Surprisingly accurate map from 1567

    by Legitimate-Lie-9208

    14 Comments

    1. So for anyone interested, here’s what was going on at the time:

      * Magellan (Portuguese, sailing for Spain) had circumnavigated the world (1519-1522).
      * Spain had conquered Mexico (1519-1521).
      * Spain had conquered most of the Inca Empire (1532-1572).
      * Spain had [explored the West Coast of the Americas](https://www.nps.gov/cabr/learn/historyculture/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo.htm), at least as far as California, possibly as far as Oregon.
      * Spain had just begun conquering the Philippines, and the [Manila galleons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_galleon), Spanish trading ships that exchanged Peruvian silver for Asian goods, for resale in Europe, had already begun sailing a couple years ago in 1565.
      * Ali Macar Reis map (1567).

      So “surprisingly accurate” doesn’t mean “esoteric knowledge”, it just means “Ali Macar Reis was well-informed of Spanish imperial and naval advancements”.

    2. Has Río de la Plata, but doesn’t have the Chesapeake Bay. And a made-up lake in east Mexico.

    3. Consistent_Bread_V2 on

      Interesting postulations like Greenland being connected to North America, and of course Terra Australis

      The drake passage area of Antarctica and South America is surprisingly close.

      Since greek times until this era they assumed the south had to have equal land to the north, so they assumed Antarctica and Australia were one giant continent with the same humid, temperate, and freezing zones the northern hemisphere had

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