Joseph Banks in the context of "African Association"

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences, the society has 16,000 members, with its work reaching the public through publications, research groups and lectures.

The RGS was founded in 1830 under the name Geographical Society of London as an institution to promote the 'advancement of geographical science'. It later absorbed the older African Association, which had been founded by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788, as well as the Raleigh Club and the Palestine Association. In 1995 it merged with the Institute of British Geographers, a body for academic geographers, to become officially the Royal Geographical Society with IBG.

On 3 June 1769, navigator Captain James Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks, astronomer Charles Green and naturalist Daniel Solander recorded the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti during Cook's first voyage around the world. During a transit, Venus appears as a small black disc travelling across the Sun. Transits of Venus occur in a pattern that repeats itself every 243 years, with two transits that are eight years apart, separated by breaks of 121.5 and 105.5 years. These men, along with a crew of scientists, were commissioned by the Royal Society of London for the primary purpose of viewing the transit of Venus. Not only would their findings help expand scientific knowledge, it would help with navigation by accurately calculating the observer's longitude. At this time, longitude was difficult to determine and not always precise. A "secret" mission that followed the transit included the exploration of the South Pacific to find the legendary Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown land of the South".

Banks Peninsula (Māori: Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū) is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately 1,200 square kilometres (450 sq mi). It includes two large deep-water harbours – Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa Harbour – and many smaller bays and coves. The South Island's largest city, Christchurch, is immediately north of the peninsula, which is administered by Christchurch City Council. The main settlements are Lyttelton and Akaroa. The peninsula's economy is based on fisheries, farming and tourism.

Māori were the first people to visit, and settle, the peninsula. The already sparse population was reduced further following massacres by raiding parties of North Island Māori in 1830 and 1832. In 1770, explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the peninsula, which he mistook for an island, naming it after his ship's botanist Joseph Banks. From the 1830s, European whalers set up shore-based stations in some of the bays and harbours. European interest in the permanent settlement of the area developed in the 1830s, and in 1840 a small French settlement was established in Akaroa Harbour, which lasted for around ten years. In the late 1840s, the Canterbury Association in England chose the central South Island as the site for a model English colony with Christchurch as its capital. Banks Peninsula was not part of the original land purchase for the colony, but Port Cooper (now known as Lyttelton Harbour) was to be its port and point of entry. The first 800 settlers arrived in December 1850.

Mai (c. 1751–1779), also known as Omai in Europe, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the first Pacific Islander to visit England, and the second to visit Europe, after Ahutoru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768.