“America” is Brazil?

All too often, the term “America” has been used to designate the United States; the song “God Bless America” is a famous patriotic tune applied to the U.S., for instance.

Yet a map that has been reportedly the earliest one to use “America” placed that name not in the U.S. or even north of the Equator.

Would you believe Brazil?

One of the main sources for his new work was the knowledge brought to Europe by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The word America - said by many scholars to be derived from the explorer's name - appears however not where the modern US is but where Brazil now is.

That was the region Vespucci had begun to explore.

The 500-year-old Waldseemueller map will be displayed by the Library of Congress who purchased the piece for $10 million in 2003. The map is stunning not only in that it has been so well preserved but also since it’s “80 percent correct” according to the head of the geography and map division at the Library of Congress.

Image- National Geographic

Sources- Wikipedia, BBC News, The Moscow Times, AFP