Age of Discovery

==Concept==
{{Main|Discovery (observation)}}

The concept of discovery has been scrutinized, critically highlighting the history of the core term of this [[periodization]].<ref name="Washburn 1962 p=1">{{cite journal | last=Washburn | first=Wilcomb E. | title=The Meaning of "Discovery" in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries | journal=The American Historical Review | publisher=JSTOR | volume=68 | issue=1 | year=1962 | pages=1–21 | issn=0002-8762 | doi=10.2307/1847180 | jstor=1847180 }}</ref> The term "age of discovery" has been in the historical literature and still commonly used. [[J.&nbsp;H. Parry]], calling the period alternatively the '''Age of Reconnaissance''', argues that not only was the era one of European explorations to regions heretofore unknown to them but that it also produced the expansion of geographical knowledge and empirical science. "It saw also the first major victories of empirical inquiry over authority, the beginnings of that close association of science, technology, and everyday work which is an essential characteristic of the modern western world."<ref>Parry, J. H. (1973). ''The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement, 1450–1650''. London: Cardinal. p. 13.</ref> [[Anthony Pagden]] draws on the work of [[Edmundo O'Gorman]] for the statement that "For all Europeans, the events of October 1492 constituted a 'discovery'. Something of which they had no prior knowledge had suddenly presented itself to their gaze."{{sfn|Pagden|1993|p=5}} O'Gorman argues further that the physical and geographical encounter with new territories was less important than the Europeans' effort to integrate this new knowledge into their worldview, what he calls "the invention of America".<ref>O'Gorman, Edmundo. The Invention of America. An Inquiry into the Historical Nature of the New World and the Meaning of History. Bloomington, IN 1961, 9–47.</ref> Pagden examines the origins of the terms "discovery" and "invention". In English, "discovery" and its forms in the romance languages derive from "''disco-operio'', meaning to uncover, to reveal, to expose to the gaze" with the implicit idea that what was revealed existed previously.{{sfn|Pagden|1993|pp=5–6}} Few Europeans during the period of explorations used the term "invention" for the European encounters, with the notable exception of [[Martin Waldseemüller]], whose [[Waldseemüller map|map]] first used the term "[[Naming of the Americas|America]]". {{sfn|Pagden|1993|p=6}}

A central legal concept of the [[discovery doctrine]], expounded by the United States Supreme Court in 1823, draws on assertions of European powers' right to claim land during their explorations. The concept of "discovery" been used to enforce colonial claiming and the age of discovery, but has been also vocally challenged by [[indigenous peoples]]<ref name="Assembly of First Nations 2018">{{cite web | title=Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery | website=Assembly of First Nations | date=2018-01-22 | url=https://www.afn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/18-01-22-Dismantling-the-Doctrine-of-Discovery-EN.pdf | access-date=2021-06-19 | archive-date=2021-09-04 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904193341/https://www.afn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/18-01-22-Dismantling-the-Doctrine-of-Discovery-EN.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref> and researchers.<ref name="frichner">Frichner, Tonya Gonnella. (2010). [https://undocs.org/E/C.19/2010/13 "Preliminary Study of the Impact on Indigenous Peoples of the International Legal Construct Known as the Doctrine of Discovery."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724071713/https://undocs.org/E/C.19/2010/13 |date=2021-07-24 }} E/C.19/2010/13. Presented at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Ninth Session, United Nations Economic and Social Council, New York, 27 Apr 2010.</ref> Many indigenous peoples have fundamentally challenged the concept and colonial claiming of "discovery" over their lands and people as forced and negating indigenous presence.

The period alternatively called the ''Age of Exploration'', has also been scrutinized through reflections on the understanding and use of [[exploration]]. Its understanding and use, like science more generally, has been discussed as being framed and used for colonial ventures, discrimination and [[Exploitation colonialism|exploitation]], by combining it with concepts such as the "[[frontier]]" (as in [[Frontier thesis|frontierism]]) and [[manifest destiny]],<ref name="Roy Conversation 2018">{{cite web | last1=Roy | first1=Rohan Deb | last2=Conversation | first2=The | title=Science Still Bears the Fingerprints of Colonialism | website=Smithsonian Magazine | date=2018-04-09 | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-bears-fingerprints-colonialism-180968709/ | access-date=2021-08-15 | archive-date=2021-08-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803155738/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-bears-fingerprints-colonialism-180968709/ | url-status=live }}</ref> up to the contemporary age of [[space exploration]].<ref name="Renstrom 2021">{{cite web | last=Renstrom | first=Joelle | title=The Troubling Rhetoric of Space Exploration | website=Undark Magazine | date=2021-03-18 | url=https://undark.org/2021/03/18/rhetoric-of-space-exploration/ | access-date=2021-08-15 | archive-date=2021-08-12 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812025854/https://undark.org/2021/03/18/rhetoric-of-space-exploration/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=When discussing Humanity's next move to space, the language we use matters.|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/urban-scientist/when-discussing-humanity-8217-s-next-move-to-space-the-language-we-use-matters/|website=[[Scientific American]]|access-date=20 September 2019|date=26 March 2015|author=DNLee|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914011756/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/urban-scientist/when-discussing-humanity-8217-s-next-move-to-space-the-language-we-use-matters/|archive-date=14 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2018-11-09|title=We need to change the way we talk about space exploration|first=Nadia|last=Drake|author-link=Nadia Drake|publisher=[[National Geographic]]|access-date=2019-10-19|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/11/we-need-to-change-way-we-talk-about-space-exploration-mars/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016235826/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/11/we-need-to-change-way-we-talk-about-space-exploration-mars/|archive-date=2019-10-16|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0265-9646(95)93233-B |title=Development and imperialism in space |first=Alan |last=Marshall |date=February 1995 |journal=Space Policy |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=41–52 |bibcode=1995SpPol..11...41M |access-date=2020-06-28 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222641231 |archive-date=2022-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121225531/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222641231_Development_and_imperialism_in_space |url-status=live }}</ref>

Alternatively, the term and concept of contact, as in [[first contact (anthropology)|first contact]], has been used to shed a more nuanced and reciprocal light on the age of discovery and colonialism, using the alternative names of '''Age of Contact'''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/age-of-contact/|first=Katie|last=Whitehurst|publisher=[[PBS]]|title=Age of Contact|access-date=9 January 2021|archive-date=15 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815163224/https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/age-of-contact/|url-status=live}}</ref> or '''Contact Period''',<ref name="Nassaney">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1641|date=2014|publisher=Springer|location=New York, NY|first=Michael Shakir|last=Nassaney|title=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology |chapter=North America During the European Contact Period |editor-first=Claire|editor-last=Smith|pages=5350–5371|doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1641|isbn=978-1-4419-0426-3|access-date=9 January 2021|archive-date=10 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910155322/https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1641|url-status=live}}</ref> discussing it as an "unfinished, diverse project".<ref name="Silliman 2005 pp. 55–74">{{cite journal | last=Silliman | first=Stephen W. | title=Culture Contact or Colonialism? Challenges in the Archaeology of Native North America | journal=American Antiquity | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=70 | issue=1 | year=2005 | issn=0002-7316 | doi=10.2307/40035268 | pages=55–74| jstor=40035268 | s2cid=161467685 }}</ref><ref name="Wilson 1999 p. ">{{cite book | last=Wilson | first=Samuel | title=The emperor's giraffe and other stories of cultures in contact | publisher=Westview Press | publication-place=Boulder, Colo | year=1999 | isbn=0-8133-3585-X | oclc=40567393 }}</ref>