April 25
WE’RE ON THE MAP DAY
When you are taking a trip and following a map, you take the word of the cartographer that the map names are accurate. Things were pretty much the same on this day in 1507. That’s when mapmaker and geographer Martin Waldseemuller of Germany explained why the world map he was making would show the new world as ‘Amerige’ (the land of Amerigo).
In his book, Cosmographiae Introductio, he wrote, “Inasmuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige, i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability.”
And so, Waldseemuller printed one thousand maps with Amerige printed on the part of the world we now call South America. He was obviously talking about the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci; not learning of Columbus’ discovery until several years later (news traveled quite slowly in those days); and he, obviously, never had any discussions with the Incas. They might have had a few different suggestions as to what to call the land where they lived.
However, it wasn’t long before ‘America’ was applied to both the North and South American continents ... and, as you may have noted, America is still a part of our maps and our geography lessons. Because the name, America, stuck, some refer to Waldseemuller as the godfather of America.
That’s all there is to it. Make a map, proclaim your little corner of the world as Podunck Gulch or whatever, print ’em up, distribute them and you’ll leave your mark on history. Here we are over four hundred years later still trying to understand why America is called America by the entire world, and the only explanation is that it was on the map and still is.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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