Africa in 50 historical maps: 40AD-2018

The name **Africa **may be derived from the Phoenician word afar, meaning “dust”. The name Africa Terra (“Land of the dust”) was introduced by the ancient Romans to identify the northern part of the continent that corresponds to modern-day Tunisia. (Northern) Africa was already described by classical Greek scholars; e.g. Ptolemy in his Geographia (150AD). The accompanying (world) maps were worked out again by European cartographers at the end of the 15th century. It is also depicted on the T-O based Mappa Mundi of the middle ages, being one of the 3 then known ‘old’ continents (besides Asia and Europe). During the Middle Ages, as the Europeans increased their knowledge and awareness of the size of the African continent, they progressively extended the name of Africa to the rest of the continent. Waldseemuller’s large map of 1507 - being partly based on Ptolemy’s ideas and new discoveries - was one of the first world maps depicting the whole continent, including the South-African coastline. On the earlier world map of Martellus (1490) the southern part was truly out of shape; on Cantino’s portolan chart (1502) it was corrected on account of information provided by Portuguese explorers. The first (printed) separate maps of Africa appeared in the mid 16th century. At first they were small overview maps in pocket atlases. Numerous large atlas maps made by famous cartographers would follow: e.g. Lafreri (Italy), Mercator (Belgium), Speed (England), Sanson (France), Blaeu (Netherlands) and Homann (Germany).