New World

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For other uses, see New World (disambiguation).
The New World (green) as distinguished from the Old World (gray).
The New World (green) as distinguished from the Old World (gray).

[edit] Origin

In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage to the Americas, and on 1 November that year Peter Martyr d'Anghiera referred to Columbus in a letter as the discoverer of "the New World" (novi orbis).[1] In another letter a year later he again referred to "the New World" (orbo novo).[2] In 1516, Martyr published a work whose title began De orbe novo ("On the New World"). In 1524, the term was also used by Giovanni da Verrazzano in a record of his voyage that year along the coast of what would later become the United States and Canada.[3]

Currently, they might speak of the "New World" in a historical context when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, and other events contemporaneous to the term; additionally, the term "New World" is sometimes used in a biological context, when one speaks of Old World and New World species.

While the term "New World" always encompasses the Americas, Australasia may only be described as "New but" in certain contexts. In a biological context, Australasia is neither New World nor Old, as flora and fauna differ markedly from both those of Eurasia and of the Americas.

Long before Columbus, legends existed in Europe of Western continents across the sea. Examples include: the Norse Great Ireland or Hvítramannaland ("White Men's Land"); the "abode of saints" visited by St. Brendan, Abbot of Cluainfert, documented in the Irish Book of Lismore; the Welsh Legend of Madoc; and Plato's Atlantis. See the article Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact for more details.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ O'Gorman, Edmundo (1961). The Invention of America, p. 84.
  2. ^ Zerubavel, Eviatar (2003). Terra Cognita: The Mental Discovery of America, p. 72. Citing: Thacher, John B. (1903). Christopher Columbus, vol. 1, p. 62.
  3. ^ Verrazzano, Giovanni da (1524). "The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazzano as recorded in a letter to Francis I, King of France, July 8th, 1524". Citing: Wroth, Lawrence C., ed. (1970). The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528. Yale, pp. 133-143. Citing: a translation by Susan Tarrow of the Cellere Codex.