|  When
Christopher Columbus, sailing for the king and queen of Spain in
the 1490s, explored what today is known as the West Indies, the
central American coast, and the northern coast of South America,
the existing European world view began to change in dramatic and
sometimes unpredictable ways. Other explorers followed including
Amerigo Vespucci, who identified these lands as a separate continent,
not as islands or peninsulas attached to eastern Asia. Utilizing
Vespucci's travel accounts, German geographer Martin Waldseemüller
depicted this new continent on a large world map in 1507, naming
it "America" in Vespucci's honor.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans explored,
mapped, and colonized what they now called "America." Although contradictory
images of North America appeared on European world maps, the outline
of the continent began to take shape.
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Recognizing and Naming a New Continent
Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map grew
out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, France, during
the first decade of the sixteenth century, to document and
update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries
of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth
centuries. Waldseemüller's large world map was the most
exciting product of that research effort, and included data
gathered during Amerigo Vespucci's voyages of 1501-1502 to
the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands
"America" in recognition of Vespucci's understanding that
a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages
of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century.
This is the only known surviving copy of the first printed
edition of the map, which, it is believed, consisted of 1,000
copies.
Waldseemüller's map supported Vespucci's
revolutionary concept by portraying the New World as a separate
continent, which until then was unknown to the Europeans.
It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly
a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as a separate
ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge,
recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever
changing the European understanding of a world divided into
only three parts--Europe, Asia, and Africa.
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Cartographic
Formation of The North American Continent
This presentation depicts the emerging European world view
of North America, which began to change upon the dissemination
of reports from the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Other
explorers sailed forth, including Amerigo Vespucci who identified
these lands as a separate continent. Utilizing Vespucci's
travel accounts, German geographer Martin Waldseemüller
depicted this new continent on a large world map in 1507,
naming it "America" in Vespucci's honor.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans
explored, mapped, and colonized what they now called "America."
Although contradictory images of North America appeared on
European world maps, the outline of the continent began to
take shape. |
Links in the captions below take you to
enlarged versions of the maps in the presentation. |
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