This is an era of positive progress and courageous exploration. This is also an era of rapid progress, belonging to the brave. In the 19th century, with the basic completion of the European Industrial Revolution, with the help of steam engines and muskets, humans have initially opened up the transportation lines of major cultural circles around the world, and a brand new earth has gradually appeared before the world. However, they still don’t know much about the hinterland of many continents. At that time, geographers, faced with blank maps, couldn’t find cities, so they drew elephants...
This situation is destined not to last long. With the establishment of geographical societies in various countries, under the multiple stimulations of official colonial expansion, academic exploration of new knowledge and personal pursuit of honor, the Western world has set off a climax of exploring and conquering the world: climbing to the top of the peak that no one has ever reached; going to the hinterland of the continent that no one has ever set foot on; discovering unknown beauty has become the main theme of the moment, and these explorers have also become the heroes of the times, using their courage, perseverance and even sacrifice to create many amazing feats and thus be remembered by the world for a long time.
How should these explorers be evaluated? The so-called discovery is often just finally known to people. At the same time, along with these explorations and adventures, there are also all kinds of unbearable past events such as imperialist colonial slavery and species extinction. However, leaving aside these discordant factors, the perseverance and enterprising spirit shown by those explorers can still become a precious spiritual wealth for all mankind. The significance of this may be just as Samuel Baker, who explored the Nile River, sighed when he solved the thousand-year-old mystery: "I suddenly felt how glorious our cause is!"