Map Analysis

Florida et regiones vicinae

Florida et regiones vicinae is a map of what is literally translated from latin as “Florida and Surrounding Areas”. It is a noticeably bare map; while it gives a general shape of, well, Florida and its surrounding areas, it’s obviously not perfectly accurate to anyone who has seen Florida’s shape on one of many modern-day maps; the peninsular state is shorter and more pointed, there’s a massive coastline extended much further east than in reality, and it has its bays a bit over-pronounced.

The map is also lacking when it comes to markings; over what covers the Bahamas, Northern Cuba, and roughly a quarter of the United States, there are less than 50 marked unique locations, and what locations are marked are mostly rivers with native titles. Native Americans obviously were still in control of America. This map is obviously a very early and misinformed one.

However, it’s not designed to be a perfect representation, however, but rather an idea, a foundation for future maps to be based upon. “Early maps and travel narratives were the first accounts to chronicle English impressions of the New World. As they did so, they charted a psychic space within which American whiteness developed.”