Map Analysis

In my map analysis I have chosen two that have mapped the world, but I will analyze America. One is from 1507 and the other is from 1581. Both of these maps are from the website below.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/dsxphome.html

1. Looking closely at the map from 1507, it is seen that America hasn't been completely discovered. So far it was the eastern coast of America that has been discovered. The later version from 1581 shows the entire Americas mapped out, but a little more bulgy than we now know. Both of the maps have areas where flags are drawn on them to indicate which their owner resides from. Another close observation is that the older map doesn't have much about the terrain of America. The later version of the map starts to exemplify boundaries of european settlements and where the seaports are present as well as the routes that most boats take to get to America. In addition, the later map starts to show the terrain of America by adding trees and mountains.

2. These maps have writing that resides from the French culture (from my studies of French). With this being said, this is the story of how the French came to America. They began to learn about America from the east coast and worked their way west and acquired land that they could claim. In addition, the later map shows the average ways that they would get to America through their routes across the sea. Some assumptions they made were that any land undiscovered was part of the ocean, and another assumption was that no river was connected on the early map. On the later dated map, the cartographer saw rivers as not important and didn't include them. Both of these maps promoted the value of discovery because the reason for the making of these maps was to map the world. My observations from question one relate directly because it shows that there has been progress in the discovery of America because more land has been mapped out and it's not mapped out as ocean.

3. The quote I chose to relate to these maps reads, "Maps in subsequent Smith works portray growing English imperialism." Both of these French maps show growing European imperialism, their thirst for discovery. Also, as stated in question one, parts of the land show flags as to which areas have been claimed. Both of these show growing imperialism in Europe, especially from the French.