10+ Surprising Facts About Roald Amundsen | The Norwegian Explorer

Norway may be one different country with different cultures That is completely opposite from other countries and cultures around the world And although the country may be smaller in size when it comes to population Its people have contributed much to the world that we currently know and today here on FTD facts We are looking at one very important or region that everybody on the planet should know. Hey everybody. How's it going? Welcome to FTD facts. My name is Dave Walpole And today we are talking about Roald Amundsen one of the greatest explorers on the planet to have ever existed in history Now here on the channel, we normally talk about people cultures places and all that sort of stuff from all around the world So if you like learning like learning about history like learning about people cultures and you know countries boom Hit that subscribe button because that's what we do here And the best part is we take a lot of recommendations from you guys So if you got any during this video be sure to leave one down there in the comment section below with that in mind guys Also, I just want to remind you that considering we talk about countries if you want boom up Here's gonna be some cards throw videos of different videos that we do we talk about countries So be sure to just look up there from time to time and go. Oh wait, that looks very cool Other than that, I'll put some at the end of the video, but let's get started Shall we so this is Roald Amundsen one of the most famous explorers who have ever lived and we're gonna talk today about how he And his team went against great odds and beat many other countries and competitors making him the first man to reach the South Pole So for us to get an idea of how Roald Amundsen made it to the South Pole first We actually have to go back in time and we got a look at some of his Experiences he went through because those helped get him this great feat now Roald Amundsen was born on July 16th 1872 in Borg Norway Fortunately for him He was born in a family of ship owners and his father Jens Amundsen was one of the biggest ship owners in the country in The 19th century now like many great people who start off young and go on to big things When he was young, he wasn't originally going to be what he was He wasn't gonna be an explorer because as a child, he was the fourth son in the family and his father passed away in 1886 but however because of all of this his mother didn't want him to take on the family business and Pushed him to become a doctor which he rightfully followed until his mother died when he turned 21 But in his younger days Roald Amundsen had read many great stories of young Explorers and one of his favorites which inspired him to become an explorer was Fritjof Nansen who trekked across Greenland in 1888 so obviously when he read about this this changed his destiny forever and he said no, this is what I want to do I want to explore the world and by 1897 He had become the first mate on a ship on his first expedition known as the Belgian Antarctic expedition and for Roald Amundsen this gained him the experience to get to the South Pole as the ship of the Expedition the RV belgica Ended up getting stuck in the ice and this forced the crew to be the first people to ever spend a winter in the Antarctic So not only does he have the record of being the first person to ever go to the South Pole But he also has the record of being one of the crew mates that spent a winter in the Antarctic. That's crazy Now for them this was tough because they had no supplies They had to hunt seals and penguins while not having enough winter clothing for everyone on board and for them They didn't return to Port Antwerp until November 5th of 1899 after it had originally left the port on August 5th 1897 and to stay alive Amundsen had learned from the doctor of the expedition that fresh meat from the animals Provided enough vitamin C to keep away scurvy now no shortly after this one Did he finally get his own first expedition in which he was in command of and that was to the Northwest Passage of Canada? During this time he spent two winters on King William Island in which he had learned skills from the Netsilik Inuit people of Canada on How to survive more in Arctic climates it was during this expedition He had learned that sled dogs were great at carrying equipment And he also learned that animal skins make better wool parkas especially considering they don't get super cold when wet now one thing that made this expedition also very important is that he had learned that Norway had become its own independent country and Technically if you want to think about it You could say that this was the first actual expedition of the free independent country known as Norway pretty cool Huh now by 1909 Amundsen had plans to go to the North Pole and reach it first However, that was changed when the Americans had announced that they in fact reached it and by June 3rd 1910 He had changed his direction and left Oslo heading for the South Pole and to keep in the spirit of his Inspirations his expedition was carried by a ship called the Fram meaning forward which was the ship his idol Fridtjof Nansen had used Before now one thing to keep in mind This was during a age known as the heroic age of Antarctic exploration Which meant that he had a lot of competitors actually trying to get to the South Pole first other countries that tried to accomplish This were France the United States Scotland the Japanese the Germans Belgium England and Australia and even Norway's brother the Swedes were exploring this region But for a month's and by January 14th of 1911 He had reached a place called the Bay of Wales Which is located in the Great Ice Barrier region and had set up a camp which he called Franheim now for a month's and this was the time that he got to use a lot of his knowledge and skills that he had Gained from other expeditions. He had used dog sleds He'd also changed his attire to animal skins and during this time He had also set supply crates around for when they wanted to explore the region But by September 8th, he and three other men had made a major attempt for the pole but unfortunately didn't succeed due to extreme weather but it wasn't until October 19th that him and five other companions and 52 dogs made the attempt along an unknown region known as the Axel Heiberg glacier and from there They had only a four-day climb until they finally reached the South Pole on December 14th 1911 with only 16 dogs left and as for a mutts and him and his group made it to the South Pole Approximately 33 days before the team from Scotland had discovered it and it was at that moment He had named the camp pole high meaning home of the pole and him and his team had left only a letter behind In case of their deaths, but for them, fortunately, they made it back breaking the news to the world on March 7th 1912 making him the first man to ever reach the South Pole and from there on he continued many other Expeditions to the Northwest Passage and the North Pole. However, his death has been surrounded by mystery as on June 18th 1928 him and three teammates and two pilots went missing in the Arctic looking for survivors of a crashed airship called the Italia and to This day there has been no discovery of the missing craft either crashed or intact And it is believed that roll the mutts and simply returned to exploring the ice in which in his head was home So thanks for watching guys My name is Dave Walpole And I hope you guys loved learning about one of the greatest explorers around the world If you guys love learning about different things and all that jazz you want to hit that subscribe button Also, be sure to let us know other people who you want us to talk about other cultures and countries because that's what we do here Put it down in the description box below. But in that I will see you guys in the next video. Cool. Bye. Bye All right, so if you guys like learning about that you might want to take a look at learning more about other countries Well, first of all, we've done a couple of videos on Norway. You should check those out as well People seem to like them. I don't know why I guess we do good work, but in that guys We'll see in the next video check out our playlists and we'll see you in the next one. Bye. Bye