Great Places, Great Explorers (cont.)The 19th and 20thcenturies are full of stories of Geographers and Adventurers traveling roundthe earth seeking to understand our planet and discover her secrets. As the sciencesof geology and geography were developed the more developed countries of theworld wished to know things like what were the highest mountains and longestrivers in the world. Nations competed to reach these faraway places first, fornational glory and economic advantage too. The most powerful nation on earthfor most of the 19th century and part of the 20th centurywas Great Britain and they believedit to be their god-given right to reach these destinations before all others.At the beginning of the 20thcentury the British set their sights on being first to reach the South Pole situated in the middle ofthe newest continent discovered, Antarctica.But being first wasnt all that mattered. The British also wished to understandthe lands they traveled through, and the people they might meet. Britishexpeditions were usually operated by the RoyalNavy and their crew members were naval officers but there was always ascientific group alongside including biologists, botanists and artists. Probablythe most famous scientific-expedition of all time was the Voyage of the Beagle from 1831-1836 and the development of thetheory of natural selection (or evolution) by Charles Darwin, then a young scientist.At the end of the 19thcentury Robert Falcon Scott wasBritains most decorated sea commander and he led a series of expeditions to Antarctica between 1900and 1912. Bit by bit be made his preparations to cross the frozen landscape andclaim the South Pole for his country. But little did Scott know but theexplorer Roald Amundsen had also sethis sights on reaching the South Pole first. Amundsen sought the pole only forthe glory of the conquest. To him it was to be a race to the pole. And Amundsenwas actually a more experienced and prepared explorer than Scott. On previousexpeditions to Greenland and his native Norway he had learned how to servicelike the Inuit peoples who lived in these regions. He wore bear and seal skinclothing like these people. He also knew how to ski and use dogs to help him travel. Scott, on the other hand,endeavored to do everything the most modern way possible. Instead of dogs andsleds Scott planned to use horses andtractors. His clothing was produced by fashionable outfitters in Londonsuch as Burberry.In the end Amundsen breezed over theAntarctic continent in his dogsleds, reached the pole first on December 14, 1911 and hurried back. Scotts team sufferedproblem after problem. The horses died. The tractors broke. And the weather wasawful. They finally reached the pole on January 12, 1912 five weeks after Amundsen and were heartbroken to find the spot markedby the Norwegian flag. On the way back Scotts team was trapped by weather incamp and they died there from the cold and starvation in late March 1912. After his death Scott became anational hero in Great Britain. Statueswere erected everywhere. His only son Peter took his middle name from ClementsMarkham, president of the Royal Geographic Society who had sponsored Scottscareer and Antarctic expeditions. PeterMarkham Scott founded the World Wildlife Fund