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The term "New World" is a predominantly archaic term, excepting some specific uses described below, that references the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas.[1][2][3] The term is an expression of Eurocentrism and is one of several terms utilized to categorize and classify peoples and nations that many view as having origins in colonialism and, by extension, racism.[4] The term gained prominence in the early 16th century during Europe's Age of Discovery, after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci published the Latin-language pamphlet Mundus Novus, presenting his conclusion that these lands, soon called America based on Amerigo's name, constitute a new continent.[5]
This realization expanded the geographical horizon of earlier European geographers, who had thought that the world only included Afro-Eurasian lands. Africa, Asia and Europe became collectively called the "Old World" of the Eastern Hemisphere, while the Americas were then referred to as "the fourth part of the world", or the "New World".[6]
Australia and Antarctica are considered neither Old World nor New World lands, since they were only colonized by Europeans much later. They were associated instead with the Terra Australis that had been posited as a hypothetical southern continent.
- ^ Khan, T.; Abimbola, S.; Kyobutungi, C.; Pai, M. (2022). "How we classify countries and people—and why it matters". BMJ Glob Health. 7 (6): e009704. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009704. PMC 9185389. PMID 35672117.
- ^ "Old World". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ "America." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of Americus, the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name America first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16th century, the term "New World" has been used to describe the Western Hemisphere, often referred to as the Americas. Since the 18th century, it has come to represent the United States, which was initially colonial British America until it established independence following the American Revolutionary War. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..."
- ^ Adame, Fernanda (2023). "Dear scientists: stop calling America the 'New World'". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00992-4. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Mundus Novus: Letter to Lorenzo Pietro Di Medici, by Amerigo Vespucci; translation by George Tyler Northrup, Princeton University Press; 1916.
- ^ M.H.Davidson (1997) Columbus Then and Now, a life re-examined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 417)