Abel Tasman

1603 – 1659

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer in the service of the Dutch East India Company whose 1642 and 1644 voyages were the first European contact with Tasmania—originally named Van Diemen's Land for his patron and now bearing his own name—as well as with New Zealand and the Fijian and Tongan island groups. His landfalls established Dutch and later British navigational priority for the territories his employer would soon attempt to dominate, beginning more than three centuries of European colonization across the southern Pacific. The Indigenous Tasmanians he encountered were nearly extinguished by British colonization within two centuries of his voyages.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM