Mapping An Atlantic World, Circa 1500 Av Alida C. (Harris Masterson Jr Professor Of History Rice University) Metcalf

<p><b>How did intricately detailed sixteenth-century maps reveal the start of the Atlantic World?</b></p><p>Beginning around 1500, in the decades following Columbus''s voyages, the Atlantic Ocean moved from the periphery to the center on European world maps. This brief but highly significant moment in early modern European history marks not only a paradigm shift in how the world was mapped but also the opening of what historians call the Atlantic World. But how did sixteenth-century chartmakers and mapmakers begin to conceptualize¿and present to the public¿an interconnected Atlantic World that was open and navigable, in comparison to the mysterious ocean that had blocked off the Western hemisphere before Columbus''s exploration?</p><p>In <i>Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500</i>, Alida C. Metcalf argues that the earliest surviving maps from this era, which depict trade, colonization, evangelism, and the movement of peoples, reveal powerful and persuasive arguments about the possibil