America Septentrionalis
1. What I first noticed in this map is that there are animals drawn on certain areas. These are drawn in where the Europeans believe one would encounter them. There seem to be lines drawn in for rivers, as well as mountains, where they believed them to be. On the far left, California is separated from the rest of the land. The writing is also in Latin, which makes it harder to read the map. In the upper left corner, the words mean Northern America. The people represented are what the Europeans believed the Native Americans to look like.
2. The map tells which animals one might encounter if he or she traveled across the land. The east coast area is more known because that is where the Europeans first settled, and then moved westward learning more. During this time, the west was a large unknown area. This map shows that they value the natural resources including animals and water. The animals are important to their survival.
3. Babb says, “A small band of settlers—male and female, gentry and yeomen, religious and secular—stand gathered holding guns and javelins, foregrounded against a large landmass dotted with men in scouts’ garb, deer, foxes, dogs, bears, and women and men in bearskins.” This relates to my map because there are a lot of wild animals thrown into the background of the map, placed around the country. Also, with the people in the upper left-hand corner, they are dressed as what she describes.
I think this is a good interpretation of the map that you chose. The animal part is interesting, espeically to see what they predicted to exist in the United States. It's just funny to think how much our world has developed since this time, and how much we know about our country and other countries now. I do believe that the way the colonists depicted the natives has been passed through generations and painted an image for us today.
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