Why is Baja California often shown as an island on maps between 1500 and 1700?
Upvote:1
According to Wikipedia, this might be based on the romance novel Las sergas de Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, which contains the first written mentioning of the Island of California.
It is probable that this description prompted early explorers to misidentify the Baja California peninsula as the island in these legends.
Upvote:8
So, in researching the link from sbi, I think he's got one piece of the puzzle, but there seem to be a few more.
- Juan de Fuca (the same guy from whom the straits around Vancouver Island / the Seattle area are named), had claimed to have found a Northwest Passage
- Sailors from the south had also found the Gulf of Baja California, and frankly its big - so big that it would have been real easy to say, 'Oh, that's Juan's strait'
- There was the romance novel Las sergas de Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, mentioned above.
Put them together, and you have an island.
Given the resources at the time, and a surfeit of targets for exploration, it makes sense they would have said, 'This is an island, we'll get around to mapping it later.'
That this was not an island was realized in 1744, when an overland expedition proved it be part of the mainland.
More post
- 📝 A world in the moon?
- 📝 How was Germany involved in the Russian Civil War after the Paris Peace Conference?
- 📝 Did a mob of men dressed in skirts threaten the life of Anne Boleyn?
- 📝 Was violent or nonviolent protest more effective in the context of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement?
- 📝 When was the first full length book sent over telegraph?
- 📝 Which RAF squadrons and aircraft types took part in the bombing of Berlin on the 25th of August 1940?
- 📝 When did medieval monarchs start being depicted with ermine fur garments?
- 📝 Which country was the first to separate (Christian) Church from state?
- 📝 Who really put to flight American hostages in America's embassy in Tehran in 1979?
- 📝 Is Nazi brutality particularly well known in the US because of the US's Jewish population?
- 📝 Why did Charles V divide his holdings as he did?
- 📝 Did Napoleon ever say «On s'engage et puis… on voit»?
- 📝 How does the "conspiracy theory" work in China and for what purpose?
- 📝 Why did Churchill become the PM of Britain during WWII instead of Lord Halifax?
- 📝 Have there been government conspiracies that were successful for over 25 years?
- 📝 Why did Spartacus turn South at Mutina instead of continuing North towards Thrace?
- 📝 Was Black Death a weaponised disease?
- 📝 Why does Latin America have a higher number of surviving Native Americans than North America?
- 📝 Was PepsiCo really sixth largest military force?
- 📝 Were there any recorded accidents in the USSR (after 1945) involving gas pipelines?
- 📝 Does prohibition of polygamy always correlate well with democracy?
- 📝 Did the Germans consider an amphibious landing for Fall Blau?
- 📝 In 19th century France, were police able to send people to jail without a trial, as presented in "Les Misérables"?
- 📝 Suffragettes vs. Einstein
- 📝 Was there a melee weapon that was used by many people at the same time?
- 📝 How did the French word 'familier' become associated with the concept of Magical Familiars, historically?
- 📝 Is the swastika in The Great Gatsby anti-semitic?
- 📝 Was it true that Nelson Mandela refused to renounce violence while in Prison?
- 📝 What would the Wikipedia page for Spain have said in 1490?
- 📝 Who is Heckler?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why is Baja California often shown as an island on maps between 1500 and 1700?
- 📝 Why is Killiniq island divided between Nunavut and Labrador?
- 📝 Where can I find pictures of clothing of poor or common male European musicians between 1500 and 1700
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 Why did the negotiations between Henry V of England and France fail?
- 📝 Why is the charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations signed "HOWARD"?
- 📝 Why do some 17th and 18th century maps depict Ottoman sanjaks north of the Danube in Wallachia?
- 📝 Why is the border between Myanmar and Thailand so long?
- 📝 Why the six hour gap between British and French declarations of war?
- 📝 Why did the Russians lose to the Turks in 1711 after defeating them in 1700 and the Swedes in 1709?
- 📝 Did the chariot drop in importance between bronze age Greece and the iron age Greece? Why, why not?
- 📝 Why did Icelandic begin to diverge from the Continental north Germanic languages specifically between 1050 and 1350?
- 📝 Why did the Byzantines not try to recover Syria during the war between Ali and Muawiya?
- 📝 Why didn't the United States occupy Baja California during the US-Mexican war?
- 📝 Why was it necessary to maintain a balance of power between the Slave and Free states?
- 📝 Why did the Mongols outlaw intermarriage between the Mongols and the Chinese and forbid the Chinese from learning the Mongolian language?
- 📝 Did English/British merchant sailors receive written testimonials between 1500 and 1750?
- 📝 Why was the Tea Horse Route through Tibet less prevalent than the Silk Road route through Tarim Basin, for contact between China and India?
- 📝 Why did USSR lay down undersea communications cable between Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok?
- 📝 Why wasn't the American civil war fought between slaves and masters?
- 📝 What is the back story behind the Baja California towns of "Purgatorio" and "Providencia"?
- 📝 Why is Hungary geographically important to travel between Europe and the Middle East?
- 📝 Why was there such tension between the Ottoman Empire and Russia during the Armenian genocide?
- 📝 Why hasn't Sub-Sahan African developed as fast as other regions between the beginning of civilisation and European colonialism?
- 📝 Why is there hostility between Russia and the Baltic states?
- 📝 Why did armies meet on the battlefield, and how often did they? (medieval times)
- 📝 Why did relations between the USA and the USSR break down in 1945?
- 📝 Why China was able to unify and not Europe?
