Arctic cruises travel guide

Arctic exploration is no modern concept. The first expeditions date back to ancient Greece, and the Vikings were, unsurprisingly, prolific explorers, even reaching the shores of North America via icy Arctic waters. By the 16th century, at the height of Europe’s Age of Discovery, the faraway frozen land began to appeal to those seeking trade routes, gold and other valuable resources – which soon turned out to be the blubber and bones of whales and seals, along with valuable furs. Ships penetrated further into the Northwest and Northeast Passages, though many expeditions were defeated by crushing ice, stormy seas and scurvy. The Northwest Passage was finally sailed in its entirely by Roald Amundsen in 1906. Just three years later, Robert Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole – although his conquest is greatly disputed. Although the North Pole is much more accessible than the South Pole, no one is actually confirmed to have set foot on it until 1948, when the Soviets landed a plane nearby and walked to the pole. Previously, airships had flown above it; it seems that the North Pole's accessibility made it less of a challenge and far less exciting than its southern counterpart.

Around the rim of the Arctic in the 1800s, colonisation began to take different form in northern Russia, Canada and Alaska, as native populations were 'civilised' by being forced into Western education systems and religious practices. Many were also moved off their ancestral lands, destroying communities, and with them their ancient ways of life. Industry spread further north and many native communities became outnumbered, as towns and cities sprung up around the region’s rim. Soviet gulags, nuclear submarines and coal mines soiled the face of the Russian Arctic. By the 1960s, the focus turned to oil, as well as natural gas and metal deposits. Though many of these resources have so far remained untouched due to their inaccessibility, environmentalists are aware that it is only a matter of time before yet more drilling begins, especially as climate change is shrinking the ice cap to reveal previously unseen land. The Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the rest of the world and the ice has been vanishing by 12 percent each decade for the past 40 years. While the Arctic landscape has historically changed at a glacial pace, it is suddenly melting into a very uncertain future.