Western civilization eventually conquered all corners of the world. But they took their sweet time in getting to know what it actually looked like. The maps below show the general progression of how the European view of the world was shaped over the centuries. All maps and information taken from Wikipedia, see links here and here.

In 530 B.C., Ionian philosopher Anaximander created the first Greek map of the world, which was circular in form and showed the known lands grouped around the Aegean Sea at the center. This was entirely surrounded with water. How much of this was guesswork and how much was based on actual information (such as about the various distant oceans) is unknown. Of note is that the Red Sea, despite being so close to the Mediterranean, does not appear on this map.

By 350 B.C., some details had been added to Anaximander’s map, showing more detail regarding the region, including mountain ranges, Persia, the Caspian Sea, and the general shape of Arabia. This was used by Alexander as he took off on his conquests of Asia.

By 200 B.C., Greek astronomer Eratosthenes became the first to measure the circumfrence of the Earth, and in an improved world map, incorporated information taken from the campaigns of Alexander the Great and his successors and other information. Asia became wider, reflecting the new understanding of the actual size of the continent, and Spain and Britain were added in the west, showing a greater knowledge of the home continent. The map below is an English-language rewrite of the original map.

This 150 A.D. map by Ptolemy shows the world as the Romans understood it at that time, and although not directly displayed, diplomatic contact with Vietnam and China was briefly established at around this time.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the onset of the so-called “Dark Ages,” little changed for European cartography over the next thousand years. This map, Tabula Rogeriana, was drawn by Arab geographers in 1154 A.D. for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily. The only real difference between this map and Ptolemy’s is that southeast Asia region was better understood, and technically shows Eurasia in its entirety.

Finally, by 1507 A.D., this French map below was to name the western continent as “America.”

From there it was less than a century until the size of the Americas was fully appreciated, such as in this map published in 1570, which generally completes the continents.

Little changed between then and 1640, when this map was published. The continents of Antarctica and Australia remain unexplored and generally unknown, along with the shape of Japan and the Pacific isles.

As the colonial era began, Europe slowly advanced to map the entire globe with detailed and accurate maps which were complete a solid century before satellites.

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