New World

The Western Hemisphere. The term was first used by the Italian historian Peter Martyr (1457-1526), whose De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe (1516) chronicled the discovery of America.

North and South America regarded collectively in relation to Europe, Asia, and Africa, especially after the early voyages of European explorers.

A name for the Americas, especially during the time of first exploration and colonization of the Americas by Europeans. (Compare Old World.)

Quotes:

"If you are prepared to accept the consequences of your dreams then you must still regard America today with the same naive enthusiasm as the generations that discovered the New World." - Jean Baudrillard

"The pious ones of Plymouth who, reaching the Rock, first fell upon their own knees and then upon the aborigines." - William M. Evarts

"I am not belittling the brave pioneer men but the sunbonnet as well as the sombrero has helped to settle this glorious land of ours." - Edna Ferber

"The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Then hail! thou noble conqueror! That, when tyranny oppressed, hewed for our fathers from the wild. A land wherein to rest." - Mary Elizabeth Hewitt

"Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America." - James Joyce

See more famous quotes about New World

For other uses, see New World (disambiguation).

The New World (green) as distinguished from the Old World (grey).

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia.^{[citation needed]} When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively, the Old World). The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern world"; the latter generally refers to a historical period, not a landmass.

Origin

In 1492, Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage to the Americas, stopping first in Portugal and then traveling to Spain. On 1 November that year Peter Martyr d'Anghiera referred to Columbus in a letter as the discoverer of "the New World" (novi orbis).^[1] In a subsequent letter a year later he again referred to "the New World" (orbo novo).^[2] In 1516, Martyr published a work whose title began De orbe novo ("On the New World).

In 1524, the term was also used by Giovanni da Verrazzano in a record of his voyage that year along the coast of what would later become the United States and Canada.^[3]

Currently, one might speak of the "New World" in a historical context when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, and other events contemporaneous to the term; additionally, the term "New World" is sometimes used in a biological context, when one speaks of Old World (Palearctic, Afrotropic) and New World species (Nearctic, Neotropic).

While the term "New World" always encompasses the Americas, the islands of Oceania may only be described as "New" in certain contexts. In a biological context, these islands are neither New World nor Old, as flora and fauna differ markedly from those of Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Models of migration to the New World
• Columbian Exchange
• Colonialism
• Columbus's Letter on the First Voyage
• Western Hemisphere
• Eastern Hemisphere
• Imperialism
• Colonization of the Americas
• Americas

References

1. ^ O'Gorman, Edmundo (1961). The Invention of America, p. 84.
2. ^ Zerubavel, Eviatar (2003). Terra Cognita: The Mental Discovery of America, p. 72. Citing: Thachohn B. (1903). Christopher Columbus, vol. 1, p. 62.
3. ^ Verrazzano, Giovanni da (1524). "The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazzano as recorded in a letter to Francis I, King of France, July 8th, 1524". Citing: Wroth, Lawrence C., ed. (1970). The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528. Yale, pp. 133-143. Citing: a translation by Susan Tarrow of the Cellere Codex.

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