In the Renaissance, with the renewed interest in classical works, maps became mo

re like surveys once again, while the discovery of the Americas by Europeans and
the subsequent effort to control and divide those lands revived interest in sci
entific mapping methods. Peter Whitfield, the author of several books on the his
tory of maps, credits European mapmaking as a factor in the global spread of wes
tern power: "Men in Seville, Amsterdam or London had access to knowledge of Amer
ica, Brazil, or India, while the native peoples knew only their own immediate en
vironment" (Whitfield). Jordan Branch and his advisor, Steven Weber, propose tha
t the power of large kingdoms and nation states of later history are an inadvert
ent byproduct of 15th-century advances in map-making technologies.[62][63]
15th century: The monk Nicholas Germanus wrote a pioneering Cosmographia. He add
ed the first new maps to Ptolemy's Geographica.[5] Germanus invented the Donis m
ap projection where parallels of latitude are made equidistant, but meridians co
nverge toward the poles.
c.?1485: Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel made the oldest known signed Portu
guese nautical chart.
1492: German merchant Martin Behaim (1459 1507) made the oldest surviving terrestr
ial globe, but it lacked the Americas.[5]
1492: Cartographer Jorge de Aguiar made the oldest known signed and dated Portug
uese nautical chart.