South America and History

Map of New World

They say that the winners of wars write history books. When it comes to maps of the world prior to the full discovery and conquering of the world, it could be said that the desired winner of the war and/or conquest of the world write the maps. Indeed, the maps of that day are somewhat, if not wildly, inaccurate. They indeed reflect the desires and presumptions that the mapmakers of those days made. While there were clear and obvious inaccuracies, the mistakes and projections made are very telling and can teach a number of lessons about that day and the people that existed within the same.

In looking at the requested source material as well as a few other sources, it becomes clear that some assumptions were made that were clearly wrong and/or they were extremely well-assuming. Indeed, the travel of Columbus proves that. Where he was planning on going and where he ended up was entirely different. Balboa and his discovery of Panama in 1513 went much the same way. With all of that, what was presumed even when some important things were found and known were rather intriguing. For example, Columbus was ostensibly on his way to India by going around to the back side of Europe and Asia. Obviously, the America's were in between and that was not known until Columbus stumbled on the Caribbean in 1492. However, things were not "cleared up" all that much with the discovery of Panama (and the Pacific Ocean later on) as proven by the calling of the Panama area the Isle of Tyger, despite the fact that no tigers exist in that area (Smithsonian).

Another interesting thing that the author of this report would focus on is the fact that the people of the day of Columbus did not actually think the world was flat. Of course, there were surely some that did even after the work of Pythagoras and others. Even so, the words about Columbus mentioned above prove that Columbus believed that the Earth was a sphere. He set out to go to India/Asia as proof of this by going west, not east (Today I Found It). Perhaps one of the biggest things that happened with maps and such in that day of European (and other) travel and conquest was the work of Vespucci. Indeed, he is the man that put the name "America" to what is now known as North America and South America (History).

Conclusion