15th century, a large-scale navigation movement appeared in Europe, setting off the " Geographic Discovery ". By 1497, the Portuguese navigator Dias arrived at the southernmost tip of Africa - Cape of Good Hope; in 1492, Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and began to explore and colonize the Americas; in 1497, Portugal sent to Gamma to bypass the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in India; in 1522, the fleet of Magellan achieved global navigation.
With the rise of the great navigation movement, more and more geographical information has been marked on the world map. Before the opening of the new route, the only world maps drawn by Europeans were Europe, North Africa and Asia, and the inland areas of Asia were indeed seriously lacking in information and the coastline was seriously distorted. Among them, the more representative ones are Ptolemy world map, Genoa world map, etc. By comparing these maps with the maps after the opening of new routes, we can understand how Europeans understand the world step by step.
Ptolemy World Map
1502, Portugal made the latest world map. This map was secretly taken to Italy by Alberto Candino, so the map was named Candino Plane Spherical Map. This map allows you to see the early world of the new route.
Candino plane spherical map
From the map, the Portuguese have clearly explored the African coast, and the outline of the entire African coast is almost the same as in reality. We combine history and around 1487, Diaz arrived at the southernmost tip of Africa; in 1497, Dagama arrived at India bypassing the Cape of Good Hope. In this process, Portugal has continuously established strongholds along the African coast to carry out colonial expansion. Wherever Portugal's fleet reaches, colonial expansion will also reach, and the map will be updated at the same time.
Candino plane spherical map of the African part
However, the East Asia region of this map is very distorted, basically only inheritance of the Middle World map. The Indochina Peninsula , China and other coastlines on the picture are completely inconsistent with the reality, while Japanese archipelago , Indonesian archipelago , Philippine archipelago, etc. do not appear on the map. It can be seen that the Portuguese fleet at that time had not yet reached the area east of Malacca.
Candino plane spherical map Asia map
Let’s look at the Americas. At that time, there were only a few corners in the easternmost direction, namely some peninsulas in North America and East Indies . These were the geographical knowledge brought by Columbus' multiple voyages to the Americas. In South America, the latest geographical discoveries of Portugal are drawn on maps. In 1500, Portugal sent Cabral to sail eastward. Unexpectedly, he encountered a storm in Gulf of Guinea, and as a result, he blew the fleet to Brazilian . Later, Brazil became a colony of Portugal.
American part of Candino plane spherical diagram
After that, Cabral regained his momentum and marched east again, but encountered a storm again, and he himself died in the storm. A small boat in the fleet was lucky to blow to an island in southeastern Africa. In this way, Portugal discovered Madagascar again. There is an island in the southeast of Africa on the map, but the outline is very distorted, which shows that this is the vague understanding brought about by the initial discovery of the island.
African continent and Madagascar
1507, German mapper Martin Waldezemiller drew a world map, which has begun to have the concept of the Western Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere. This map regards most of Asia, Europe and Africa as the Western Hemisphere, while East Asia and America as the Western Hemisphere. After all, many people at that time thought that America was not far from Asia. Compared with Candino's plane spherical map, the map has a larger range and is more accurate, such as the location of Japan, but they believe that Japan is closer to the Americas.
Waldeze Miller is also the first time using America to mark the New World. After Columbus discovered the New World , he always thought that he had arrived in India. In 1499, the Italian navigator, Americo, visited South America for an inspection, and he confirmed that this was a new continent, not India.Later, the new book "Cosmology" marked the New World as the Asiatico, and later changed it to "Ametico". The Chinese translation at that time was "Ametico". We can also see the two northern Asian Melica in " Kunyu Wanguo Quanma ".
1513, Admiral Pires, a geographer and admiral of Turkey , drew a navigation map of the Atlantic Ocean. As you can see from the map, the outlines on the east coast of South America are already very clear and accurate, but the coastline of North America is still very distorted. The map also inherits the concept of the medieval "Southern Continent", draws a supercontinent at the southernmost end of the map, and is connected to South America. At that time, many Europeans also believed that there were no straits in southern South America.
Atlantic map drawn by Pirerez
changes appeared in Magellan's global sailing . Since Magellan's sailing, Europeans finally confirmed that America is a separate continent. Then, the outlines of the two sides of the Americas began to appear on the map. In 1531, the world's first relatively complete world map appeared. The map also divides the earth into two hemispheres, one side is Asia, Europe and Africa, and the other side is South America and North America. shows that the outlines of North and South America are very distorted, which shows that my understanding of America was not yet deep.
In the mid-16th century, Europeans continued to explore the whole world, among which Portugal crossed the Malacca Strait , arrived on the coast of China, and occupied Macau, using it as a trade base in the Far East. Spain entered the Pacific from the Americas, established colonies in , Philippines , and carried out the "sailing" trade. At that time, Ming Dynasty was being troubled by pirates and Japanese pirates, and sea ban was strictly enforced. The adventures in the East made Europeans familiar with the Eastern coastline fly over.
1546, Italian geographer Giacomo Gestodi drew a world map, and the accuracy of this map is amazing. The South American outline in the picture is almost the same as what we draw today, and it is also clearly visible in Central American . Of course, in that era, the colonies had not yet been explored in depth on the North American continent (it was not realized until the rise of Britain and France), so the outline of North America was still blurred.
Giacomo world map
Giacomo map Central and South America region
In the eastern part, the contour lines of the Indochina Peninsula and Nanyang Islands and the Philippines Islands have also been drawn, and it is already very realistic. However, the depiction of China's coastline is still very abstract, basically staying at the level of the ancient medieval period. Indeed, Europe had just sailed to , Far East, , and it was definitely not familiar with China enough.
Giacomo map Asia
The map also draws the "Southern Continent", which is located in the southern part of South America, just across the Strait of Magellan from South America. Before Drake appeared, Europeans did not know that there was a large area of sea in southern South America.
1569, a world map of Mercator greatly promoted the drawing of the world map. The map was drawn using projection method, straightening the meridian and latitude lines, making the coordinate system on the map very accurate. But the problem is that the Antarctic region becomes particularly large, and the area of the equatorial region will be compressed, resulting in a serious imbalance in the size and proportion of the continents of the map. For example, North America in the picture seems to be several times larger than South America, and Europe seems to be similar to Africa.
Mercator World Map
From the map, this map is much better than Como Gestodi's world map. For example, the outlines of East Asia are basically clear, and the Japanese archipelago, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan Island, also appeared on the map. In northern Asia, several rivers flowing northward into Arctic Ocean are drawn. And Siberia The farthest east region can only be drawn by imagination. After all, navigators and explorers have never arrived here.
Far Eastern part of Mercator World Map
In North America, the outline of the east coast of North America has begun to become clear, especially the coastline at the mouth of the Great Lakes is very realistic, which shows that Europeans have begun to explore the North American continent in depth.
Mercator map America region
In the northern part of the Americas, there is a large island marked "Greenland ". Greenland was not clearly discovered by Britain until the 19th century, but early maps in Europe basically had Greenland marks. Why is this? Around 982, a Norwegian pirate known as "Red-Haired Eric" set out from Iceland and passed the south of the island and found some water grasslands here. After he returned home, he told his friends that he had discovered a green continent, so later Europeans were looking for this green continent, namely Greenland.
In the North and South Poles of the map, Mercator draws the Southern and Northern continents based on imagination. If we look at the later "Kunyu Wanguo Map" you will find that the outlines of the "Northern Continent" and "Southern Continent" on the map are basically the same. It can be seen that Matteo Ricci referenced Mercator's world map when drawing the world map, which also proves that Mercator's map has a great influence.
1570, the Dutch drew the "Map of the World Celestial Theater", which is considered to be the first real modern map atlas, marking the beginning of the golden age of Dutch mapping. The map abandons the Mercator projection method and bends the meridians into arcs, and the proportions of the north and south lands are corrected to a certain extent. Currently, most maps now use the mapping method of this map. After the map appears, it spreads immediately and is translated into multiple maps.
World Celestial Theater Map
Since 1570, the progress of the map seems to have slowed down. Indeed, after nearly 100 years of great maritime movement, the areas on the earth that are easily explored are basically explored, and now only the north and south poles and the inlands of North America and Asia are explored, and it is quite difficult to explore these areas. If we compare the "Kunyu Wanguo Map" in 1602 and "Mercator World Map" and we will find that the continental outlines of the two have basically not changed.
Oriental part of the World Celestial Theater Map
"The Complete Map of Kunyu Ten Thousand Nations" was drawn by Matteo Ricci, but this area is of great significance to the world and even to China. First of all, in order to cater to the Chinese people's concept of "in the world", the map placed America on the right side of the map, leaving China in the middle, which is the map model used by most East Asian countries now. Secondly, Matteo Ricci saw many ancient Chinese maps in China and supplemented his geographical knowledge in the East Asian continent. If we look closely at the "Kunyu Wanguo Map" and you will know that place names in most parts of the world are transliterated from foreign languages, only East Asia is the name of the ancient Chinese map.
Kunyu Wanguo Whole Country Picture (Colored Version)
In the following decades, the world map has undergone tremendous changes. First, it is the rise of Russia. Since the destruction of the Siberian Khanate in the 16th century, Russia has been advancing to the Far East. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, it had advanced to the Pacific coast, and since then it has continued to explore northern and eastern Siberia. Britain and France continue to compete for the North American continent and discover areas such as Hudson Bay, which further makes the outline of the east coast of North America clear. In the south, Dutch and British navigators have successively discovered Australia (Southern Continent).
The Chinese version of the world map of Kangxi's early Chinese version "Kunyu Quanma"
The outline of Australia has appeared
In a world map published in 1690, it can be seen that the "Northern Continent" envisioned in the past has disappeared, and replaced by Siberia and North American continents with relatively complete outlines. Since navigators have not yet explored the northwest of North America, the outline of this area is still in an imaginary state. In the south, Australia's outline has appeared.Interestingly, people at that time believed that the Southern Continent had been successfully explored, so the "Southern Continent" that occupied the Antarctic position in the past disappeared and did not reappear until the Antarctic continent was discovered.
1655 World Map
18th century World Map
In this great geographical discovery, China also contributed its own strength. During the Kangxi period, Emperor Kangxi organized personnel to import the most advanced surveying and mapping instruments and use the most advanced technology to accurately survey and map the country, which changed the "abstract" state of traditional Chinese maps. After that, Qianlong completed the survey and mapping of the Western Regions and finally produced the world-level "Unification of the Imperial Dynasty". The map for the first time displays important information such as Kugan Island , Mount Everest , Yarlung Zangbo River , Sanjiangyuan and other important information in the map, which is also an important geographical discovery. The region has improved knowledge about the inland East Asia, making the world map that has appeared since then more accurate.
Huangyu full view
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