Exploration is one of the oldest and most widespread of human activities. People have engaged in exploration since prehistoric times. Prehistoric human beings crossed vast areas of land and water and eventually populated all the continents except Antarctica. Later navigators started out from the islands of Southeast Asia and settled Hawaii, New Zealand, and other Pacific Islands.
Library of Congress illustration
In ancient and medieval times, people from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia ranged far beyond their homelands to chart many areas new to them. Even so, as late as 1450, large parts of the world remained isolated from one another. The Great Age of European Exploration starting about that time. The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the American "New World" in 1492. Throughout the 1500's and 1600's, Europeans were the most active explorers in the world. They eventually explored the Americas, Siberia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, Africa, the Arctic, and Antarctica. By the early 1900's, most parts of the world had been explored and mapped.
In many cases, as explorers came upon places that were new to them, they encountered people who had been living in these areas for centuries. When Europeans began arriving in the Americas in the late 1400's, for example, they found the continents to be inhabited by the people who are now commonly called American Indians. Sometimes, the inhabitants helped explorers by acting as interpreters and providing information about geography and sources of food and water. More frequently, explorers tried to conquer or colonize newly found lands. In many cases, fighting broke out between the new arrivals and the local people.