The discovery of the Pacific Ocean 400 years ago was not merely the result of blind chance. The author Georg Irmer describes in his book the exploration of the oceanic space by the Western world. The motivations for these voyages of discovery were the desire to gain accurate knowledge about the Pacific and to create a New Germany beyond the seas for German emigrants. Motivations for these journeys include the human drive for prestige, the search by European states for wealth and trade routes, the spread of Western cultural life, and the church's mission. This is a reprint of the original edition from 1915.