The history of the name of each of the continents is very interesting. Why is Asia called Asia and Antarctica is called Antarctica? The origin of some names is connected with ancient myths - the merit of the ancient Greeks in the etymology of many words, including their own names, is very great. For example, Europe is a mythical heroine that appeared thanks to the boundless imagination of the ancient Greeks, who composed an incredible number of myths.

Why is Europe called Europe?

There are several versions. Here is one of the most common.

In the place where the state of Lebanon is now located, Phoenicia was located in ancient times. According to ancient Greek myths, the god Zeus fell in love with an insanely beautiful earthly woman named Europa. Historians suggest that the word "Europa" in Phoenician meant "sunset" (the word itself is most likely Assyrian).

Beauty Europa was the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. The Thunderer Zeus wished to make Europe his wife, but King Agenor would not allow this. Zeus had no choice but to kidnap the beauty.

Turning into a white bull, Zeus stole Europa and transported her to the island of Crete. Later, according to some myths, Europe became the wife of the Cretan king. That is why the inhabitants of Crete began to call their land Europe.

"The Abduction of Europe", V. Serov, 1910

In the 5th century BC, the name Europe spread to all of Greece. Gradually, gaining new knowledge about the world around us and traveling more and more, ancient people pushed back the borders of Europe. And only in the middle of the 18th century were the final borders of Europe established, which are also marked on modern geographical maps.

Perhaps that is exactly what happened, and Europe was called Europe in honor of the heroine of ancient Greek myths. In any case, this is a very interesting and curious version.

Why is Asia called Asia?

The name "Asia" in relation to the continent also appeared thanks to the ancient Greeks and their myths. However, the word "asia" itself is Assyrian, translated as "sunrise". Now it is clear why the largest part of the world was called Asia, because it is there that the sun rises.

The word "Asia" among the Assyrians was just a word, but it became the name of a part of the world thanks to the Greeks. In ancient Greek mythology, there is a titan god named Oceanus. Asia (Asia) is his oceanid daughter, whom the Greeks themselves depicted riding a camel. In her hands were a shield and a box of fragrant spices. In some versions of the myths, Asia is the mother (and in some - the wife) of Prometheus himself - the very hero who brought fire to people.

G. Dore "Oceanides", 1860

Everything east of Europe and closer to the place where the sun rises, the ancient Greeks began to call Asia. The Scythians, who lived beyond the Caspian Sea, the Greeks called the Asians. And the ancient Romans, by the way, called the inhabitants of their eastern province Asians.

When the period of great geographical discoveries began, it was decided to use the word "Asia" to refer to vast lands located closer to sunrise (that is, to the east). Thus, we owe the appearance on the map of a part of the world called Asia to the Assyrians and the ancient Greeks.

Did ancient Greek mythology influence the name of any other part of the world? Yes! And that part of the world is Antarctica.

How did Antarctica get its name?

Antarctica is derived from the word "Antarctica". The south polar region was named Antarctica. Translated from Greek, Antarctica means "the opposite of the Arctic", because the name "Arctic" appeared earlier as a designation of the area adjacent to north pole. It is the word "Arctic" that is directly related to ancient Greek mythology.

The Thunderer Zeus fell in love with the nymph Callisto, but the envious gods could not see how happy Zeus and Callisto were and turned the pregnant woman into a bear. After that, she gave birth to a son. Arkad, that was the name of the son (in Greek, the bear is arktos), grew up without a mother. Once, while hunting, he swung a spear at his mother, the bear Callisto (of course, he did not know who she was). Seeing this, Zeus turned both creatures dear to him into constellations - this is how Ursa Major and Ursa Minor appeared.

These constellations helped to find the polar star, which always points north. Therefore, the ancient Greeks began to call the entire northern region the Arctic. Then came the name Antarctica (the opposite of the Arctic). Well, later the word Antarctica appeared - the sixth part of the world, the southern mainland at the very pole of the Earth.

This part of the world was discovered by Russian sailors under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen on January 28, 1820. True, this is the official date - it was then that the sailors saw the "ice mainland". A year later, the sailors saw the shore and called this area the Land of Alexander the First. However, this name never spread to the entire mainland, which eventually received the name Antarctica, associated with ancient Greece.

So, the three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Antarctica - got their names thanks to ancient Greek myths. But how did the names of other parts of the world and continents come about?

Even children know that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Then why was this part of the world not called Columbia or Columbia? And what is the origin of the name America?

Christopher Columbus, of course, discovered America, but at the same time he himself did not know that he had discovered a new part of the world, believing that the land on the other side of the Atlantic was China (Katay, as it was called in the time of Columbus).

Columbus still became famous for centuries. But much less often they talk about the Florentine navigator, who lived at the same time as Columbus, but was younger than him. Amerigo made four trips to the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean, but two of them are considered by historians to be nothing more than a hoax. However, at least one journey was in fact - Amerigo made it in 1501-1502 to the shores of Brazil.

Returning, Amerigo Vespucci began to colorfully describe the course of the trip and his impressions, sending these notes by letters to his friends and banker Lorenzo Medici. After some time, Vespucci's letters were published and were a huge success with readers.

Vespucci himself proposed to call the land he discovered new world, but in 1507 a Lorraine cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller decided to map new land and name it in honor of the "discoverer" - Amerigo Vespucci. After all, reading Amerigo's notes, many came to the conclusion that Vespucci had discovered some new continent that had nothing to do with China, discovered by Columbus on the other side of the Atlantic.

However, not much time passed, and geographers-cartographers concluded that both Columbus and Vespucci discovered the same continent. Cartographers left for him the name " America”, dividing it into North and South.

Thus, already in 1538, North America and South America appeared on the maps. However, until the end of the 17th century, that is, another two and a half centuries, these lands in Europe continued to be called the New World. But, as we know, the name America was officially recognized.

Stefan Zweig called this whole story a comedy of errors, and A. Humboldt dubbed the very name of this part of the world "a monument to human injustice." No wonder they say that Columbus was lucky alternately: “he went to discover one, found another, but what he found was given the name of the third.”

Australia, the fifth continent, was discovered in the early 17th century by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. Since then, this part of the world has appeared on maps, but under the name of New Holland. However, the borders of the continent were unknown at that time. How australia name changed its own, ceasing to be just New Holland?

Australia. Shot from space

The answer must be sought in the mists of time. Australia was talked about long before it was discovered. Even the great Ptolemy was sure that there was a huge continent in the southern hemisphere, which should “balance” the planet. For the mysterious land, which either exists or does not exist, a conditional name has been assigned Terra Australis Incognita, which in Latin means "Mysterious (or Unknown) Southern Land."

The British in the 18-19 centuries were actively engaged in the search for the Mysterious South Land or New Holland. And, finally, James Cook and Matthew Flinders, having made several voyages, contributed to the fact that the shores of the fifth continent appeared on the maps.

Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the mainland. He wrote that he was shackled by the name Terra Australis (Southern Land), but with great pleasure he would have called the mainland in a different way -. So with light hand Flinders, this continent began to be called Australia, because the option proposed by the navigator seemed very, very successful to the learned cartographers and geographers.

Why is Africa called Africa?
There is no exact and only accepted answer to this question. There are many theories, each of which has the right to life. Let's give just a few.

How the name "Africa" ​​appeared: the first version. The name "Africa" ​​was coined by the Greco-Romans. Territory North Africa to the west of Egypt, the ancient Greeks and Romans called Libya for a long time, because there lived tribes that the Romans called Livs. Everything south of Libya was called Ethiopia.

In 146 BC, Rome defeated Carthage. A colony was founded on the territory captured as a result of the war, on which Tunisia is now located. This colony was given the name "Africa", as the local warlike tribes of the Afariks lived in these places. According to another theory, the inhabitants of Carthage themselves called people who did not live in cities the word "afri", which is supposedly derived from the Phoenician afar (dust). The Romans, having defeated Carthage, used the word "afri" for the name of the colony. Gradually, Africa began to call all the other lands of this continent.

The ruins of one of the cities of the state of Carthage

How the name "Africa" ​​appeared: version two. The name "Africa" ​​was coined by the Arabs. Arab geographers have long known that Asia and Africa are separated from each other by the Red Sea. The Arabic word "faraka" is translated as "separate", "separate one from the other."

From the word farak, the Arabs formed the word "Ifriqiya" - that's how they called the fourth continent ( ancient name can be translated as "Separated"). The famous Arab scholar of the 16th century, Muhammad al-Wazan, wrote about this. Later, Ifriqiya turned into Africa, which was associated with the peculiarities of borrowing foreign names in different languages.

And also find out if it is true and true that The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

H The man, after whom America is now called, - Amerigo Vespucci - was born in 1454, in Florence. America, Emerigo - this is also him; such spellings of his name are found in archival materials.

He belonged to one of the noble families of the city, whose head was a notary. Amerigo received a good education. In 1492, he settled in Seville, becoming an employee of Juanoto Berardi, who, along with others, financed the first two voyages of Columbus. In 1505, Vespucci accepted Spanish citizenship.

In the atmosphere of those years, the general impulse to travel to India could not but capture the Florentine, who studied astronomy and geography in his youth, and was interested in navigation. He visited the New World.

His two letters, written in 1503 and 1504, brought him fame. The first was addressed to Piero de' Medici, the other to Pietro Soderini. Their originals have been lost, but copies have survived. The first letter, about the journey of 1501, under the title "Mundus Novus" (New World) was published in1504, the second - about all four expeditions of Columbus - was published in

1505 in Florence. So enlightened Europe first learned about the existence of the New World and about who is the discoverer of South America.

The wide popularity of Vespucci was the reason that his name began to be associated with the New World, and this continent began to be called America. In fairness, it should be said that Vespucci did not take part in perpetuating his name and died without suspecting anything.

Some researchers believe that the mentioned letters were prepared by the opponents of Columbus. However, in any case, they remain the first responses of a European to an unexpected insight: the world has increased by a whole hemisphere. In addition, these literary and historical monuments surpass the samples of the epistolary heritage of Columbus in the elegance of style.

Vespucci complained in his first letter about the inconstancy of fortune: "How she changes her mortal and transient favors, how she can sometimes lift a person to the top of her wheel, and at other times throw him off." In relation to him, fate was very favorable. As Victor Hugo noted: “There are unfortunate people: Christopher Columbus cannot write his name on his discovery; Guillotin cannot erase his name from his invention."

(From the diary of Columbus' first voyage)

“Because they behaved friendly towards us, and since I realized that it was better to convert them to our holy faith by love, and not by force, I gave them red caps and glass rosaries that are hung around their necks, and many other objects of little value that gave them great pleasure. And they treated us so well that it seemed like a miracle. They would swim across to the boats where we were, and bring us parrots and skeins of cotton yarn, and darts, and many other things, and exchange all this for other things that we gave them, such as small glass rosaries and rattles. They willingly gave everything they had.

But it seemed to me that these people are poor and need everything. All of them go naked, in what their mother gave birth, and women too, although I saw only one of them, and she was still a girl. And all the people that I saw were still young, none of them were more than 30 years old, and they were well built, and their bodies were very beautiful, and their hair was coarse, just like horses, and short ... Some paint themselves with black paint (and their skin is the same color as the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who are neither black nor white), others with red paint; others with what comes to hand, and some of them paint the face, others the whole body, and there are those who have only eyes or nose painted.

They do not carry and do not know iron weapons: when I showed them swords, they grabbed the blades and unknowingly cut off their fingers. They don't have any iron. Their darts are clubs without iron. Some darts have fish teeth at the end, while others have tips of a different material ...

They must be good and intelligent and sharp servants - I noticed that they very quickly learned to repeat what they were told, and I believe that they will easily become Christians, since it seemed to me that they had no beliefs. And, with God's help, I will bring six people from here for Your Highnesses, whom I will take on the return trip, so that they learn to speak Spanish. I didn’t see any creatures on the island, except for parrots. ”

The New World was originally called the Northern and South America separating these continents from the Old World: Europe, Asia and Africa. However, as new territories were discovered, this name also spread to Antarctica, Australia and Oceania.

When discussing the New World, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “part of the world” and “mainland”. Parts of the world are called the continents or their separate parts, together with nearby islands. In total, six parts of the world are distinguished: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania. The division of land into continents is based on the sign of separation from each other by water space. Parts of the world are a historical and cultural concept. The continent of Eurasia includes two parts of the world: Europe and Asia, and America, as part of the world, consists of two continents: North America and South America.

The name "Old World" refers to the continents - Europe, Asia and Africa, known to Europeans until October 12, 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas. This day is the official date of the discovery of America. Columbus himself believed that he had discovered a new route to India. Therefore, the new territories began to be called the West Indies, and their indigenous inhabitants - the Indians. The phrase "New World" itself appeared later, as they began to call the part of the southern mainland discovered by the Portuguese across the Atlantic Ocean in 1500-1502.

Many scientists believe that the term "New World" was introduced in 1503 by the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci, whose name the new continents later received. However, a number of researchers believe that this merit belongs to Pietro Martira d'Angiera, an Italian-Spanish historian, who already in 1492, in his letter about the first voyage of Columbus, used this phrase on Latin. In 1516, he published the famous work "De orbe novo ..." ("In the New World ..."), where he described the first contacts of Europeans with the indigenous inhabitants of open lands.

In 1524, the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano used this name in his account of sailing along the coasts of what is now the United States and Canada. It is interesting that initially the term "New World" meant mainly southern continent and only after 1541, when the new lands were called "America", did they begin to call the northern mainland.

During the era of the great geographical discoveries, which lasted from the end of the XV century to mid-seventeenth, almost all territories previously unknown to Europeans were discovered and mapped: Australia, Antarctica, numerous islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Subsequently, the concept of "New World" also spread to these lands.

Every schoolchild knows that the first European to reach the shores of America was Columbus. But in honor of whom America is named, and why Columbus remained "out of work", they still argue. But in order to understand what the dispute is about, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the issue closer, which we will now do.

What is America?

America is called the part of the world, consisting of two continents. In addition to directly North and South America, it includes many nearby islands, which include Greenland, although economically and politically this large island belongs to European Denmark. As you already understood, this is a huge territory, and it is all the more interesting to know who America was named after. And maybe it would be more honest to call it something else ...

Why not Columbia?

Many geographical objects receive the names of their discoverers. But Christopher Columbus was not so lucky. Like all travelers, he dreamed of making a great discovery, but his expedition, consisting of three ships, officially pursued somewhat different goals. The Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina had to find a shortcut to India, whose wealth haunted the Spanish Crown. The fact is that the spices that can now be found in every kitchen were worth their weight in gold at that time. The Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella really wanted to get them faster and cheaper in order to profitably resell them to other countries. So the expedition faced a purely economic task.

Columbus assumed that India could be reached not only by land or around Africa, as the Portuguese always did. He guessed that if he went west, the path would be both easier and closer. On October 12, 1492, Columbus reached his goal. His team landed on the "Indian" coast. In fact, the expedition discovered a new continent, but never guessed it. Columbus visited his "India" three more times, but never realized the mistake. Most likely this was the reason why the continent was not named Columbia. Thus, the main question, after whom America is named, is still open.

Version one (main)

The main version of the origin of the modern name of the mainland suggests that it was formed on behalf of the outstanding traveler, cartographer and businessman Amerigo Vespucci. It was he who, exploring the shores discovered by Columbus, compiled detailed maps and managed to understand that this is not the West Indies, but a completely new continent, previously unknown to Europeans. But the one for whom America is named used a different name himself. The described lands Amerigo Vespucci called the "New World".

The talented cartographer not only made maps of the lands, but also described nature, talked about unusual animals, and indicated which stars you can focus on. He also introduced Europeans to the mores of the natives. Strictly speaking, it was not treatise, since Vespucci was also a talented writer. Many believe that the process of describing new lands greatly excited the author's imagination. Vespucci's letters and travel notes were published as a separate book and were a resounding success in his homeland.

Who first introduced the name "America"?

Cartographers-geographers quickly got their bearings in the situation. They realized that both Columbus and Vespucci describe the same lands, and this is precisely the new continent. Then they divided it into northern and southern parts, that is, into North and South America. The demarcation of the continents conditionally runs along the Isthmus of Panama. The islands located in the Caribbean Sea, geographers attributed to North America.

For the first time, the faceless name "New World" was changed on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller. It was he who coined the name America. The cartographer motivated this decision by the fact that the map was compiled on the basis of the more complete materials of Vespucci, and not on the approximate descriptions of Columbus. It took almost 30 years for the world to adopt the new name. According to some sources, Vespucci himself was not very pleased with this fact. He did not really want to be the one after whom America was named, since he was friendly with Columbus and his family.

Friendship Above All

Columbus himself did not understand that he had discovered a new continent, but his family meekly accepted the state of affairs that had arisen. After the death of their father, the sons of Columbus did not start disputes and lawsuits with his friend because of the name of the new lands. They valued the old friendship and understood that nothing depended on Amerigo himself. Moreover, the person in whose honor America was named never used the new name himself.

Version two (quite possible)

On the question of who America is named after, the final point has not been made because there is another quite possible version. This version is mainly insisted on by the British. They believe that the continent of America is named after a wealthy merchant from Bristol, Richard America. This man took a serious financial part in equipping John Cabot's expedition. The ships of this traveler followed the path of Columbus and reached new lands earlier than the team led by Amerigo Vespucci.

Cabot's expedition left Bristol in 1497. It consisted of only 18 people. The ship was called "Matthew". Even here there are disagreements, the name is associated with the Evangelist Matthew, or so the name of D. Cabot's wife, Mattea, was immortalized.

During the expedition, Cabot worked on a map of the coast of North America, although he himself for a long time believed that he was describing China. In fact, Cabot landed on the northern part of the island of Newfoundland. Cabot considered his most valuable discovery to be the rich fishing grounds (Great Newfoundland Bank), where numerous shoals of cod and herring were found.

This version of the origin of the name is based on the chronicle of Bristol, which records that in 1497 merchants who arrived from Bristol on the ship Matthew found the land and named it America.

Comedy of Errors

The famous writer Stefan Zweig called the story of finding the final name of the new mainland a comedy of errors. And indeed, he discovered one, described the other, and was named, perhaps, in general in honor of the third. Many still believe that Columbus was treated unfairly, although he was mistaken in the ownership of new lands. But no matter what they say, the fact remains: the man, after whom the continent America was named, definitely stepped on its shores among the first. For many, this is enough.