As the U.S. Library of Congress readies the first map to use the name “America” for its public debut, some researchers are wondering where in the world the mapmaker got his information. The world map, created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507, is the first document to show a separate Western Hemisphere and label the Pacific Ocean as its own body of water. But some scholars are confused as to how the mapmaker knew the Pacific Ocean existed years before explorers found it, and how he depicted South America so accurately. “From the writings of Vespucci you couldn’t have prepared [this] map,” John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division at the library, told Reuters. The German scholar did mistakenly name the new lands America after Vespucci’s first name, thinking he—not Columbus—had discovered them, according to the library. Waldseemüller later had misgivings about the error, the Library of Congress’s Hebert told the Reuters news service. The map was rediscovered in 1901 after spending 400 years lost in the library of a German castle.
So we could have been the United States of Columbus?
Is that map to-scale?
Columbus had a huge boat, man.
Because Waldseemüller went for Vespucci’s first name, not his last, the US would have derived from Christopher Columbus’s first name too. Maybe something like the “United States of Christoca” or maybe the easier “United States of Christ.” You ok with that?
RBG
“I’m proud to be a Columbian, where at least I know I’m free….God Bless the U.S.C”
But some scholars are confused as to how the mapmaker knew the Pacific Ocean existed years before explorers found it, and how he depicted South America so accurately. “From the writings of Vespucci you couldn’t have prepared [this] map”
Martin Waldseemüller was obviously part of the Illuminati. How else would he know?
#3. RGB I thought it was Cristobol Columbo. So the United States of Crystal Balls.
The data came from the Chinese, who sailed to North and South America in 1421. A Franciscan monk sailed with them and brought the information back to Europe. The Europeans knew a continent was there before they left on their voyages of discovery. See “1421, The Year China Discovered America” by Gavin Menzies.
#6, McCullough,
I like that. We have balls. Think of the advertising. Think of the slogans. Think of the children. OK, maybe we better forget the balls.
Maybe with all the meth around, the United States of Crystal would sound so much better.
#7 Don:
Uhh, NO ONE believes that guy- he is… whats the word i am looking for…. a crackpot?
do you (a) think NASA faked the moon landing, (b) think Bush ordered the 9/11 attacks, or (c) think Santo Trafficante ordered the hit on JFK?
in reality, by 1421 chinese naval exploration was already in decline and would soon shrink to almost nothing.
The Vikings were sailing to the New World long before the noble savages were crossing some land bridge the Bering Straits. The Vikings discovered America.
That’s a 500-year-old map, and here’s the map as it’s taught to Americans today on Fox News.
Its nice to see they finally declassified it.
I guess I’m not sure why they are surprised. On Columbus’ fourth voyage the Indians in Panama told him that there was another ocean on the other side of Panama that was only accessible overland. Columbus returned to Spain in late 1504 so news of other ocean would have had plenty of time to get to Germany by 1507.
#7, Don,
You should meet our resident crackpots, Philleep, MikeN, Todd, Pmitchell, and gq. They make stuff up too.
But this map has NOTHING on the Piri Reis map of 1513 showing the coastline of Antarctica – which was under ice (ie – before global warming! )
Al
Looks like he got the proportions wrong (witness the Florida peninsula). But…how do we know this map is not accurate? We’ve all seen satellite images and maps but how can we know for sure?
Saw this story the other day, and to me it proves nothing more than the winners write history.
Plenty was known about the new world before Columbus, but for his reason he get’s the credit. How can this be applied to the modern world?
We did name our capital Columbia…
>>We’ve all seen satellite images and maps
>>but how can we know for sure?
The same way we know everything. Somebody else, somebody “smart”, tell us so.