Although 1,000 copies of the 1507 Waldseeműller map were originally printed, only one original copy is known to exist and is housed as prized artifact in the United States Library of Congress. Treasured for being the first known map to label the "New World" as America, it more deserves to fame as a critical expansion of European cartography and their understanding of the world. It incorporates the recent explorations of Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages along the coast of South America. Waldseeműller’s 1507 was a disruptive innovation to prevailing European paradigm as it portrayed revolutionary ideas—demonstrating that the New World, labelled “America” in…show more content… What stands out the most is the accuracy of Africa's shape and features. The large lake and river systems of East Africa are present, and many important centers of trade commerce are displayed with intimate detail. This includes the Gold and Ivory coasts, Fernando Po, and the Cape of Good Hope (southern Africa). Second, Waldseeműller distinguishes the “Orientalis” Ocean from the “Occidentales” Ocean (the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans respectively) to which Europeans believed encompassed all land. This is important because that means the Western Hemisphere and its land mass is not an extension of Asia as some presumed; e.g. this belief informed Christopher Columbus’ naming of the indigenous people “Indians”, incorrectly suggesting he landed in the Indies (Indonesian archipelago). Finally, this map is a dramatic expansion of known land including the discoveries of the Carribean, coastal Brazil, the Spice Islands (Indonesian archipelago), Cathay (China), and modern-day Alaska. The inclusion of Alaskan land as separated from northeastern Asia again underlines the distinct “two lands, two oceans” concept introduced by the…show more content… Potentially the most glaring misrepresentation is that of North and South America. As portrayed by Waldseeműller, it seems only coastal explorations of the Americas are mapped—possibly as far north as the Chesapeake to as far south as the Río de la Plata region of South America. A lack of significant inland exploration has left much of the New World unmapped. Additionally, there seems to be a couple of puzzling distortions. First, the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) is awkwardly squared off with the Iberian Peninsula and extending into the Atlantic Ocean. Even though Europeans knew of this land as far back as the time of ancient Greek merchants and Roman legionnaires, it appears that the land was still poorly mapped. Second, the area extending from Persia (Iran) to what is labeled as “India” (what appears to be Southeast Asia) is very flawed in its portrayal. Moving west to east, Persia appears to be relatively accurate. However, that land extends well past what would be modern India. There is no Indian subcontinent, or large peninsular extension, south into the ocean. It can be argued that Ptolemy (depicted to the left of Vespucci) and his second century world map more accurately portrays India—albeit as a large island. What is labeled as "India" on the Waldseeműller map, however, appears more recognizable as Southeast Asia, sitting north of the
