How a 1507 German Map Became America’s Birth Certificate

It’s not precisely clear why a 16th century German cartographer chose to honor the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by naming a land mass after him instead of Christopher Columbus. But Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 map has been called America’s birth certificate as the first geographic document to apply a variation of the moniker, as VOA's Ardita Dunellari explains. It's on permanent display at the Library of Congress in Washington.

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