Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
score:7
Europeans knew about China, India, and South-East Asia. In fact, at the time, the Indies referred collectively both to what we would call the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia.
As can be seen in this reimagining of Toscanelli's 1474 map of the Atlantic Ocean, Columbus thought:
- Japan (Cipangu) was closer to Europe
- He could reach the Indies through Japan
These statements were controversial at the time, as the Greeks had shown Earth was much larger. When the inhabitants he met in the Americas did not match prior descriptions of the Japanese, he imagined these inhabitants had originated in the Indies.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#/media/File:Atlantic_Ocean,_Toscanelli,_1474.jpg
Upvote:2
The third book of Marco Polo's travels deals with South East Asia in chapters 5 to 11. Chapter 5 deals specifically with the South East Asian mainland. So Europeans actually had first-hand accounts of some of those places, plus a lot of hearsay.
Re. "India": It is not really clear to me whether Marco Polo considers South East Asia part of India or not. With Yule's translation, one could clearly come away with the impression that for Polo, even Cipangu/Japan is part of India:
Now that I have told you about the ships which sail upon the Ocean Sea and among the Isles of India, let us proceed to speak of the various wonders of India; but first and foremost I must tell you about a number of Islands that there are in that part of the Ocean Sea where we now are, I mean the Islands lying to the eastward. So let us begin with an Island which is called Chipangu.
More post
- 📝 When and why was the Shinkolobwe Mine flooded and re-opened?
- 📝 How did the US fall behind in airplane technology from 1909-1917?
- 📝 What religion did Mustafa Kemal Atatürk self-identify as following?
- 📝 Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?
- 📝 How confusing was British currency compared to decimal currency circa 1850?
- 📝 What concessions did Hitler demand from the Poles before 1939?
- 📝 What rights did women have in Switzerland in the first few years of the 20th century?
- 📝 Why Was Hitler So Sure America Would Enter on Side of Allies?
- 📝 Who titled the works of Aristotle?
- 📝 Were there attempts to rename the French language Prussian order Pour le Mérite, why was it never Germanised?
- 📝 How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
- 📝 Did line infantry units have designated marksmen?
- 📝 What was the Julian Calendar aligned to?
- 📝 Were mounted soldiers really an advancement during the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Did Rothschild say this famous quote? If yes, what did he mean by it?
- 📝 Military sidecar era
- 📝 Are images of the original tablets for the Epic of Gilgamesh available online?
- 📝 Voting enfranchis*m*nt in the USA in the 18th century
- 📝 Are leftwing parties always based in the cities and rightwing parties always based in rural areas?
- 📝 Which submarine was invented first?
- 📝 How large could king Arthur's kingdom have realistically been?
- 📝 During the Middle Ages, how many people could be fed by fishing?
- 📝 Were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
- 📝 Curious office hours of Topographical Bureau where Napoleon served in 1795?
- 📝 Pre-Christian use of the Greek Septuagint
- 📝 The Roman Law of the Twelve Tables on slavery
- 📝 When did the last Terra Nullius vanish from the earth?
- 📝 Did Antarctica remain entirely unvisited by humans until the early 19th century?
- 📝 Why are dates and locations important in History?
- 📝 What is the origin of the subdivisions of Heaven and Hell?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 Why did native Americans and Europeans mix in South America but not in North America?
- 📝 Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?
- 📝 Why did America not know about Soviet espionage in manhattan project
- 📝 Why did Europeans (and not people in other regions) dominate oceans?
- 📝 Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Romans know about China?
- 📝 What is the context for Napoleon's quote "[the Austrians] did not know the value of five minutes"?
- 📝 What did the average German citizen know about the war?
- 📝 What did the top minds of the late 17th century have to say about Salem witch trials?
- 📝 Did the Inca Empire know about the Polynesians, or vice versa?
- 📝 What did the Soviets know about the Hunger Plan during WWII?
- 📝 What was the staple food of the natives of South East Asia before rice?
- 📝 Did ancient or medieval people know about underground rivers/lakes?
- 📝 How much did we know about heredity pre-Mendel?
- 📝 Did French people in 19th century not bathe every day?
- 📝 Did Reza Shah Pehlavi know about Turkish offer to restore Ahmad Shah Qajar?
- 📝 What did the Jews during the First Jewish-Roman War know about other anti-Roman revolts?
- 📝 How did East Asia circa 1500 produce cosmetics?
- 📝 At what point did mapmaking begin to accurately reflect what we now know about the earth?
- 📝 How did Vasco da Gama know about the Southern Cross?
- 📝 Where did 15th century English serfs live?
- 📝 How much did the western world know about the Soviet Union pre-WWII?
- 📝 How come the British did not notify the Poles about the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocol?
- 📝 Did Hitler, or any non USSR residents in the 30s-40s know about Stalin's purges?
- 📝 Did early nineteenth century commoners know their royalty?
- 📝 Did John F. Kennedy know about his judicial nominee's racism?
- 📝 What did the English people during the Peasants' Revolt know about the Ciompi Revolt?
- 📝 Given that there were there larger, more organised civilisations in South America compared to NA, why did they not colonise North America themselves?