1895: Through Yunnan to India – finding the source of the Irrawaddy River
March 29, 2021 One of the consequences of the European conquest of most of southern Asia was an insatiable interest in the region's geography. European-made maps at the time were full of blank spots or, at best, rough guesses of the exact location and height of certain mountains and the sources and accurate courses of major rivers. Ambitious individuals in the academic world sought to make their reputations by answering important geographical questions. By the late 1880s Great Britain had already taken over northern Burma and France had seized northern Vietnam and Laos. That put both countrie...
Source: gokunming.com