Do you know the seven continents and where they’re located? How many individual, sovereign states do you know? The borders of these nations weren’t created alongside the sky and the Earth; many years of discovery, travel, warring, growth, culture, and discussion have led to the world we know today. Not only that, but cartography- the science or practice of map making- has contributed to the world in impossible ways; since the beginning of man, we have always been obsessed with knowledge regarding the surrounding land. While this project focuses on the cartography of America in specific, it also contains key elements that influence the international world as well. For example, the impact the discovery of America has on global trade- leading to modern-day capitalism. As Miles Harvey said, “A map has no vocabulary, no lexicon of precise meanings. It communicates in lines, hues, tones, coded symbols, and empty spaces...Nor does a map have its own voice. It is many-tongued, a chorus reciting centuries of accumulated knowledge in echoed chants. A map provides no answers. It only suggests where to look: Discover this, reexamine that, put one thing in relation to another, orient yourself, begin here…,” all this leading to the conclusion that maps, and mapmaking, are a central theme if humankind’s identity; existing to express desire, struggle, solidarity, and home.
But, to bring it back in, cartography was only one tenet of America’s discovery; due to Columbus stumbling upon America in his fateful 1492 voyage the global economy was forever changed. Spanish, French, English, and other nations’ powers shifted: think of Queen Elizabeth I defeating the Spanish Armada which led to England’s naval rise within the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, when the Protestant Reformation drove many from their homelands, those individuals turned to New Lands, where they struggled to live, as well as lashed out at Native Peoples. Yet, those early survivors prospered and grew, breaking away from outsourced political control and growing into something new. And, that ‘new’ is us- because Columbus set foot on the shores of Guanahani (San Salvador) I, and possibly you, can call America home.