The true inheritors of Greek science during that period were the Arabs, and the few additions to real geographical knowledge at that time were due to them, except in so far as commercial travellers and pilgrims brought a more intimate knowledge of Asia to the West.
The discovery of America forms the beginning of a new period, both in modern history and in modern geography.

In the four hundred years that have elapsed since then, more than twice as much of the inhabited globe has become known to civilised man than in the preceding four thousand years.

The result is that, except for a few patches of Africa, South America, and round the Poles, man knows roughly what are the physical resources of the world he inhabits, and, except for minor details, the history of geographical discovery is practically at an end.
Besides its interest as a record of war and adventure, this history gives the successive stages by which modern men have been made what they are.

The longest known countries and peoples have, on the whole, had the deepest influence in the forming of the civilised character.
Nor is the practical utility of this study less important.

The way in which the world has been discovered determines now-a-days the world's history.