New World
The New World is one of the names used for the
Americas. When the term originated in the late
15th century, the Americas were new to the
Europeans, who previously thought of the
world as consisting only of Europe,
Asia, and
Africa?the Old World. The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern world"; the latter generally refers to a historical period, not a landmass.
Christopher Columbus returned to Europe in 1493 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" .
Encyclopedia
The
New World is one of the names used for the
Americas. When the term originated in the late
15th century, the Americas were new to the
Europeans, who previously thought of the
world as consisting only of Europe,
Asia, and
Africa—the Old World. The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern world"; the latter generally refers to a historical period, not a landmass.
Christopher Columbus returned to Europe in 1493 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" . In another letter a year later he again referred to "the New World" . In 1516 Martyr published a work whose title began
De orbe novo .
The term was also used by
Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 in a record of his voyage that year along the coast of the
United States and
Canada.
One might speak of the "New World" in a historical context, when discussing the voyages of
Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, etc. Second, in a
biological context, one speaks of Old World and New World species.
Another interpretation of the term is that the "New World" is "new" in the context of all humanity; as humans have developed and lived in the Old World for a far greater length of time than the Americas have been inhabited; thus, it would be said the first migrants to colonise the Americans had reached the "New World".
While
America is always described as "New World",
Australasia can be described as either "Old World" or "New World" depending on the sphere of discourse, especially in the case of
New Zealand where the first human settlers arrived only a few generations before Columbus reached the Americas. 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. Wine from Australia and New Zealand is referred to as 'New World' as it has only in recent decades successfully penetrated European markets, overtaking French and Spanish wine in popularity .
Long before Columbus, in Europe, many legends existed of Western continents across the sea. It is thought these may have stemmed from prehistoric intercourse with the New World. Examples include the Norse Great Ireland or
Hvítramannaland ; the "abode of saints" visited by St. Brandan, Abbot of Cluainfert, documented in the Irish
Book of Lismore; the Welsh Legend of
Madoc; and of course Plato's
Atlantis.
See also
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References
