Reply to the discussion post 1st Discussion I chose the Mercator…

Question Answered step-by-step Reply to the discussion post 1st Discussion I chose the Mercator… Reply to the discussion post  1st Discussion I chose the Mercator Map from 1584. In 1569, the great cartographer, Gerardus Mercator, created a revolutionary new map based on a cylindrical projection. The new map was well-suited to nautical navigation since every line on the sphere is a constant course. However, today we don’t travel much by sea and the proportions are all wrong. According to this map countries are very close together and would seem that it was easy to travel, trade spread new ideas to other parts of the world. the other thing I noticed on this map is that half of the world doesn’t exist yet.The ancient civilizations depended on the sea routes for travel and trade but didn’t travel very far.. Land routes were safer although they took longer and you only had so many goods to trade with. In this particular map you can also notice the mountain ranges and larger cities noted on the map. The titles are written in Latin because that was the language of the scholars. Later attempts were made to correct so of the land regions but this demonstrates how much was not known of the world at that time. Today the African continent has more than 50 countries located in that region.https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~340423~90108595:VNIVERSALIS-TABVLA-IVXTA-PTOLEMAEVM?sort=pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no&qvq=w4s:/who%2FMercator%25252C%2BGerhard%25252C%2B1512-1594%2Fwhat%2FWorld%2BAtlas;sort:pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=2&trs=2977 2nd Discussion  Ancient Mesoamerica (modern-day Mexico and Central America) was once occupied by the Olmec civilization around 1200 BCE. Then the Maya civilization, and Aztec civilization in the 16th century C (Cartwright, 2021). The physical geography that sustained this civilization is the rich soil in the high land as well as the coastal region that flourished with subtropical and tropical climate. Mesoamerica is situated between the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico which later came to be countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Belize.According to the author of Slavery in Plantation Agriculture, the warm and humid climate provided Central America the ability to grow coffee beans (Hancock, 2021). The authors states that during the 1860s Central America discovered that coffee was well grown in the Verpaz highlands of the Pacific coast of Guatemala. That many new cocoa plantations have been established by the colonists. Also, Mayans were forced to work in the plantation to harvest the coffee beans. Many of whom have died from diseases such as influenza and cholera, and those that survived the disease would be the carrier of the virus. As a result, the virus was brought back to their villages. This would then stir conflict and guerrilla warfare broke out. Many Guatemala were then murdered by troops under the order of President Barrios (1873-85). Despite of this warfare, coffee economy flourished and more indigenous people in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras were forced into labor (Hancock, 2021).  In addition to coffee, chocolate was also another desired food of Mesoamerica. Cacao beans were ground into power and mixed with hot water as a delicious beverage consumed by the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations. However, chocolate was too expensive to import; therefore, it became one of the most valuable assets for Mesoamerican. The consumption of chocolate would then spread through trade routes to various parts of America including modern day New Mexico. Cacao beans became so valuable that the Aztec used cacao beans as currency. For instance, one cacao bean could be traded for one tomato, and for a total of 30 beans, you can buy a rabbit, but for a turkey is a hefty 200 beans (Cartwright, 2014).  References: Cartwright, M. (2014, June 27). Chocolate in Mesoamerica. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Chocolate_in_Mesoamerica/Hancock, J. (2021, September 23). Slavery in Plantation Agriculture. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1837/slavery-in-plantation-agriculture/Madman2001, . (2013, August 28). Principal Olmec Settlements. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/1409/principal-olmec-settlements/Netchev, S. (2021, June 03). Aztec Empire Map. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14181/aztec-empire-map/  History World History HISTORY 202 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)