From this time on educational progress was to be much more rapid than it
had been in the past. From an educational point of view the invention of
printing might almost be taken as marking the close of the mediaeval and
the beginning of modern times.

RISE OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. The new influences awakened by the Revival
of Learning found expression in other directions. One of these was
geographical discovery, itself an outgrowth of that series of movements
known as the _Crusades_, with the accompanying revival of trade and
commerce. These led to travel, exploration, and discovery. By the latter
part of the thirteenth century the most extensive travel which had taken
place since the days of ancient Rome had begun, and in the next two and a
half centuries a great expansion of the known world took place.

[Illustration: FIG. 75. THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE BEFORE
COLUMBUS]

Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville made extended travels to the Orient,
and returning (Polo returned, 1295) described to a wondering Europe the
new lands and peoples they had seen. The _Voyages_ of Polo and the
_Travels_ of Mandeville were widely read. By the beginning of the
fourteenth century the compass had been perfected, in Naples, and a great
era of exploration had been begun. In 1402 venturesome sailors, out beyond
the "Pillars of Hercules," discovered the Canary Islands; in 1419 the
Madeira Islands were reached; in 1460 the Cape Verde Islands were found;
in 1497 Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern tip of Africa; and in 1497
Vasco da Gama discovered the long-hoped-for sea route to India. Five years
later, sailing westward with the same end in view, Columbus discovered the
American continent. Finally, in 1519-22, Magellan's ships circumnavigated
the globe, and, returning safely to Spain, proved that the world was