New World

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The name used to describe landmasses in the Western hemisphere and the Americas in the sixteenth century. The New World was ‘discovered’ by European ('Old World') voyagers during the Age of Discovery. The term was first coined by Amerigo Vespucci in a 1503 letter.

A copperplate engraving in an atlas of North and South America, finely engraved, coloured, and surrounded by illustrations of local people from the region.