Answer:
Cook's discoveries expanded the possessions of England and its colonial trade, and also had great scientific significance. The main purpose of the expedition - the discovery of the Northwest Passage - was not achieved. Hawaiian Islands, Christmas Island, and some other islands were discovered. In 1888, Christmas Island was annexed by Britain.
Explanation:
However, in its significance, the third expedition was inferior to the two previous ones. However, this is not because its main goal was not realized – to find Northwest Passage (this passage was found as a result of the work of numerous expeditions many years after the death of Cook). The main fields of activity of the third expedition were the seas already ‘mastered’ by Russian sailors and industrialists, and, therefore, the discoveries made in the North Pacific by Cook were inferior in scale to the discoveries of the first and second trips, as a result of which the east coast of Australia was laid on world maps and mythical southern mainland was erased from them. The most significant contribution of the third expedition to geographical science was the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands, which in many respects determined the further development of Northern Oceania. In addition, Cook specified the contours of the southern coast of Alaska, discovered by Bering and Chirikov, and on the western shores of this huge peninsula, he opened the Gulf of Bristol and Norton Bay. The guesses of the Russian navigators and cartographers about the likely shape of the eastern shores of the Bering Sea were fully confirmed, and it turned out that from the extreme northwestern tip of America discovered by I. Fedorov and M. Gvozdev to the tip of the saber-shaped peninsula of Alaska, the coast stretches continuously. The ships of the third expedition twice passed through the Bering Strait, and Cook in August 1778 marked the beginning of discoveries on the northern coast of Alaska.
