A presentation retracing the steps our ancestors took to discover all corners of the globe and reflecting on the consequences of the European 'age of discovery'

1. From our African ancestors to Austronesians and Garifuna, or how our
nomadic tendencies have shrunk our World and shaped our societies
THE AGE OF
DISCOVERY

2. TIMELINE
• Out of Africa
• Initial expansion and success of Homo Sapiens Sapiens
• The World after the last glacial period
• Late human settlement (Malta, Canarias, Caribbean)
• First open sea explorers and discoverers: the Austronesian
• First European discoverers: the Viking
• Other explorers, myths and theories
• Christian Europe’s ‘Age of Discovery’, a.k.a. “The Age of
Plunder”
• Causes and consequences of “The Age of Plunder”: rise of
the global economy, capitalism, the merchant class and
global inequality (slavery, colonialism and racism)
• The Garifuna, a people born of “The Age of Plunder”
• Arctic and Antarctic exploration and completing the World
map
• Our shrunken World and the next discoveries: oceans and
space

3. OUT OF AFRICA • Homo Sapiens emerges in East
Africa around 2-300Kya, to
become by latest ~15Kya the
only remaining Homo species
• All of our ancestors came out
of Africa in different waves,
from about 120Kya to 50Kya
• Some interbred along the way
with Neanderthals in Europe,
Denisovans in Asia and other
archaic humans in Africa
• Number of theories exist on
timeframe and routes of
expansion, based on data
collected and interpretation
• Evidence from new discoveries
of ancient sites, fossils and
from DNA studies help
improve understanding and to
propose new theories

4. INITIAL EXPANSION AND
SUCCESS OF HOMO
SAPIENS SAPIENS
• Early waves may not have been
successful and died out, or
returned to Africa
• More successful waves started
some 70 to 50Kya through Sinai
and Bab-el-Mandeb, spreading to
Asia by inland and coastal routes,
branching to Europe and reaching
Australia by embarking on a sea
journey some 65 to 50Kya
• Humans from East Asia moved to
Beringia during ice age and from
there reached America some 25Kya
(possibly earlier), expanding inland
and along the west coast until
reaching Chile by some 14Kya
• Some theories say that modern humans might have started
moving out of Africa from 270Kya, but little evidence to
support that
• Early modern humans moved within Africa, populating the
continent
• First evidence of out of Africa movements from about 120Kya
through Sinai and Arabian Peninsula routes (Bab-el-Mandeb)

5. THE WORLD AFTER THE
LAST GLACIAL PERIOD
• By the time the last ice age was over, most of the world’s land
masses, except for Antarctica, Greenland and some islands such
as Canarias, Malta, Madagascar, Hawaii, New Zealand, Iceland
and most Arctic, Indian Ocean, Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific
islands, had been discovered by our ancestors
• Rising sea levels cover
Beringia and cuts
America from Eurasia
• With navigational skills
not yet fully developed,
discovery of new lands
will be slow over the
next few thousand years
• In the meantime, the
spread of agriculture
and civilization reaches
most inhabited corners
of earth, except for
isolated populations,
some of which still exist
today (North Sentinel,
Amazon, New Guinea)
• Improvements in boat
making skills will
eventually lead to new
discoveries

6. LATE HUMAN SETTLEMENT
(CARIBBEAN, MALTA, GREENLAND,
CANARIAS) • As agriculture, farming and urban centres
were emerging in many parts of the globe,
navigation by oar and sail developed
• Most early navigators explored coastal areas in regions already inhabited
• Some ventured further in open seas and discovered from 10-9Kya new
lands to populate, mostly Mediterranean islands, such as Crete, Malta
and the Baleares
• From some 7Kya, various groups from Central and South America arrived
in the previously unpopulated Caribbean islands
• Greenland was first populated by groups from North America some 5Kya
• About 3Kya, islands such as the Canarias, Socotra and the Maldives were
being populated for the first time by Amazigh, ancient Arabs and
Southern Indians
• By then, only isolated islands far from centres of maritime civilizations
remained to be discovered, and one people was in the process of
becoming the first great maritime explorers

7. FIRST OPEN SEAS GREAT
EXPLORERS AND
DISCOVERERS:
THE AUSTRONESIAN
• The Austronesian people were the world’s first long range open sea explorers.
Likely originating in Southern China, Austronesian speaking people had settled
in Taiwan by 6Kya
• By 5Kya some groups dispersed out of Taiwan due to population pressure, first
settling in Maritime South East Asia (Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaya,
parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hainan island) and some islands in
Melanesia as far as Fiji, encountering along the way descendants of earlier
Out of Africa migrations, such as Negritos, Papuans and other Melanesians
• As their culture, agricultural techniques and languages came to dominate in
most of Maritime South East Asia, this was less so in Melanesia, from where
many of their greater voyages will start
• By 3Kya, Austronesians embarked on long open seas voyages guided only by
stars, long before any other people made such lengthy sea voyages for
exploration and settlement purposes
• In the process they settled previously uninhabited islands in the Pacific,
reaching Micronesia first, then Polynesia with Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and
Hawaii reached by AD300-400 and finally New Zealand by AD1300, while
groups from Borneo and Sulawesi sailed west and reached Madagascar by
AD500
• There is also mounting evidence, based on plants and some similar words,
that there may have been some contact with South America’s Pacific coast
• Numbering today more than 400 million people, Austronesian speaking
people are the widest ranging native population on the planet (from
Madagascar to Easter Island: 17K miles, over 2/3 of the globe), with a more
recent diaspora including sizeable communities in South Africa (Cape Malays),
Suriname (Javanese) and the Netherlands, as well as large numbers of
immigrants in North America, Europe and the Middle East
• The first person to circumnavigate the globe was a Malay from Malacca (a
sailor on Magellan’s expedition), fitting for a member of the first population of
great maritime explorers who knowingly spread human population to many
hitherto undiscovered areas of the world
• By the time Austronesians reached Aotearoa (New Zealand) – the planet’s last
significant piece of land to be discovered and settled, apart from Antarctica
there were only small oceanic and arctic islands left for others to discover

8. FIRST EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS: THE VIKING
• Early Mediterranean civilizations
navigated and explored, but did
not discover any significant new
lands, except for the Canary
Islands and possibly some other
Macaronesia islands, but did not
settle them (Canarias was settled
by Amazigh groups, but it is
possible they were brought there
in exile)
• Centuries later in Northern
Europe, Norsemen during the
Viking Age (8th to 11th century)
were among the last to settle
significant new lands, discovering
(or re-discovering) the Faroe
islands and Iceland, and were the
first Europeans known with
certitude to have reached the
Americas (Greenland and Canada)

9. OTHER
EXPLORERS,
MYTHS AND
THEORIES
• It is possible that islands such as the Faroe, Iceland and Jan Mayen may
have been discovered by Irish monks during the early middle ages,
before the Viking
• Legends about the voyages of 5th century Irish monk St Brendan tell of
mythical islands in the Atlantic that some think could be Greenland or
America
• Arabs and Muslims did much exploration and trade, but did not discover
significant new lands or settled in large numbers in new areas
• Theories exist about an early African presence in America, as well as a
tale of a 14th century large expedition led by the Emperor of Mali to
explore the western sea
• Theories also exist that people from the Jomon period in Japan as well
as ancient Chinese navigators may have reached the west coast of
America and traded with natives long before the Europeans
• The Chinese, especially under the fleet of Admiral Zheng He, conducted
large scale maritime explorations, but did not discover new lands or
colonized the places they visited
• Some speculate that Zheng He may have reached America in 1421
• Many theories involving Arabs, Africans and East Asians are plausible,
but evidence is lacking and there is no validation by mainstream scholars
• Other stories of ancient exploration, particularly between the old and
new worlds, include long distance sea voyages by Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Hebrews, Romans, Arabs, Atlanteans, etc, but all offer little
evidence and are seen as an attempt to rob Native Americans of their
achievements

10. CHRISTIAN EUROPE’S ‘AGE
OF DISCOVERY’, A.K.A.
“THE AGE OF PLUNDER”
• Christian Europe towards the end of the middle ages started
venturing into the Atlantic, with Genoese, Balearic and Basque
sailors re-discovering the Canary Islands in the 1300s, which the
Spanish start conquering during the 1400s
• In the 1400s, the Portuguese encouraged by Prince Henri The
Navigator start exploring the Atlantic, discovering islands such
as the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe,
initiating what history calls ‘The Age of Discovery’
• In 1492 Christopher Columbus sails west on behalf of Spain and
stumbles upon the Caribbean, bringing together the old and
‘new’ worlds, and changing them forever
• Based on a system initiated during the conquest of the
Canarias, and on the assumption of the moral superiority of
Christians over ‘heathens’, the Spaniards usher in an era of
colonization, enslavement, plunder, acculturation and
exploitation that will tremendously affect not only the natives
of the ‘discovered’ regions in America and Oceania, but also of
millions in Africa
• In the wake of the Iberians, the English, French, Dutch and a
few others will continue the pattern of exploration,
colonization, acculturation and exploitation of the people and
cultures they encounter, while during their travels they discover
the remaining mostly small oceanic, arctic and Antarctic islands
that had remained uninhabited by humans until then due to
their remoteness or inhospitability

11. Actual European discoveries of islands with no human presence during the ‘age of discovery’

12. CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF “THE
AGE OF PLUNDER”: RISE OF THE GLOBAL
ECONOMY, CAPITALISM, THE MERCHANT
CLASS AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY (slavery,
colonialism and racism)
• In the 14th and 15th century, most commerce with the East and sub-Saharan
Africa, and their riches in spices, gold and other exotic products, were in the
hands of Muslims and Italian maritime republics, especially after the fall of
Constantinople in 1453
• The Iberian Christians, in the process of reconquering their lands from the
Muslims, for religious and commercial reasons, wanted to have access to these
trades and to bypass Muslims and Italians
• The legend of the Christian Kingdom of Prester John in the East (possibly related
to Ethiopia) inspired the navigators to look for that kingdom in the hopes of
forming an alliance and attacking Muslims in a pincer movement and retake the
Holy Lands
• When new routes to sub-Saharan Africa and the East, and new lands to the west, were ‘discovered’, new
economic models developed, based on colonization by force of these new lands, plundering of their natural
resources, plantations to satisfy the needs of European consumers, large scale enslavement – mostly of Africans
– to work the plantations, and then new waves of colonisation of existing polities (South East and West Asia, the
Pacific and the ‘scramble for Africa’)
• On a human level, this ‘age of discovery’ caused the death of millions of natives of these ‘new’ lands, through
diseases for which they had no immunity, conflict, enslavement and in some cases suicide
• The plantation economy in the Americas caused the massive and inhumane Atlantic Slave Trade, during which
12 to 15 million of African men and women in their prime were stolen from their continent during a 3 centuries
period and with up to 1/3 perishing along the journey
• The connections between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ worlds resulted in exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and
populations, forever changing the face of our planet and ushering the globalized world in which we live today
• On a social level, the new economic realities helped create new social classes whose power and riches came
from trade, exploitation of resources and industry, rather than from feudal land holding and inherited nobility,
resulting in demands for greater political power, creating the capitalistic model and the wealth and progress
built on the back of enslaved and colonized people to which the West owes its current development and
prosperity
• On a moral level, in order to justify the inhumanity of colonization and especially of African slavery, a process of
dehumanization through notions of racial and cultural superiority and biblical interpretations became
entrenched in western society (think Tarzan, Tintin, etc) and resulting in racism, institutional discrimination
(segregation, apartheid), neo-colonialism and the irony of anti-immigration attitudes

13. THE GARIFUNA, A
PEOPLE BORN OF “THE
AGE OF PLUNDER”
• The discoveries and explorations of our ancient ancestors resulted over long periods of time in new
cultures, languages and ethnic groups
• The European age of discovery accelerated these processes and many new populations emerged from this
• One of the most unique results, as a direct consequence of this ‘age of plunder’ are the Garifuna people of
Central America
• According to the generally accepted view, the origins of the Garifuna are on one side in West Africa, and on
the other in the Orinoco Basin
• In the early 17th century, the island of Yurumein (St Vincent) was populated by a mix of Kalinago and
Arawak (Carib Indians) who had managed to keep the Europeans largely at bay and remain independent
• Around 1635, Spanish ships carrying slaves from West Africa sunk near the coast of St Vincent
• Carib natives came to their rescue, and it is believed that they intermarried with the Africans, who were
later joined by others from shipwrecks or escaping slavery from nearby islands
• The community (called Black Carib by the British) prospered, traded with other islands and were in good
terms with the few French settlers who had small outposts on the island
• After a couple of wars between the Caribs, with support from the French, and the British, St Vincent is
finally annexed by the British, who promptly round the Black Caribs and deport them to Roatan in
Honduras
• From Roatan, the Black Caribs ask for permission to settle in mainland Honduras, from where the
community, now identifying as Garifuna or Garinagu, spreads to Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua, living
from fishing, farming and timber work
• Becoming a ‘nation across borders’ the Garifuna have retained their culture derived from Africans and
Amerindians never colonized or enslaved, although adopting aspects of western culture such as
Christianity
• Numbering around 400K, including an important diaspora in the USA, the Garifuna try to preserve their
unique language, the last of the Caribbean languages to survive, and to pass it on to the younger
generations faced by acculturation in the modern world
• Producing some of the best world music on the planet, and with their unique culture, language and music
being recognized in 2001 by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the
Garifuna have attracted much interest and have undergone a cultural revival and renewed sense of pride in
their unique origins
• Brought together by circumstances completely out of their control but remaining free from colonizers and
slavers, their existence was a threat to the plantation economy of the time, with their deportation from
their homeland one of many examples of the consequences of an age of discovery powered by greed and
the pretence of racial superiority

14. ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION
AND COMPLETING THE
WORLD MAP
• By the end of the ‘age of discovery’ the only remaining regions to be explored and
discovered were the northernmost polar regions and the continent of Antarctica
• Whereas the cold arctic lands of the north were known since antiquity, the existence
of Antarctica was only theorized as a symmetrical equivalent to the arctic, and this
possible land mass was at first thought to be connected to Africa, then to South
America and Australia, but the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn and
the circumnavigation of Australia during the age of discovery proved otherwise, and
explorers were keen to be the first to see the continent and set foot on it
• Though there had been some unconfirmed sightings of southern land masses in the
17th century, and discoveries of islands such as Bouvet and Kerguelen during the 18th
century, the first confirmed crossing south of the Antarctic Circle was in 1773 by
Captain James Cook, who crossed it several times again but never sighted the
landmass itself, only islands deemed unsuitable for habitation
• The first confirmed sightings of Antarctica were made from the 1820s, though no
documented landing was made until 1853, following which interest in Antarctica
diminished due to the lack of commercial interest
• In the late 1890s and early 1900s, scientific curiosity and competition for prestige
will lead to the ‘Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’, during which several nations
launched expeditions to map the continent and be the first to reach the
geographical South Pole
• The first to reach the South Pole was Norwegian Roald Amundsen on 14 December
1911, followed shortly after by British Robert Scott on 17 January 1912, with all
members of his expedition perishing on the way back
• Although not really settled except for research stations, the discovery and
exploration of Antarctica have completed our human journey of discovery started
tens of thousands of years ago by our ancestors moving out of Africa

15. OUR SHRUNKEN WORLD AND
THE NEXT DISCOVERIES:
OCEANS AND SPACE
• Today humans have reached practically
every corner of our planet, with a few
peaks not yet scaled and the oceans
depths remaining the largest unknown
• The next steps for humanity are now to
explore beyond our planet, as it is in our
nature to be curious and to have the
need to explore the unknown
• Explorations and discoveries have
shaped the history of humanity as it
spread across the globe, while the
European Age of Discovery has shaped
the world we live in today…
• We are all the children of the brave
nomads, discoverers and explorers of
the past. Let’s embrace their spirit of
curiosity and adventure but reject their
motives of conquest and greed as we
move forward…and let’s hope that if we
in turn are ‘discovered’ by those from
another world, their motives will be
noble…

16. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
To see videos of Garifuna music and of World Music from every country in the World,
please visit my website:
www.travelwithyourears.com
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For this and similar talks on various travel and world music subjects, please contact me at:
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