New World

The New World

The New World is a name for the lands in the Western Hemisphere, mostly the Americas. Long ago, people in Europe thought the world only had three parts: Africa, Asia, and Europe. These were called the Old World.

When explorers began sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, they found new lands. An explorer named Amerigo Vespucci wrote about these places and said they were not just islands but whole new continents. Because of his ideas, people began calling these lands the New World.

The name America comes from Amerigo Vespucci’s own name. Maps from many years ago show these new lands as a place full of amazing plants, animals, and people who had lived there for a very long time.

Today, the idea of the New World helps us remember an important time when people discovered new parts of our planet. It also reminds us of many foods we eat today, like maize, tomato, and avocado, that first came from these lands.