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CCD History 201 section 400
Oh Brave New World that has such People In It.The Renaissance view of the universe had not changed much since Homer's time.
The boundaries had been expanded to the east to include India, China and Ceylon by the Hellenistic era.
But Ptolemy's AD 160 map of the world, preserved by the Arabs and the Byzantines still largely represented the knowledge of the world available to the Europeans. The Old World Orbis Terrarum At the end of the fifteenth century Europeans believed that the world consisted of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa —connected together and surrounded by ocean forming an Earth Island or Orbis Terrarum. The earth island was known to be the only land on the globe and it was surrounded, bounded, limited and defined by the ocean.
O-T maps (pronounced 'circle-Tee'), oriented to the East, showed three continents, surrounded by ocean, sometimes with Paradise at the easternmost edge. Beyond the Earth Island the seas were associated with death, chaos and mystery. The O-T maps showed the
essential symmetry of the universe. The O-T map was an emblem of conquest.
Jerusalem was the focus of that Conquest for more than two centuries of
Crusaders, and it would remain the center of attention on maps until the
invention of printing and the wide publication of Ptolemy's map in the 1470's.
1493 world map in On the borders of the map and on the periphery of the world are creatures described in travel fantasies such as the Travels of Sir John Mandeville (circa 1366)
Despite differences between what he saw and the descriptions of earlier travelers, Columbus knew that he could not have discovered a completely new world because European cosmology held that there was only one world. The idea of a ‘New World’ would imply that another world, in addition to the one god-created world, existed. That would also imply that new people, not descended from Adam and Eve existed. Either of these notions would have been heresy. To account for the discrepancies between expectation and observation Columbus suggested that he had discovered the lost paradise containing the Garden of Eden.
Neither Columbus nor Vespucci could discover a new world or even conceive of one. They could not discover what they could not conceive of as a possibility. For that, the European world view had to change. In 1507 the academy of
The world was still one, but there was a fourth part, not a continent but an island, surrounded by water. They named it America, a feminized form of Vespucci’s name, to correspond to the feminine names Europe and Asia. The history of the human race, the sons of Noah, had to be revised to account for the new discoveries. Although this new land was not connected to the old earth island, the people there, in order to be descendants of Adam and Eve, must be connected to the Old World. How did the inhabitants get on this new island? If you ask the natives they would have a different explanation - a different history of where they came from and how they got there. Why do we believe they are mistaken about their own origins and that we know better? The Columbian Exchange The aboriginal peoples sometimes greeted Europeans warmly, provided them with food, and taught them important new survival skills. In some cases, they perceived them as being divine, or at least spiritually powerful. Some used the newcomers as allies against old enemies. Others saw them as new enemies, to be grudgingly tolerated or strongly resisted. Native peoples were quickly disillusioned by treachery or mistreatment at European hands. The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples' lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses. Over 90 % died. What did the Europeans get from the New World? Columbian Exchange Inventing AmericaThe name America was given to the Western Hemisphere by European writers and mapmakers after Columbus's death. Nothing in their experiences had led the first explorers to realize that they had come into contact with a vast and unrecorded continent, many times the size of Europe. Previously there had been no accounts, or even rumors, of the "unknown" peoples of this "new" continent in European scholarly literature and discussion or in popular chronicles. Mediterranean explorers in search of the spices and riches of the Far East initially believed that they had reached Asia. In part due to this confusion, Europeans conjured up or "invented" images and tales to explain America that would conform to the descriptions of Marco Polo and others. In early allegorical images, "America" was sometimes portrayed as a noble, native woman submissively awaiting European arrival. Ferocious sea animals and exotic creatures filled early maps of the region. Regrettably, we still have incomplete knowledge of the world view and everyday life of the varied peoples of the Americas before European settlement.
Spain in AmericaThe Gutierrez map depicts what appears to be the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (Charles I of Spain), as the reborn Caesar in his chariot crossing the Atlantic to lay claim to America. Mediterranean explorers had broken open the "gates of Gilbraltar", considered by the ancient Romans to be the westermost limit of their empire. They revealed a "fourth continent" across the Atlantic and a whole new world of potential for the modern empire builders.
The map contains information available in 1554 at the Casa de Contratacion in Seville, which regulated travel to the Western Hemisphere. To Europeans, most of the interior of America was still terra incognita (unknown land). Diego Gutierrez filled it in with a mixture of real and highly fanciful images. The map highlights the course of the Amazon River and the location of the silver mines of Potosi. from expo 1492 Inventing America
It is not so important what the early map makers got right or what they got wrong. Most interesting is to see how they conceived of the New World. How they coped with the sudden expansion of a world view the geography of which had essentially not changed substantially in 2500 years and the conception of what humanity was, and was capable of, was just beginning to expand with the Renaissance. The New World was more one of infinite human possibilities. The discovery of America just added to a world that was already rapidly expanding with the new Humanism. Justifying the taking of the New WorldHow did the Europeans understand the other cultures that they unexpectedly encountered during their imperialistic expansion? Two views emerged. Columbus' first description of the people he met was that they were timid, smart, naked, not idolaters, and had no religion and were eager to receive the faith. Christopher
Columbus, Letter to Luis de Sant’ Angel (1493) However very quickly accounts came back from others that inhabitants of the 'New World' were wild, naked, ferocious, barbarians and cannibals so low on a scale of savagery they were worthy of nothing better than serving their Christian masters as slaves. Spanish Take Possession
French, Dutch, Swedish Colonies
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When
Columbus sailed west to search for a new way to Asia, he knew that the
lands he ‘discovered’ must be on the east coast of this earth island—there
was no other land. He called the people that he met Indios as a generic
term because he knew they lived east of the Indus River. 
