The new World

The new World. The New World called America (1596) by Theodore of Bry. First landing of Christopher Columbus in America 1492. (National Exhibition, Medal of First Class) by Dióscoro Puebla. The New World is one of the historical names with which the American continent has been denominated since the late fifteenth century as a result of the discovery of America in 1492 by the Spanish. The new adjective is used to distinguish it from the "Old World", that is, the continents already known to Europeans: Europe, Asia and Africa. For that reason the use of an unpublished term was justified to designate the newly discovered and found continent. In principle, Christopher Columbus, believed that he had reached the Asian continent, called Indias by Marco Polo. This confusion caused the Europeans to call the newly discovered islands the West Indies, in opposition to the already known Indies, which since then began to be called the East Indies. For that same mistake the Native Americans were called Indians. However, already on his third trip (1498-1500) Columbus himself warned that it was a new territory, unknown until then. In this way, since 1507 the cartographies began to show America as a new continent based on the works of Americo Vespucio, Juan de la Cosa and Martín Waldseemüller. This designation should not be interpreted as synonymous with the modern world or the contemporary world, since these last two concepts usually refer to specific historical periods, and not to a specific mass of land or continent. For the later discovery of Oceania the term new world is used.