2010-05-03

Who Named America?

According to this  link a German cartographer/geographer named Martin Waldseemuller:

And who wrote Vespucci's Christian name on the maps? The King of Spain? Our founding fathers? Vespucci himself? No -- it was none of these. We were given our name by an obscure German clergyman and amateur geographer named Waldseemuller. Waldseemuller was a member of a little literary club that published an introduction to cosmology in 1507. In it he wrote of the new land mass that Vespucci had explored:



"I see no reason why anyone should justly object to calling this part ... America, after Amerigo [Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of great ability."

Waldseemuller changed the name on a different map in 1507 but by that time the pressed had been printed and released so to speak.

9 comments:

  1. At any rate, America had long since been discovered by those we today call the First Nations and by Basque, Breton and Portuguese fishermen who had been wise enough to shut up about it, not to mention the Viking Icelanders.

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  2. Aside from the Vikings, who we still have little information on, I will request citations for the Basques, Bretons and Portuguese.

    I think you're mixing your dates. The earliest Portuguese explorers came to Labrador (named after Portuguese explorer Lavrador) in 1498 and after Vespucci and Columbus were the first EUROPEANS (and history books are clear on this) to hit the continent in the age of exploration. The Vikings did not leave any records behind nor did they have any permanent settlements.

    The early Europeans like Caboto and Vespucci did map and establish trade routes.

    True, they didn't "discover" anything but it did change the course of human history.

    One would think a cartologist like Waldseemuller would have noticed if Vespucci was first or not given how close he was a contemporary.

    As for other Pre-Columbian explorers, as I mentioned, the Norse case is already weak and the Basque even more so and never really has been proven. I would ask for citations if you have any.

    At this point, we may as well talk about how Atlantis (where the Basques likely lived) connected to Canada. Nice theory but we need more.

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  3. Such debates remind me of origins of sports. The "Abner Doubleday" myth as the inventor of baseball. Its relations to "rounders." Soccer has been played in different variations in different countries for centuries including in China, Italy and South America but England is the acknowledged inventor of the game for codifying the laws.

    Same with "claiming" continents I suppose.

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  4. National Geographic magazine has mentioned these early possible explorers. Lately archaelogical digs in Newfoundland, in the Northern end near labarador have unearthened what looks ilke remnants of Viking type settlemnt. Here I would refer you to «A History of the Vikings» by Gwyn Jones,Oxford University Press,, New York,first published in 1968 and redited in 1994 and printed in Great Britain.
    As for the basque and others, it is a matter of folklore but those early explorers had, with them, guides who had been on these shores before so they were not sailing in total ignorance of theior destinations.
    Maps outlining a Terra Incognita existed a early as 1400.

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  5. Which all still doesn't dismiss Vespucci.

    Yes, I'm well acquainted with the Norse angle which certainly has more teeth in it.

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  6. Anonymous5/04/2010

    The Viking certainly did leave behind records. The Vine-land Sagas are in print and available in translation from Penguin.

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  8. The Norse settlements - albeit seemingly temporary - are part of Unesco heritage sites. I misspoke about the "written" records when I meant "settlements." Even the records are sparse though. But I believe they're sufficient to prove permanent colonies in Greenland and visiting what is now Newfoundland.

    I don't think that they arrived here is in much dispute. It's just that we're still piecing it together.

    Here's an interesting play on word:

    Eric the Red. Eric forms the middle part in "AmERICa."

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  9. By the way, for what it's worth, I had to do a presentation on the Vikings visiting the continent in junior high. Don't remember the details though. Records and memory are, erm, sparse.

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