Sixteen French explorers embark readers on their voyages around the world, to witness the trials and tribulations encountered as they charted new routes to remote territories.

Set sail to Tahiti with Louis-Antoine de Bougainville or to Antarctica with Jules Dumont d’Urville. Learn about Russian domination of Alaska in the eighteenth century, or how the Dutch traded Manhattan to the British for the precious nutmeg plantations on a tiny Indonesian island. Beautifully illustrated with some 300 documents—including previously unpublished or rare texts, unfiltered extracts from travel journals, maps, and illustrations from centuries-old sketchbooks—readers discover these intrepid travelers and their extraordinary scientific, military, or commercial voyages, which have significantly marked the history of world exploration and contributed to our modern understanding of geography, cartography, climate change, and global cultures. Unfiltered extracts from travel journals, original works by each explorer, and previously unpublished personal correspondence plunge readers into the heart of their adventures. These rare first-person historical accounts provide enlightening insight into their thoughts, concerns, and contemporary attitudes—touching on themes such as colonization, religion, trade, and geopolitics—with relevance that strikes the chords of modern-day issues. These rare first-person accounts provide enlightening insight into historical attitudes on themes such as colonization, religion, trade, and geopolitics—with uncanny relevance to modern-day issues.