Between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, colonial powers from Europe dispatched explorers to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of Asia.

Feb 28, 2025 · Northwest Passage, historical sea passage of the North American continent. It represents centuries of effort to find a route westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Archipelago of what became Canada. Learn more about the Northwest Passage in this article.

The map at the top of this page shows possible routes through the Northwest Passage. Ships traveling west would enter the Passage through Baffin Bay, pass through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago by various routes, exit into the Beaufort Sea and then out into the Pacific Ocean through the Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea.

For over 400 years explorers risked their lives to search the Arctic for a northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Explorers searching for the Passage were hoping to establish a lucrative trading route between Europe and Asia. The aim was to shorten the time and cost of sailing to and from markets such as India and China.

Europeans searched for 300 years to find a viable sea trade route between North America and Asia. Names of some of the most famous adventurers, like Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin, are etched into the history of the Northwest Passage. Can People Visit The Northwest Passage?

Finding a direct route by sea to China became something of an obsession for the kingdoms of Western Europe in the mid-1400s after the Ottoman Turk Empire gained control of much of the Middle East. Finding a the Northwest Passage was a 400-year obsession for sea-faring nations.

Here's the history & mystery of the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Territories is the western gateway to the world’s most elusive watercourse – the Northwest Passage, traversing the icy waves of the Beaufort Sea and threading the choking channels between the High Arctic Islands.

Europeans searched for 400 years for a passage through North America that would take them to the fabled lands of the Orient. Their searches met with little success. The first man to take a sailing ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through this fabled passage was Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) of Norway in 1903-06.

3 days ago · Splitting into an eastern and a western party and spending two winters in the Arctic, this expedition mapped many miles of new coastline north of Lancaster Sound, rescued the survivors of McClure’s expedition, and then without apparent justification abandoned all four ships in the ice and sailed home in the North Star.

May 29, 2018 · First navigated during a voyage from 1903 to 1906 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in his ship, the Gjoa, the Northwest Passage is the sea route that links the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Pacific Ocean.