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Thank you for your question.

Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, 1770. E. Phillips Fox.
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Today, we normally avoid using the word 鈥渄iscovered鈥� for a question like this. That鈥檚 because the word 鈥渄iscover鈥� implies finding something new. Normally when people arrive in a place that鈥檚 new to them, people are already living there. 鈥淒iscover鈥� is a misleading word to use there.听

For example, we might be told 鈥淐aptain Cook discovered New Zealand鈥�. But there were a lot of people already living there!

It also is tricky to decide how we want to count 鈥渃ountry鈥� 鈥� that鈥檚 because the labels we have for places normally aren鈥檛 the same as other people use. For example, when the Vikings arrived in the British Isles, they didn鈥檛 think of the place in the same way as the people who already lived there. To the people there, it was a country 鈥� in fact, to them, it was a big set of different countries. To the Vikings, it was just another place to land, explore, and conquer.听

If you want to know听who were the first people to explore places they didn鈥檛 already know about, I鈥檇 have to say the answer takes us back to the earliest moments in human history. Human鈥檚 evolved in northeast Africa. Very soon we migrated in all directions. And throughout our whole history, we鈥檝e wandered. Sometimes, we鈥檝e wandered with a purpose (for example, to find new resources). Sometimes, we鈥檝e wandered because we want to know what鈥檚 in that new place. I myself think migrating and wandering is an important part of what makes us human. Curiosity is something we humans have always been good at.

This is the best kind of question you can ask. It really makes me think. The fact that there is no simple answer makes it wonderfully good to consider. Thanks for asking it.听