Geography Expands

The interest in geography around Europe had grown in the 1400’s. A influential person in the popularising of geography was Ptolemy who created an ordered way of connecting and displaying geographical information and topics. Another cause of the growth in interest of geography was the age of exploration was an incredibly important time for geography. A geographer or cartographer was always preset on the successful expeditions to Africa and India. With the discovery of America in 1492 a whole new continent was open to geographers and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

The age of exploration revived a need for more geographical detail based on more solid theories. Gerardus Mercator’s world map and the writings of Bernhardus Varenius are both excellent examples of this more accurate form of geography. Waldseemuller, a German cartographer, also created maps of the world called Globe Gores which was one of the first that could be glued into sphere.

A Globe Gore