The Map That Named America

In 1507, a single map quietly exposed a secret Europe was trying to control the existence

of a new continent. It was created by Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer working in Saint-Dié,

in the Holy Roman Empire. His world map was the first to label the Americas with

a new name: “America.” At the time, Spain and Portugal claimed exclusive rights to newly

discovered lands under the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494. Geographic knowledge

was power and it was tightly guarded. Maps revealing new coastlines were often treated as

state secrets. Waldseemüller used reports from Amerigo Vespucci, who argued these

lands were not Asia, but an entirely new continent. Printing this idea was radical.