The Atlantic ocean. The story through the maps

Abstract

Hernández Sanchez-Barba said that history has always had a predominantly continental and non-maritime focus and is surprising given the enormous importance it has had in its geopolitical role. I will highlight in this article precisely that importance through the analysis of historical cartography, nautical charts and more representative maps that have been made about the Atlantic and that helped to know and expand the territories that were being explored. Emphasizing the era in which cartography became a tool to consolidate nations and governments. Fundamentally the sixteenth century, when the Iberian cartography lives its splendor, three of the five oceans of the earth were discovered by the Iberian navigators in a space of 30 years, from 1488 to 1519. Then the Atlantic sea will be addressed as a border, nexus and path from its main cartographic landmarks.