Martin Waldseemuller's Universalis Cosmographia (1507) and More World Maps

 Waldseemuller's world map, first drawn in 1507, though inaccurate on North America, is quite good for the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. South America is oversized in comparison to North America, but North America's contours were still relatively unknown at the time. As one can clearly see, the continental outline of the entirety of the African continent is well-done, albeit slightly off at times, with the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea coastline (as well as other regions) veering from accuracy. His version of southern Africa indicates knowledge of Monomotapa, one of the Shona kingdoms of southeastern Africa linked to Indian Ocean trade networks through the Swahili coast, particularly Sofala in modern Mozambique. This is also the first map to refer to the "New World" as America, named after the Italian explorer, Vespucci. Moreover, the map also depicts the Pacific, an ocean Europeans had yet to reach (Magellan comes later). Of course, this map is a little off in that it lacks Australia and Antarctica, but it is the first world map to have the rough outline of the world (most of it) depicted, forever changing the future of cartography, trade, colonialism, and European (and world) consciousness.

Chinese World map of the 14th century, Dan Ming Hun Yi Tu, likely the source for the Kangnido, which in turn inspired the subsequent Japanese map of the world. Since China was the "Middle Kingdom" and believed to be the center of the world according to dynastic Chinese ethnocentrism, the map overstates the size of China and it's environs in Asia while understating Africa, which is shown on the far left with black unknown land marked in the center, the same color as the ocean, which at first led me to believe that medieval Chinese and East Asian mapmakers believed that the interior of the African continent was a gigantic lake or body of water (perhaps they were thinking of Lake Chad, which, several thousand years ago, was much larger in its extent, but obviously never as large as the dark space here). Anyway, the map clearly indicates familiarity with the profile of the African continent, including the southern and western coastlines, some likely coming from Islamic and Arab geographers, traders, and cartographers as well as Chinese mariners and accounts of the "Zanj" coast of East Africa, etc. That the Chinese knew of (to a certain extent, accurately) the western and southern coastlines of the African continent prior to Zheng He's expeditions and the Chinese junks described in the Fra Mauro map of the world near the Cape of Diab (Cape of Good Hope) are tantalizing, though one source indicates that the source for Fra Mauro's map was Ethiopian/Abyssinians in Italy in the 1440s who provided geographic information that was then applied to subequatorial Africa without regard to the vast distances separating southern Ethiopia and the Horn from southern Africa. Regardless, the Chinese mapmaker here knew enough about the general coastline of the African continent and may have sent ships into the Atlantic.

This, clearly based on the earlier 14th century Chinese mappa mundi, depicts the world with a China-centered focus, although Africa's contours may be more based on the Kangnido map of Korea. Intriguingly, a river from southern Africa is shown to be extending to the Red Sea (also seen in the previous Chinese map which inspired this Japanese one), an idea also appearing in some European cartography, too, suggesting either European influences or perhaps just Japanese, Korean and Chinese theories on the source of the Nile, whose sources were never ascertained until recently.

De Virga map from the early 15th century depicts Afro-Eurasia quite well, considering it's European originators had little knowledge, at the time, of the southern Atlantic, southern Africa, etc. Africa and parts of Asia are messed up, but the map seems to refer to a landmass in the southeast that could be "Australia," or "terra incognita Australis." The Garden of Eden is depicted in southern Africa, an idea that would live on for European settlers and travelers at the Cape, considering the Western Cape of South Africa's temperate climate, majestic mountains, beautiful coastline, and location at the "end of the world" at the southernmost tip of Africa.