Henricus Martellus Germanus, World Map (c. 1491)

Henricus Martellus, a German cartographer, produced this highly detailed map of the known world around 1491. He likely used information from a combination of sources that included Ptolemy's Geography, The Travels of Marco Polo, and, notably, maps made by native African cartographers. There is strong evidence the map influenced Columbus's thinking before his fateful voyage to the Americas, and that it was used by mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller when he created the first world map to include "America." As Europeans at this time had little firsthand knowledge of the geography of East Asia, the region has several distortions. and the north-south orientation of Japan, though correct, was probably little more than a guess. Australia and Africa, especially the southernmost part of the continent, also suffer from heavy distortions. In an attempt to fill “empty spaces” on the map, the Pacific Ocean is dotted with islands we know today did not exist. Most notably missing are the continents of North and South America. Since they were not featured on this map, Columbus believed he had landed on the shore of Japan when he reached the West Indies. This map also shows that at the time of Columbus’ voyage, Europeans did not believe the world was flat and understood that sailing west could land them in East Asia.