allowed him to prove \nthat in approximately 70 degrees North Siberia comprises roughly 130 \ndegrees of longitude, as opposed to the 90 degrees given in all previous maps. \nThis meant that Siberia, and thus also the voyagc through the Northcast \nPassage, was in fact about 1600 km longer than they had been previously \nthought to bc. \nSeientific progress, in this ca se in cartography, was thus driven by the \neconornic interests of Western Europe and by the economic and political interests \nof Peter the Great, as well as by methodologieal innovations.