Early maps of the Arctic Coast of Russia

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