Remapping history: Analyst says
Portugal discovered Pacific
By Josh Earl The Washington TimesWhen Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, empire-building European countries rushed to explore the New World and lay claim to its land and resources.It was this climate of cutthroat competition, says ex-CIA analyst Peter Dickson, that led the Portuguese to launch an expedition that sailed around South America and into the Pacific Ocean — and then try to cover up the discovery.Most historians believe that in 1513, Spaniard Vasco de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. But Mr. Dickson, a retired CIA analyst living in Arlington, Va. who holds master’s degrees in government, philosophy and history is trying to change all that.He has concluded that the Portuguese secretly sailed around the tip of South America at least a decade before Balboa’s famed trek across the Isthmus of Panama. The full text of his findings will appear in the magazine Exploring Mercator’s World.Mr. Dickson gleaned his conclusions from 16th-century sources, including pieces from a small globe, a geographical essay and the Waldseemuller Map, which the Library of Congress is purchasing from Germany for $10 million.Created in 1507, the globe, essay and map were part of a large-scale project in St. Die, France. There, a team of geographers, led by map*maker Martin Waldseemuller, sorted through and compiled much of the new geographical information made available by explorers.Conventional wisdom has Balboa reaching the Pacific in 1513 and Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing into it sometime between 1519 and 1522. Before then, scholars believe, geographers thought only one ocean separated Europe from Asia.http://www.dightonrock.com/CodFish/Map_-1507-melhor.JPG
The Waldseemuller map made in 1507This 16th-century map holds evidence that one analyst says proves the Portuguese, not Spanish, first reached the Pacific Pay attention to the Pacific Ocean. It was drawn on the map but no historian has seen it before, until the discovery by Peter Dickson, an Amateur historian!Mr. Dickson first saw the Waldseemuller Map in 1995. “I was blown away that they got the basic pieces of the puzzle correct,” he says. The map, while somewhat crudely drawn, did approximate the size and shape of South America.Last January while working on a bibliography about the Waldseemuller Map, Mr. Dickson noticed a small detail on the globe pieces. On the globe, the mapmakers applied the label “Oceanus Occidentalis” to what is now the Pacific Ocean.The term, which means “western ocean”, referred to the Atlantic at the time. This implied, to Mr. Dickson, that the Portuguese knew the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were separate but connected.Spurred by this strange detail, Mt Dickson started studying the Waldseemuller Map more closely. He soon noticed the map accurately depicted the angular shift in the western coast where present-day Chile and Peru meet.The map located the bend between 18 and 19 degrees latitude south — virtually an exact match with modern maps first discovered the Pacific, Mr. Dickson concluded.While Mr. Dickson is satisfied with his evidence, some experts aren’t. David Woodward, a geographer from the University of Wisconsin, says theories like Mr. Dick*son’s are common.“A lot more evidence, including archival evidence, is needed to postulate such a voyage,” Mr. Woodward says. “Correlation of a position on an old map with today’s knowledge does not prove that anyone was actually there. It could be a coincidence:’And if Mr. Dickson is right why would the Portuguese be so secretive about their discovery? “The early 16th century was a moment when secret knowledge was of great value’ says Mr. Dick*son. “You had a competitive advantage if you were exploring.”In addition to military and political advantage, such information had economic value. The Waldseemuller Map cuts off the southern tip of South America, which lay in Spanish territory; implying that there was no way around the continent. But the trade route around Africa — a route controlled by the Portuguese, incidentally — is clearly marked.“They were dying of curiosity:’ Mr. Dickson says. “I think the Portuguese were determined, once they found Brazil, to find out if there was another strait that could pose problems for their African route?’“This map is biased towards Portugal,” he continues. “They were stepping around the awkward truth. They didn’t lay all the cards on the table in any map or in writing."Please, observe now, the detail that appears on the upper part of the Waldseemuller map showing a painting of Amerigo Vespucci next to a map of South America with the Pacific Ocean, where we can see very distinctly the angle between Chile and Equador.Observe the same detail map with names of Chile and Equador, but also the 19 degrees which is the latitude at the junction of both said countries. Amazing in a map drawn in1507!
