The Cook Voyages were three British expeditions that James Cook led across the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779. Backed by the Royal Society and the Royal Navy, they mapped New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, and many Pacific islands with new accuracy, observed the 1769 transit of Venus, and disproved the idea of a habitable southern continent. They also opened the Pacific to European settlers, missionaries, traders, and the diseases that followed, making the voyages both a landmark of science and the leading edge of European empire in the Pacific.
The Royal Society sent James Cook to the far side of the world to watch a planet cross the face of the sun. The Admiralty sent him with a second set of orders, sealed in an envelope he could open only once he was at sea. The public mission was science: measure the transit of Venus from Tahiti in 1769 and help fix the size of the solar system. The other mission was power: find the rumored southern continent, chart whatever he found, and claim useful land for the Crown. Both sets of orders sailed in the same hull.