The World is an Island
Some of the first places the Portugese, who were the leaders of the European "age of discovery", found were Islands. Further, Christopher Columbus famously came upon the "Indies" when he landed on Hispaniola, what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Captain Cook mapped the Pacific for Britain and explored much of New Zealand, Polynesia, and ultimately Hawaii where he was killed. Magellan, the Portugese who first circumnavigated the globe, was killed in nowabouts the Philippines. Some of the first places Portugese caravels came upon were islands: Madeira, the Azores, and Cape Verde. Later they used these islands and others such as São Tomé and Príncipe as hubs for their lucrative slave trade. The Japanese islands were once populated primarily by the Ainu & Ryukyuan peoples, both of whom have striking similarities to indigenous cultures of the west. When the Spanish, British, and French began their colonization of mainland North America they le...