In less than the course of a person's lifetime, about 50 years or 1492-1538, Europeans' sense of the geographic world they lived in changed dramatically. While there were dozens of maps, these four are the classic landmarks of geographic developments in this dynamic period. Imagine yourself as a European born in 1485. What would you have learned about the world by observing these 4 maps as they appeared in 1502, 1507, and 1538? Make two observations about what is being learned about the world from the maps in each period.

TIMELINE: 1502