Visual Source: Juan de la Cosa, Mappa mundi (1500)

European Exploration, Perception of the Other, and the Columbian Exchange

What factors contributed to the European interest in exploration?

This world map was the first to include the Americas and used information from Cabot’s journeys to Newfoundland, da Gama’s travels to India, William Weston’s travels on the coast of New England, and Pedro Cabral’s discovery of Brazil. However, none of de la Cosa’s sources had reached Southeast Asia and therefore his map is formless there.

. What parts of the map are not drawn in and why is that?

Antarctica is missing because the mapmaker was only showing lands that had wealth and resources.

Southeast Asia is missing on the map because explorers have not charted this territory yet.

Australia is missing because this map is only interested in the Northern hemisphere

. Why are the American continents shaped like they are and placed on the edge of the map without western borders?

They only know the coastline shapes, not how far the land extends.

The Americas were still considered less important to study than Europe so they are put to the side.

The assumption was the Americas stretched around the world to become part of Asia so there were no western borders.

. What does this indicate about how Europe understood the new world's borders in 1500?

Europe didn't care to understand much about the rest of the world's borders.

Exploration of lands overseas was often limited to the edges of the continents and knowledge of borders was only available for places explorers had mapped.

The new world's borders were of interest only to those who planned to invade and conquer those areas so they only needed to see the coastline and the ports, not the interior.

Visual Source: Juan de la Cosa, Mappa mundi (1500)

Quiz Content