Right, so in his voyages, Cook also determined that there was no such thing as the mythical continent of Terra Australis, said to exist here, and he helped to dispel the idea of a Northwest Passage, which Europeans had been obsessed with for centuries. He was the first European to describe Hawaii, and also the first to keep his ship's crews free of scurvy. Cook and his successors were part of the middle wave of European colonization, the one that took place after Europeans settled in the Americas, but before they set their sights on Africa. One more thing to mention about the context of these voyages, or rather their impact. Besides huge territorial gains and increased wealth, exploration of the Pacific contributed to Europe's romantic fascination with science. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans became obsessed with mapping and charting and classifying the world, which maybe isn't like candlelight dinner romantic, but if you think about visiting never-before-seen lands and bringing back odd life forms, well, I mean, think about how we feel about space. And then, of course, as they colonized people, Europeans portrayed themselves as a civilizing force bringing both science and religion.