Calcutta, Belize: Indian Settlement History and Origins

The nineteenth century was, in many ways, an age of rapid political upheaval. Across the world, maps were being redrawn as empires weakened, nations emerged, and rebellions, wars, and technological shifts altered long-standing orders. Some of the era’s strangest outcomes were born from this turbulence: freed African American slaves founding a republic on the coast of West Africa, Belgium privately ruling the Congo, Indian soldiers serving in police forces as far away as Shanghai, more than ninety percent of Paraguay’s male population perishing during the War of the Triple Alliance, and Algeria being absorbed directly into France. Global politics was volatile, and because empires and societies were not as interconnected as they are today, such anomalies did not appear unusual at the time. This post examines one such peculiar nineteenth-century outcome that continues to exist today: the settlement of CALCUTTA in BELIZE.

At first glance, it seems odd for Belize to carry the name of an Indian city, but a closer look makes the connection clearer. The Kingdom of England established the Crown Colony of Jamaica and its Dependencies in 1655, a colonial structure that expanded westward to include British Honduras by around 1670—territory that largely corresponds to present-day Belize. The same administrative network later extended to the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, both of which remain British Overseas Territories even today. Until 1884, British Honduras was governed directly from Jamaica, and it was during these decades of Jamaican control that an unexpected Indian dimension entered the region’s history. While the wider system of indentured labour had already begun transporting Indians to overseas colonies, it was the aftermath of the 1857 Indian Rebellion that decisively altered British imperial policy.

After the rebellion was suppressed in 1858, many Indian revolutionaries were officially classified as convicts by the British state. Along with their families, they were deported across the empire to distant colonies including Mauritius, Singapore, the Andaman Islands, Hong Kong, Burma, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca, Aden, Fiji, Trinidad, and Guyana. In the same period, several hundred Indians were transported to the narrow northern coastal stretch of British Honduras, where they were settled at the Corozal Plantation. This estate lay at the extreme northern edge of the colony, close to what is today the Mexico–Belize border, barely ten to eleven kilometres away. The sugar estate came to be known as 'Calcutta', largely because Calcutta was the Indian port from which many of these individuals had been shipped.

This means that a place named Calcutta exists today barely eleven kilometres from Mexico.

This movement marked only the first phase of Indian settlement in the region. A second wave arrived in 1872, when indentured labourers were transferred from Jamaica to this small settlement under promises of improved living conditions. A third group arrived from neighbouring Guatemala, where Indians had previously been employed on coffee plantations in the Cuchumatanes, often referred to locally as the Café Mountains. Notably, unlike most Caribbean sugar colonies dominated by European planters, several of the sugar estates in this region were operated by American owners. Calcutta was also not the only site of Indian settlement; communities expanded into nearby estates such as San Andrés, San Antonio, Estrella, Carolina, and Ranchito, as documented by researchers Sylvia Gilharry Perez and Kumar Mahabir.

Over time, the settlement grew and Indian cultural influences initially spread through food practices, domestic customs, and community life. Today, only a small percentage of Corozal’s Calcutta village identifies as East Indian. The town of Corozal itself has an earlier origin, founded by the Cruzo’ob Maya—refugees who fled south from Yucatán during the Caste War of 1848. Within the span of just over a decade, two very different displaced communities settled within minutes of each other: Maya refugees from Mexico and Indians transported from South Asia. Unlike many other Indian diaspora settlements, however, Calcutta’s residents no longer speak Indian languages. Spanish, Creole, and regional tongues dominate daily life, while Awadhi, Bhojpuri, and Hindi appear to have disappeared within a few generations. Even so, individuals of East Indian descent later entered government service, education, transport, and local politics, and a handful of family-run businesses and restaurants continue to reflect this heritage.

The settlement’s name has remained unchanged. Today, Calcutta appears clearly on maps, with the Philip Goldson Highway running through it. It lies between Xaibe and Ranchito to the north and San Joaquin to the south, roughly four kilometres from the coastline of Corozal Bay, which opens into the Caribbean Sea. The New River flows a short distance to the south, marking the closest major waterway. Below are two maps: one showing the present-day settlement of Calcutta, and another drawn from an 1857 map of British Honduras, based on the work of Henry Darwin Rogers and Alexander Keith.

Mexico - 1548

It is well known as how the Aztec and Mayan states disintegrated to the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century that led to the various Mexican factions uniting finally in the 19th century as the United Mexican States. One of the two largest Spanish supremacies in the Americas, New Spain or Nueva España existed for 300 years between 1521 to 1821, covering the entire stretch from Arizona-Colorado to Panama in the Central America and even extending to all the way down to the Patagonia. Although, Mexico as a single united unit emerged only in the 19th century, the name 'Mexico' has been mentioned (with certain altered spellings) all throughout European cartography. This post shall focus on a map made in the year 1548 and the settlements existing that time. 

The territory of Iréchikwa Ts'intsúntsani (Purepecha State) that consists majorly of central Mexican states was the first one to be colonised by the Spaniards in the early 1520s. The Purepecha group consists majorly of the indigenous tribes such as Matlazincas, Tecos, Mazahuas, Otomies, Chontales, Nahuas while the site of Tzintzuntzan was one of the chief ceremonial sites of the ethnic group.  This was the immediate aftermath of the Aztec Empire that had existed previously for roughly a 100 years (1428-1521). The Mayan civilisation (centred in the Yucatan region) was soon to be followed and conquered by the Spanish while they were expanding towards central America. By the end of the 17th century, the last Mayan state was conquered by the Spanish giving rise to New Spain or Nveva Hispania.

The term Nveva Hispania appears on almost every 16th century maps. The Aztec and Mayan footprints still existed on early European maps that can be looked up even today. On a 1536 dated map of North America one can find names such as Tenustitan (that corresponds to the current day Tzintzuntzan), Guatimalla (Guatemala), Mexico, La Laguna etc. A certain 'Los Angeles' can be also seen marked near the town of Tlascala (Tlaxcala) on a 1688 dated map. By this time, settlements such as Mechoacan (Michoacan), Guadalajara, Compostella (Compostela), Guaxaca o Antiquara (Antequara), Talascala (Tlaxcala) etc. could be seen on these maps. 

Going further back to the earliest intervention of Spaniards on Mesoamerican grounds and analysing a map dating 1548, called Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova. One could see settlements such as following: 

• Alboseda (Arboredo)
• Tabursa (Tiburon)
• Viuola
• Vandras (Bahia de Banderas)
• Ciguata
• Santiago (referring to Rio Grande de Santiago that flows through the states of Jalisco and Nayarit)
• Aguataneo
• Acapulco
• Guatuleo (Zihuatanejo)
• Tutatipeg (Villa de Tututepec de Melchor Ocampo)
• Guatimala (Guatemala)
• Mexico (Mexico City)
• Villa Rica (Veracruz)
• Toatom
• Sieras (Sierra Madre de Chiapas)
• Panuco
• Islas de Sacrificios (near Veracruz)

A certain Rio Tontonteanc that could be either River Colorado or River Gila, marks the starting point of Mexico that today flows through the Baja California region of Mexico and entering Arizona. On this map, another unique feature is Yucatan (spelt as Ivcatam) is shown as an island with islets surrounding it such as Cocamel (Chactemal). The Gulf of California is mentioned as Mar Vermeio (even today a less common term for the waterbody is the Vermillion Sea) while the Pacific Ocean is Mar del Svr (or Mar del Sur meaning South Sea). Since the territories of the Southern States were hardly touched by the colonisers at this stage, the only significant colony was that of Florida. The Caribbean islands were partially touched by the Europeans with major islands such as Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola and few neighbouring islands being either explored, spotted or colonised. 

Below here is a recreated version of the Mexican map dating 1548 originally sketched by Giacomo Gastaldi, an Italian cartographer (1500-1566). 

New York City 1746

 

The West Coast 1849

While the easter coast of the United States was well-formed in the 19th-century, the territories west of the Mississippi River were yet to be formed into their current state. It wasn't till the close of the 19th-century that the central and western USA was fully formed with a total of 45 United States. Several reshuffling, redrawing, rearranging of borders took place and various temporary names appeared on these maps, some of which stayed till today, others disappeared or were renamed with time. Throwing light on the changing map of the central and western USA during the 19th-century, this post shall discuss those fascinating maps. 

As it is well-known that the states of California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming were ceded from the greater Mexican Republic in the late 1840s. At this time, Texas swindled between the Mexican and a temporarily sovereign state; the Republic of Texas that existed between 1836 to 1846. A political world map titled 'A New and Authentic Map of the World' dating 1831, by Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858) lists down the following, territories of the western and central United States: 

1. Oregon 
2. Upper California
3. Sonora & Sinaloa (extending to Mexico)
4. Santa Fe 
5. Coahuila & Texas
6. Ozark 
7. Osage 
8. Mandan 
9. Sioux 

On this map, one could see the Oregon territory stretched from the Queen Charlotte island of British Columbia, Canada to the boundary that the Winchuk River makes between today's Oregon and California states. The Native American tribes of Nanscud Indians, Nagiler Indians, Atnah Indians, Snake Indians and Callapoowah are shown. The territory of Upper California was the entire stretch to the west of the Colorado River to the west coast. The territory of Sonora and Sinaloa started from the Santa Rosa range of today's Nevada, going south to the city limits of Acaponeta, Mexico. Below the Arkansas River, the territory till San Diego, Texas was marked as the territory of Santa Fe. The territory between the Arkansas River and the Red River, inhabiting the Cherokees and the Choctaws is marked with the name Ozark. Going upwards, the territory between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers is labelled as Osage. Further north, the region to the west of the Missouri River to the 49th Parallel border between US-Canada is marked as Mandan, a Native American tribe. And lastly, the territory below the Red River all the way to the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, was the region of Coahuila & Texas.

A more organised and well-defined map of the United States was sketched in 1849 by Samuel Augustus Mitchell. As per the boundary defined in 1819, the entire belt below it to the Gila River with the Bear River and Wasatch ranges of the Rocky Mountains in the east, was defined as the larger territory of Upper California or New California. Today, the boundaries of New Mexico and Arizona states extend further down from the Gila River and a good portion of the Sonoran Desert lies within the Nevadan territory. An enclave of gold deposits along the Sacaramento River is also mentioned on the map. 

The Oregon Territory marks the northernmost end of the United States on this map with the Rocky Mountains marking its easternmost boundary. Several Native American tribes such as the Clalams (Klallam), the Chickeeles, the Chinnooks, the Cowlitz, the Wallawallas, the Waillaptus or Cayuses, the Shastes, the Umpquas, the Shoshones or Snakes, the Punashli or Boonacks etc. 

Talking about major establishments and settlements, the Californian coast had few harbours and ports on the lower region such as Point Barra de Arena (Point Arena), San Francisco, Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura (Ventura), Pueblo de los Angelos (Los Angeles), San Fernando, San Juan, San Luis Rey and San Diego. A thinner strip of territory along the Rio Grade del Norte (Rio Grande) river is marked as New Mexico. The eastern frontiers of the Oregon Territory is divided into the Indian Territory (a precursor to Oklahoma state and others) and the Missouri Territory. 

The gold region is marked around the two large lakes of Nevada - Lake Tahoe and Lake Pyramid. The former is marked as Mountain Lake and the gold region is spread along the Sacaramento River and its tributaries such as Mill Creek, Deer Creek, Chico Creek, Butte Creek, Yubah Creek, Feather River, American Fork etc. The Rio San Joaquin marks the westernmost boundary of the gold region with Sutters Fort or New Helvetia as a key settlement in the region. 

Below here is a recreation of a section of the map described above; A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoning, originally sketched by Samuel Augustus Mitchell, dating 1849. The gold region is marked with the letter 'G'. 

Canada 1869

Today's Canada has a total of ten provinces and three territories; Yukon (Whitehorse), Northwest Territories (Yellowknife), British Columbia (Victoria), Alberta (Edmonton), Saskatchewan (Regina), Manitoba (Winnipeg), Ontario (Toronto), Quebec (Quebec), New Brunswick (Fredericton), Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown), New Foundland and Labrador (St. John's) and Nunavut (Iqaluit). There exists still a French overseas territory of St. Pierre and Miquelon island near the neighbouring New Foundland Island. The provincial boundaries of Canada are well-known and are pretty much straight lines or flow along the various rivers of the nation. But looking back at the 19th century, the map of Canada was more of a labyrinth of tiny landlocked counties (or electoral districts), most of whose names don't exist in the present day. Listing down the various counties of Canada when they were still British possessions. 

1. Columbia (divided into British and non-British)
2. Mackenzie River
3. Peace River
4. Saskatchawan 
5. Athabasca
6. Great Slave Lake
7. Lesser Slave Lake
8. English River
9. Cumberland
10. Swan River
11. Nelson
12. Norway
13. Island
14. Red River
15. Rainy Lake
16. Albany
17. Severn
18. York
19. Churchill
20. Rupert River
21. Labrador
22. Moose
23. Ontario
24. Abbittibbe
25. Quebec
26. New Brunswick
27. Prince Edward Island
28. Nova Scotia
29. New Brunswick
30. New Foundland

The above names are as per an 1869 dated map by GW Colton. Note that how Saskatchewan was printed as 'Saskatchawan' and this was the time when mainland Canada was marked only near the Great Lakes, a territory that at present resides a major portion of the Canadian population. 

It's interesting as to how Canada once had provinces such as Norway and a certain Island, neither of them having any connection with the sovereign state Norway nor any of them is an island. The province of Norway was surrounded around the Lake Winnipeg region while the Island province was deep in today's Manitoba province, northeast to the Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve. The 19th-century 'Saskatchawan' province was almost half the size of what it is today and was neighboured by five provinces namely (W-E) British Columbia, Lesser Slave Lake, English River, Cumberland and Swan River. As it is clearly observable, many of these provinces were named after the rivers flowing through them. 

The counties of Ontario and Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were shown heavily populated with townships such as Toronto, Coburg, London, Kingston, Ottawa City, Prescot, Montreal, St. John's, Quebec, William Henry, Frederickton, Bathurst, Chatham etc. Along with the establishments, the lakes such as Nippising, Tamagaminguc, Temiscamingac, Simcoe, Gatneaur, etc. can be also seen marked. 

At present, most of the Canadian islands are grouped under the province of Nunavut. The 19th-century Canadian maps had ill-shaped islands scattered all along the Arctic Ocean segregated outside any marked or well-defined counties. These islands were themselves divided into various lands and territories, all after various British royalties, something that continues even to date. For example, today's Victoria Island was seen divided into Prince Albert Land, Wollaston Land, Victoria Land and Prince of Wales Land. Incorrectly, the Prince of Wales Island is shown stuck to Victoria Island. Similarly, Baffin Island is shown divided into divisions such as Cockburn Island, Cumberland Island, Fox's Land, Penny's Land and  Meta Incognita. 

As the boundaries of the Dominion of Canada expanded in the 19th-century, Rupert's Land was adjusted several times and the western British territories were added gradually. The administrative structure of the entire country was divided into provinces and territories that gave way to how the country looks today. Below here is a recreated version of the map discussed above, originally created by GW Colton in 1869. 

Central America and the Spanish exonym, 'Ciudad'.

The Central American nations - Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama - the names are as old as their origin. But more than that, there is an interesting story behind the capital cities of these nations. The present-day capitals of these countries are as follows: 

1. Guatemala (Guatemala City)
2. Belize (Belmopan)
3. Nicaragua (Managua)
4. Honduras (Tegucigalpa)
5. El Salvador (San Salvador)
6. Costa Rica (San José)
7. Panama (Panama City)

The anecdote on these capital cities that is interesting is the fact that almost all these countries share a common name with their capital cities or a separate settlement. This applies true even if Mexico is added, although its majorly considered part of North American geography. In any case, Central America has always been part of North America, except for Panama till the time it was part of Gran Colombia (till 1903). But like any other nation/nation-state, these seven countries also had different capitals at one point in time. 

In the early 19th century, Belize (or Balize) had its capital at Balize itself. The capital was destroyed in a natural disaster of 1961, hence a new settlement of Belmopan was changed in 1970. Before San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador was Cojutepeque that moved in 1854 because of another natural devastation in the city. Honduras has a cape on its northern coast, called Cape Honduras but the capital in the 19th century was shifted to Teguzigalpa (Tegucigalpa) from Comayagua in 1880. Nicaragua shifted its capital from Leon (and Granada) to Managua in 1852. Although this wasn't because of any natural disaster, an earthquake did occur in 1970 halting the capital's growth for a while. Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala have become exceptions for having their capitals fixed at the same place (San Jose, Panama City and Guatemala City respectively) since the early days. 

Before the formation of separate entities, these Central American nations shuffled between various political conglomerations. At times, these territories were incorporated in the bigger Mexico (in 1821-1822), other times had multiple renaming (Belize/Balize - British Honduras - Belize). An intermediate state called the United Provinces of Central America (1823-1841) existed that clubbed together these territories (except Panama) and had its capital between Guatemala City and San Salvador. The politics of these countries changed and altered at the same time, all at once. Just within a couple of early decades of the 19th century, the Spanish hegemony over these nations ceased to exist, an intermediate federation was formed and disintegrated into independent factions. This pattern was also seen in Mexico when in the 1820s itself its politics changed from being part of the Spanish Empire (as New Spain) to an independent Mexico. As a matter of fact, the modern capital of Mexico has always been Mexico City, another common pattern among these Latin American countries (country and capital sharing the same name). 

The territory of New Spain or Nueva España expanded gradually over the period of time in the 16th century. At one point in time, the frontiers of this massive Spanish territory stretched from what today are the American states of California, Arizona, Colorado covering the entire stretch of Central America. Hence, the Spanish names of these establishments differ from the English exonyms given to them. And so, Ciudad de Guatemala becomes Guatemala City, Ciudad de Mexico becomes Mexico City, Ciudad de Panamá for Panama City etc. This is applicable to several other Spanish names in both mainland Spain and the Spanish realm of both the Americas. Some of the interesting examples are: 

• Ciudad Juárez (Juarez City, Mexico)
• Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl (commonly called ass Neza, Mexico)
• Ciudad Apodaca (Apodaca, Mexico)
• Ciudad Nicolás Romero (Nicolás Romero, Mexico)
• Ciudad Bolívar (Bolívar; two cities with the same name in Colombia, and another one in Venezuela)
• Ciudad Cortés (Puerto Cortés, Costa Rica)
• Ciudad Real (Royal City, Spain)
• Ciudad del Este (Eastern City, Paraguay) etc.

In the Spanish realm, the cities are referred to with the holonym Ciudad mostly because of the treatment of its home state as a singular confederation of multiple political entities. Also, to the same Spanish world, names such as Mexico City, Panama City, Guatemala City etc. are nothing but various exonyms; a place name that isn't used by the people who live in that place but that is used by others. The Spanish world also has certain other holonym-exonym combinations, most commonly such as Santiago, Antigua and Trinidad. But unlike Ciudad, the term Santiago has also entered the Spanish world of Africa and Asia, such as Ilha de Santiago, Cape Verde and Santiago, Isabela (in The Philippines). 

A rather uncommon map of North America sketched originally by an American cartographer Samuel Augustus Mitchell (1790-1868) shows a settlement of London placing it in Nicaragua. Its current location is close to a town called Dakura, on the eastern coast of the country. The best guess to this settlement being called London would be that it belonged to a historic political entity called Miskito Coast, misspelt (most probably) by the British as Mosquito coast since the territory was dominated by the British till late 19th century. The usual habit of Englishmen christening settlements they acquire on non-England lands after English cities continued here as well. Another interesting feature marked on the map is the naming of the Federal Republic of Central America as Guatamala instead of its usual spelling Guatemala. This is perhaps because of the existence of the former Kingdom of Guatemala that combined the entire Central American belt and parts of Mexico. Also, the Mexican states are referred to as 'Intendencies', with the Intendency of Merida being a neighbour to this Guatamala. The Intendency of Merida consisted of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize and the northern part of today's Guatemala. 

Below here is a recreated version of the originally mapped Central America in 1831 by Samuel Augustus Mitchell. 

New Belgium or New Netherland?

It is well-known that the Dutch were the predecessors to the English on the eastern coast of the United States, following what would be the Thirteen Colonies. But what is more interesting is a unique name that has appeared on numerous maps of this era. Apart from the usual New Netherland (singular), a New Belgium or Novum Belgium was used to mark the earliest European colonies of the United States. 

New Belgium would cover what is today New Jersey and parts of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont states between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers. New Jersey is also the location of a brief Swedish settlement, New Sweden that existed between 1638 to 1655. At this time, what is today's Belgium, was then fragmented states and counties of the Holy Roman Empire; the counties of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, Namur etc. But still, this doesn't justify why that area was given the name of New Belgium. The Southern Netherlands territory at this time was controlled by the Habsburg monarch that was spread from Spain to pockets in central and eastern Europe. At this time, it was Spain from where the Southern Netherlands was controlled. 

The Latin translation for Low Countries is Belgica, corresponding to Belgium and Luxembourg. The Netherlands itself is pronounced variously by different languages, something that can be found on 17th-century maps of the US. Names such as Tierra de Nuremberg, Norombega, Nouvelle Pays Bas etc. have been used in the vintage era to denote the New Netherland region. The etymology of Nuremberg is still debated as the German city lies in the Bavaria state, far away from any of the Low Countries. Furthermore, there was no connection of German states of the Holy Roman Empire with entire America - North and South - continent. 

The New England region co-existed with New Belgium / New Netherland. One could find settlements such as Fort Orange (today's Albany, New York), Staten Lant (in New York City), Cape Hinlopen (Cape Henlopen, Delaware) co-existing with Egmouth (a settlement marked on several maps) and Southampton (on Long Island, New York). Along with the European settlements, native Americans such as Sankikans (Sanhican), Coiuiotahaga (?), Minquacis (?), Sennecas (Seneca) etc. Basically, New Belgium would inhabitants indigenous communities such as the Mahicans (or Mohicans), Pocumtuk, Wappinger, Lenape, Munsee, Unami etc. speaking Abnaquiois (Algonquian) languages. 

If we look at the neighbours of New Belgium, to its south was marked as Virginia, while the extreme north going towards Canada would be Nova Britannia and Nova Francia / Canada. The origins of today's New York is marked as Nouvelle Amsterdam (New Amsterdam). It's interesting as the name New Amsterdam is still in current use for two such towns in Guyana and Suriname (as Nieuw Amsterdam), where there is no Dutch presence anymore (although Suriname was a Dutch colony between 1667 to 1954. Similarly, the nation of Papua New Guinea retains an island named New Britain although the English rule ended on the island in 1975. In the future years, New France would stretch its boundaries to as far as Louisiana. 

The term 'New England' still exists and refers to the US states of Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The visibility of the name 'New Netherland' slowly got wiped out when the English colonists divided the region into New York and New Jersey, which still continues to date. 

Below is a recreational map of the USA's east coast, circa 1690, originally sketched by Nicolaes Visscher (1649-1702). Additional help is taken from a 1657 dated map, originally sketched by Nicolas Sanson (1600-1667). The source for the Native American names is from the Library of Congress. 

The Caribbean Islands - 1607 (with a short trivia of West Indies Cricket team)

When the European merchant vessels sailed out to trade with India, less they knew about the unexplored world. They assumed that entire southeast Asia is part of a gigantic India, hence named it as Farther India while the islands that consist of today's Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor-Leste, became East Indies. A similar logic may have been applied to the Caribbean islands, hence the name West Indies. It's interesting to know that neither of the two Indies had anything to do with India, although both have considerable influence of India in them. The tiny islands of Trinidad and Jamaica were once settled with Indian migrants shipped from British India back in the 19th century, as labourers to European sugar farms. It's strange that to date the names have been stuck to it, the best example to prove this would be the explanation of the West Indies Federation - a short-lived political entity combining all the islands of the Caribbean which were once dependent on the United Kingdom. The federation existed between 1958 to 1962, having its capitals at Chaguaramas (in Trinidad) and Port of Spain (in Trinidad). 

But these names weren't the original ones. Explorers from the kingdoms of Spain, France, Portugal and Great Britain sailed to these islands since the beginning of the 15th century and named them either after their rulers, or a religious figure, or how they described the local indigenous people living there. Certain names have been prominent all throughout the ages - Cuba, Jamaica being the two of them, while the term Hispaniola (also spelt as Spaniola) was used to denote the entire island made up of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Another interesting thing to note here is that both Dominica and Dominican Republic share the same etymology, but are separated by various islands. 

Today, none of the islands carries their indigenous names, lost all due to colonisation. But as the Europeans had arrived in the Caribbean, tribes such as Arawak, Kalinago, Taino and Galibi were the inhabitants that called their islands by totally different names. European explorers changed the entire pronunciation and christened European names that are in use today. Here's a list of all the islands of the Caribbean with their European names in italics while the indigenous names in bold dark red. The years in brackets are the first contact of Europeans to these islands. 

1. Cuba - Juana de Cuba / Fernandina (1492) Cobao
2. Jamaica - San Iago (1494) Yamaye / Hamaica
3. Bahamas : 
• Watling Island - San Salvador (1492)
• Ragged Islands - Islas de Arena (1492)
• Rum Cay - Santa María de la Concepción (1492)
• Crooked Island - Isabela (1492)
• Grand Bahama - Islas Lucayos (1513)
• Grand Abaco - Lucayoneque (1565)
• Eleuthra - Eleutheriah (1647)
4. Turks and Caicos Islands (UK) (1492)
5. Haiti - Île de la Tortue et Côte de Saint-Domingue (1664)* 
6. Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo (1496)**
7. Puerto Rico (USA) - Isla de San Juan Bautista / Porto Rico (1493) Borikén / Borinquen
8. Virgin Islands (UK) - Las Islas Once Mil Virgenes (1493)
9. St. Croix (part of Virgin Islands, USA) - Isla de Santa Cruz (1493) Ay Ay
10. Anguilla - Isla de Anguila (1500) Malliouhana
11. St. Kitts and Nevis - Isla de San Jorge / Saint-Christophe / Isla San Martin (1493) Liamuiga & Oualie
12. Saint Martin (Fr.) - Isla San Martin (1493) Soualiga / Oualichi
13. St. Barthelemy (Fr.) - Isla de San Bartolomeo (1493) Ouanalao
14. Antigua and Barbuda - Isla Santa María de La Antigua / Antego / Antegoa / Antigoa (1493) Waladli & Wa'omoni
15. Guadeloupe (Fr.) - Isla de Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura (1493) Karukera / Kalaoucera
16. Dominica - Isla Dominga / Dominoco (1493) Wai'tukubuli 
17. Martinique (Fr.) - Isla Martinica / Martinico / Mittalanea (1502) Jouanacaeira / Madinina
18. Montserrat (UK.) - Isla de Santa María de Montserrate (1493) Alliouagana 
19. St. Lucia - Isla de Santa Lucia / Sainte-Lucie (1502) Hewanorra / Iyanola
20. St. Vincent & the Grenadines - Isla de San Vicente / Saint-Vincent (1498) Hairouna & Becouya / Kayryouacou / Cannouan
21. Barbados - Isla de los Barbados / Ilha Barbados / Isla de Beruados / Barbadoes (1500) Ichirouganaim (pronounced as Ichi-rougan-aim)
22. Grenada - Isla de Concepción (1498) Camerhogne 
23. Trinidad & Tobago - Isla La Santissima Trinidad (1498) Kairi / Iere
24. Netherlands Antilles :
1. Bonaire - Isla de Palo Brasil (1499)
2. Curacao - Isla de los Gigantes / Captaincy of Curaçao (1499)
25. Aruba (Neth.) - Oro Hubo (1502)
26. Sint Eustatius (Neth.) - Isla de Santa Anastasia (1493) Aloi
27. Sint Maarten (Neth.) - Isla San Martin / Soualiga (1493)
28. Bermuda (UK) - La Bermuda (1503)

(*) and (**) denotes the curious case of Hispaniola, which was known by various names such as Kiskeya (Quisqueya), Bohio, Spaniola etc. Another island called Saint Martin is located between Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis and is divided into two parts; the French one is known as Saint Martin while the Dutch part is Sint Maarten. Since the island of Nevis is close by, early explorers would denote Nevis by the name Isla San Martin. 

Coming to West Indies again and a popular identity attached to the term 'West Indies' is of their cricket team. To the international world, every player of the West Indies team belongs to the 'West Indies', ignorant of the fact that each player has unique ethnicity. Listed down here are some of the most popular names in cricket history of the West Indies with their place of birth. 

• Learie Constantine (Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago)
• Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (St. John's, Antigua & Barbuda)
• Brian Lara (Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago)
• Courtney Walsh (Kingston, Jamaica)
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul (Unity Village, Guyana)***
• Daren Julius Garvey Sammy (Micoud, St. Lucia)
• Chris Gayle (Kingston, Jamaica)
• Dwayne John Bravo (Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago)
• Denesh Ramdin (Couva, Trinidad & Tobago)
• Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan (Wakenaam Island, Guyana)***
• Carl Hooper (Georgetown, Guyana)***
• Daren Ganga (Barrackpore, Trinidad & Tobago)
• Jason Omar Holder (Bridgetown, Barbados) etc. 

(***) It's interesting how Guyana is also placed under West Indies Cricket Board although it's not a part of the Caribbean island group. The only reason that could explain this as almost all the countries playing cricket were former British colonies (except Afghanistan), and hence, Guyana is on the list. But some sources differ and claim that Guyana is more Caribbean than South American. 

Below here is a recreated map of the Caribbean islands dating 1607, originally sketched by Jodocus Hondius (1563 - 1612). 

North America - 1600

By the start of the 17th century, the Viceroyalty of New Spain had already expanded its territories from California to Chile and covering Florida in the east. With a small portion acquired by the French as New France or Canada, the British had yet to set their foot on what would be later known as the United States of America. This post is not about the first Thirteen Colonies, but about a millennia-old exploration of North America with names hardly familiar to anyone today. 

Ceuola

Starting from the west, the territory of California is well-known. Adjacent to its east was the territory of Ceuola or Cibola which is located in today's New Mexico state. The territory was rumoured to the early Spanish as 'Seven Cities of Gold' and an expedition was conducted that led to a bloodbath. Today it resides on the ruins of Hawikuh, New Mexico. To give a better context, these remains are located to the extreme west of Albuquerque, on the New Mexico-Arizona border. 

Zubgara

Heading north of Ceuola, was the territory of Zubgara and the settlement of Zubaira, which drains upwards to Lago de Conibas. Although if placed geographically, Lago de Conibas would incline to today's Lake Saint-Jean, Quebec, but it's not authenticated nor proved otherwise. 

Tagil

Located around Florida, this region and the settlement of Tascalifa would point around Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There were other settlements such as Canargan, Xuala, Xuaquili, Apalael, Chague, Chiacha, Tali etc. all around the Florida coast. Xuala would point to the territory of Cheraw people around the North and South Carolina border. The rest of the settlements would swing between Mississippi to North Carolina states. 

Terchichimechi

Pointing to the territory of the Karankawa people in southern Texas and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (marked as Golfo de Mexico), Terchichimechi would consist of settlements such as Cacos, Culias, Coloaton, Vachus, Ajix etc. 

Hochalaga

An Iroquoian fortified village along the St. Lawrence River (marked as Sinus S. Laurenty), it would open up to what would popularly be known as New France or Canada. Its current location is in Montreal, Quebec and the settlement with the same name would be the foundations of Montreal city. 

Canada

In the early 17th century, the region and settlement of Canada would be a tiny fragment of Quebec province along the St. Lawrence River. Other settlements would include names such as Angus, Guinoda, Deouondelay, Pofilles, Roquelay and Honguedo. In today's time, there exists a Honguedo Strait in eastern Quebec between the Anticosti Island and Gaspé Peninsula of Canada. 

Terra Corterialis

Denoting today's Gaspé Peninsula and New Brunswick provinces of Canada, Terra Corterialis would border Golfo de Merosro in the north and the settlement of Brest in the south, after the French city of the same name. 

Norombega

Lying in today's New England territory of the United States, the Norombega region was originally spelt Oranbega on 16th-century maps. In today's era, a commemoration to Norombega is given by a historic house called Norumbega Castle, located in Camden, Maine. 

Mocosa

Although marked just south of the Hochalaga territory, there was a 16th-century chiefdom with the name Mocoço or Mocoso on the east side of Tampa Bay, Florida. But on older maps, it's marked between Lower Canada and Virginia territories, which would point to today's Ohio and Pennsylvania states. 

Saguenai

A well-established city of Saguenay, Quebec, this region was marked as one of the northernmost boundaries of North America of the 17th century. This would bring to the location of Lago de Conibas being marked in the west of Saguenai and a settlement of Faga. Interestingly, Lago de Conibus was assumed to be one of the westernmost frontiers of North America at that time. 

To summarise in a nutshell, North America explored and mapped by early Europeans would be the regions between California to St. Lawrence River, but not including the entire central USA. It would then taper the coast of Florida and go up to the New Brunswick territory of Canada. Some of the settlements on the eastern coast of the United States are as follows: 

• Secotan (Secotan tribe, in today's North and South Carolina)
• Catokinge 
• Comokee
• Charlefort
• Pasquenok 
• Dasamoquepu (Dasamongueponke tribe, in North Carolina)
• Pameuck (Pampticough or Pomouik or Pomeiok tribe, North Carolina)
• Ipedra
• St. Helena

It would be unwise to say that this description has scratched the surface of the pre-European colonisation of Canada and the USA, as there were hundreds of other native people living on the entire continent. Subsequent conversion, systematic elimination and traumatisation of most of the tribes gave birth to modern townships, thus wiping out the existence of many native tribes. It is ironic that the phrase 'Red Indian' or 'Native Indian' is still stuck to these tribes because of an error of judgement of a European explorer when the fact is that none of these people ever had anything to do with India. 

Below here is a recreation of a map dating 1600, originally sketched by Matthias Quad, a German cartographer from Cologne. Interestingly, he was the first European mapmaker to use dotted lines to indicate international boundaries. To give a little more context, at this time the English East India Company was just born and while on one hand Asia and Europe were flourishing with empires such as the Great Moghul, the Ming, the Safavid, the Poland-Lithuania Confederation, the Iberian Union of Spain and Portugal, the fragmented Holy Roman Empire of German states, and the tri-continental Ottoman Empire, much of North America was yet to be explored. 

Northwest Passage, 1752

Northwest Passage is basically the sea-route (s) crossing the Bering Strait and going all the way along the Arctic Ocean through the Labrador Sea (between Greenland and Canada). The Northeast Passage also crosses through the Bering Strait but passes through the Arctic Ocean above Russia - the waters of Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea and passes through the Norwegian Sea between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. And as any unexplored adventure, Northwest Passage took numerous attempts by explorers starting from the 16th century. But, it would take several centuries for humans to actually traverse the entire sea-route. 

In 1906, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen would be the first person to travel all across the Northwest Passage. But going back to the late medieval ages, English explorers such as Martin Frobisher, John Davis, and Henry Hudson searched unsuccessfully for it from the Atlantic side in the late 1500s and early 1600s. The map here is dated 1752 and translation of a French one by Joseph Nicolas de L'Isle. It shows various discoveries by navigators and explorers such as Captain Tchikirkov, Admiral de Fonte, Jean de Fuca etc. 

Martin d'Aguilar, a Spanish explorer, was the first one to have discovered an entry point to today's Oregon state, back in 1603. He was also one of the earliest to map out the western coast of Oregon. Juan de Fuca (originally Ioannis Phokas), a Greek explorer found an entrance between Oregon and Vancouver in 1592, which he earlier thought as the divider between Asia and North America, and named it as Strait of Anián (today its literally known as Strait of Juan de Fuca). Aleksei Chirikov (Tchirikov) from Russia would be first Russian to reach the northwest from Kamchatka (spelled as Kamtschatka) peninsula, in 1741. And lastly, French Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte in 1640 discovered lands in northern Canada and had imagined a lake with few islands in it which was named as Lake de Fonte. A couple of other imaginary places were Valasco Lake, St. Lazarus Archipelago, the West Sea, Lake Belle, Lake Michinam etc. With further discoveries, these regions would now be part of the island chain in the Nunavut region of Canada. 

 

The map of northwest North America (which is majorly Alaska and some parts of Canada) got a slightly better sight of the Alaskan coast in the 1820s. By 1870s much of Canadian coast and islands were now discovered and were named after British subjects - Cockburn, Prince Patrick, Dundas, Cornwallis, Melville, Grinnell etc. Finally by early 20th century, all the boundaries of Canada and Alaska were discovered. The map here is lists out all the names mentioned in this post. 

 

 

Indian Trinidad

After the 1857-58 anti-Company revolts in northern India (or technically, Hindustan), the dominions of Awadh (or Oudh) and Bengal were left distraught. Extensive plundering and massacres at Cawnpore (Kanpur), Lucknow and adjoining areas led to severe political and economical turmoil. The transfer of power from the devastated East India Company into the hands of the Crown would officially take a couple of years but meanwhile another important series of event took place in India that somehow have slipped through the pages of history. Mostly because these events occurred outside the subcontinent and had less to do with the independence movement, but it involved millions of Indians and the concept of slavery was attached here as well. Interestingly, slavery was officially abolished in the 1830s but still there were several sugar and other plantations elsewhere that formerly required slaves - mostly those from the black community - that now were officially shut. And thus, the concept of 'immigrant slavery' or 'Girmitiya' came in.

Britain, France and Netherlands had their colonies all across the world. Particularly Oceania, Caribbean and South American countries, which had almost all the imperial colonists clubbed together. All the West Indies islands were colonized by some or the other European nation. But Indians were majorly migrated to the islands of Jamaica and Trinidad in particular, and the coastal fields of Dutch Guiana (Suriname) and British Guiana (Guyana). This map shall talk about the Indian migration in the tiny island of Trinidad.

When the island was first discovered by the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus in 1498, he named it as Isla La Santissima Trinidad. In 1592 it became part of the Spanish province 'Guyana y Trinidad' and by 1717 it was incorporated in Nueva Granada (Colombia). For a brief while between 1781 to 1793, it was a French colony which later on went into British hands and between 1802 it became an official British colony. Some 5-6 odd years later started the Indian settlement since the British couldn't officially incorporate African slaves now. In disguise of 'contracted agreements', they filled the island (and other territories such as Fiji, Mauritius, Jamaica, Guyana, Natal etc.) with roughly 25,000 Indians.

Although the incoming of Indians increased tremendously after the 1857-58 rebellion, the first ship that transported Indians to Trinidad was in 1845, when a ship named Fatel Razack (Fath Al Razack) brought 225 Indians, the first indentured workers to Trinidad. Among these, 21 workers were female. In this first 5 year period, 5568 immigrants arrived in Trinidad. Emigration to the West Indian colonies was again suspended between 1841 and 1851 due to fraud and coercion in the recruiting process in India, and the abuses experienced by emigrants in the West India. Once emigration was allowed again, ships once again began bringing indentured workers to Trinidad. In total, 16,262 indentured workers migrated to Trinidad in this decade. Initially, the journey from India to Trinidad averaged at about three months, but became substantially shorter and less turbulent with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Conditions on board the ships were cramped and depressing and there were frequent outbreaks of such diseases as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and measles which led to high mortality rates on some of the journeys.

By the 1870s, Indians had proven themselves as the virtual backbone of the sugar industry in Trinidad. Between 1875 – 1917, 92,243 emigrants were brought to Trinidad, and 75% of these came from the United Provinces, 13% from Bihar, less than 4% each from Central India, Nepal, and Punjab. The Hosay massacre (also known as the Hosay riots or the Jahaji massacre) took place on Thursday 30 October 1884 in San Fernando, Trinidad when the British colonial authorities fired on participants in the annual Hosay procession (the local name for the Shi'a Festival of Muharram) who had been banned from entering the town. 

The Indian indentured system officially ended in Trinidad in 1917. But the Indian diaspora still lives on. Numerous towns and settlements are named after Indian (and south Asian) cities. The 'chutney music' is a fusion of Indian and Caribbean culture which was also used in a Bollywood film Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Interestingly, according to the 2011 census, nearly 14.1% of Trinidad population has Indian origin out of which nearly 50% are Hindus. Places such as Fyzabad, Golconda, Hindustan, Madras, Chandennagore, Matura (Mathura), Malabad, Bangladesh, Delhi, Patna, Bombay Street, Calcutta etc. can be found on this tiny island. The map here is of today's Trinidad and all the place names derived from Indian origin are marked on it.

USA before USA

For a good amount of time since the 19th century, US didn't change much of their boundaries. When all the 50 states (excluding Alaska) were organized, the internal borders remained unchanged. Previously, states like Dakota, Virginia and Carolina were divided at various points in the US history. But when we talk about early 18th century when US was still divided into Spanish, French and British colonies, a lot of territorial changes took place.

It was 1607 and 1620 when the British founded its earliest colonies on the American coast - Jamestown in Virginia and Plymouth Bay in Massachusetts. The northeastern region, which is still known as New England, was actually a dominion of territories formed between 1686 to 1689. Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire and Plymouth formed Dominion of New England in 1686. In the next three years, Rhode Island, Connecticut (spelled as Conexticut on certain maps), East Jersey, West Jersey and New York were added later. On older maps, this would be shown neighboring territories such as Acadia, New Scotland (Nova Scotia) which were basically English colonies in Canada.

Pennsylvania was made an English proprietary colony in 1682 and there were a couple of territorial exchanges between Virginia, New York and Connecticut. Till about 1774, today's territories of Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Central New York were part of Pennsylvania (spelled as Pensilvania on some old maps). On even older maps, Pennsylvania is shown with improper and unorganized boundaries.

Between 1674 and 1702, New Jersey was divided into two parts - West Jersey and East Jersey (also mentioned as West New Jersey and East New Jersey on some old maps). The territories would stretch as far as the Capital Region and Mid-Hudson regions of today's New York state.

Maryland (also mentioned at various places as Marylandia) had poorly organized borders before its final shape came in the early 1700s. Maryland had claims over lands in Pennsylvania - from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Dutch Country.

The Carolinas were partitioned in 1712 but if one looks at the older maps, both North and South were pretty much straight parallel lines sketched below Virginia, crossing the southern boundaries and going as far as California in the west (Carolina Charters of 1663 and 1665). The boundaries were later adjusted based on various treaties signed - Proclamation Line of 1763 (which prohibited the Indians to cross the English controlled territories), separation of Georgia in 1732, ceding of western territories to Georgia in 1787, creation of Tennessee in 1796 and slowly giving shapes to what today are North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Virginia was a massive territory with claims extending all the way to Great Lakes (1609 Virginia Charter). At one point of time, the island of Bermuda was also administrated by Virginia (1612-1614). Two major states evolved from Virginia colony - Kentucky (1792) and West Virginia (1863). Post 1784, territories beyond the Ohio (or Fair) River were seceded and new states would be formed later.

Vermont and Maine would be the two other states slicing out of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Under the Dominion of New England, this territory was a Crown Colony between 1686 to 1691. Adding to this in 1691 would be territories of New Scotland (Nova Scotia), Colony of Plymouth, Province of Maine, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. New Hampshire would separate out in 1679 and Nova Scotia in 1696. As soon as Vermont (also formerly known as New Hampshire Grants) was created in 1777, it entered into an intermediary phase of being known as Vermont Republic till 1791.

It would take another century for the US states to resolve its border issues within themselves and with neighboring territories of New Spain (Mexico), British Canada, Hudson's Bay Company, Nova Scotia etc. The two maps here shows difference between how the northeastern regions were in the early 18th century and how shapes changed to form the 'First Thirteen Colonies', that would later declare independence from the English on 4th July 1776 to form the United States of America.

THE CARIBBEAN, 18th century

The island of Guanahani (today's San Salvador) was the land where Christopher Columbus landed in 1492 as believed by many scholars. But it was Hispaniola that was first colonized by Spaniards followed by the French. By the 1600s every island in the Caribbean was under the Spanish. The Dutch started colonizing in 1616 and later were joined by the British and French (1623) and Denmark-Norway in 1672. A brief colonization by the Duchy of Courland (in today's Latvia) between 1637 to 1690 and by the Order of Malta in 1651 also took place.

But even more interesting is the nomenclature of these islands and to see how things changed through history. For example, the Bahamas wasn't always the name of these chain of islands. On old maps one would find the name Isles Lucayes while Bahama is marked as a tiny island closest to Florida. Today the island's name is Grand Bahama Island and has a town named Lucaya. Also, the size of the islands mapped by early Europeans was much bigger than its original size, which looks like skinny strands of lands scattered between Florida, Cuba and Hispaniola.

Today the island group is popularly known as West Indies or the Caribbean Islands. Interestingly, the Lesser Antilles group of islands starting from the US Virgin Islands to Grenada were known as Isles Caribes (translating to Caribbean Islands) in olden days. Hispaniola has been referred to as Isle de Santo Domingue, the derivation of Santo Domingo (capital of Dominican Republic). Santo Domingo is also the name of plenty of towns and cities from USA to South America and also in Philippines (since it being a former Spanish colony). Jamaica was a former Spanish colony before occupied by the British and was written as La Iamaica, Cuba has been spelled as 'Isle Cuba de la Couve', Santiago is Sant Iago, Puerto Rico is written as Porto Rico etc.

While Britain, France and Spain occupied islands in most of the West Indies, the Dutch were restricted to Lesser Antilles islands such as Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. They were part of the Netherlands Antilles, a constituent country under the Kingdom of Netherlands between 1954 to 2010. The three islands are currently individual constituent countries under the Kingdom of Netherlands. A tiny entity called as Caribbean Netherlands consisting of special municipalities such as Saba, St. Eustatius along with Bonaire also belongs to the Kingdom of Netherlands.

At present there are still dependencies, special administrative units, overseas departments etc. of various European countries still existing in the Caribbean. The Virgin Islands territories are divided into the UK and the USA, making it one of the only two unincorporated and organized US territories in the Caribbean (other being Puerto Rico).

Below here is a map of 18th century Caribbean islands that had just been scrambled between all the mighty European powers.

ARCTIC OCEAN 1607

Arctic Ocean exploration has been a mystery to early explorers and geographers. Often this region would be marked as unexplored or partially explored or just assumed a lake surrounded by islands. The area has been labelled as "Oceanus Septentrionalis", which in Latin would be translated as 'Northern Ocean'. Most of the exploration of the Arctic Ocean and North Pole would start in the 19th century but this post shall discuss about how maps (around this region) were imagined before that time.

On 16th century maps, North Pole (or simply, Pole) is written in Latin as Nortvs Polvs. One has to note that the letter 'U' was not in printed use till the mid-18th century on French maps and hence most Latin and French maps pre-18th century used the letter 'V' instead. So it's technically 'Nortus Polus' and it would be surrounded by chunks of islands such as Groenland (Greenland), Island (Iceland), Groclant, t'Nieulant and Nova Zembla (Novaya Zemlya, Russia), and since much of the North America was yet to be discovered by the Europeans, 'Americae Pars' would denote as 'part of America'.

We know about Greenland, Novaya Zemlya and Iceland. But throughout history there are certain places that never actually existed but one would find a lot in old maps. Groclant is one such example. Some believe it was mistaken to be Baffin Island, others say it could be mispronunciation to Greenland (although Greenland already existed). Another interesting label was to put California near a place called 'Bargu' just below the Arctic Circle (as Circulus Articus). Even more interesting is the existence of a Belgian Desert near Mongolia. None of the reasons can be justified except for the ones that a lot of assumptions, errors and approximations were made on old maps before the 18th century innovations.

Before everything around this was labelled as Arctic Ocean, water bodies such as Oceanus Septentrionalis (Northern Ocean), Oceanus Scythicus (Scythian Ocean), El Straito de Anian (Strait of Anian), Petzorke Mare (Petzorke Sea), Myrmanskoi Mare (Murmansk Sea) etc. None of these water bodies exist presently and we find water bodies such as Beaufort Sea, Greenland Sea, Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea etc. surrounding the Arctic Ocean.

18th century maps improved and one could see the islands around today's North Pole disappeared. Even though Canadian borders were yet undefined, Arctic was shown surrounded by Russia, Spitzberg (Spitsbergen, part of Svalbard, Norway), Greenland and fragments of North America. An interesting feature in older maps was if an area was undiscovered or less navigated or poorly explored, the boundaries weren't shown. Similar trend would continue till early 19th century and it wasn't till late 1800s when a correct, more authentic and proper demarcation was incorporated. And with the discovery of today's North Pole (the exact location) in 1909, more improved maps were made.

The map here is a representation of a 1607 version of Arctic Ocean by early Flemish geographers.

THE ERA OF CALIFORNIA ISLAND

It's interesting to know how early explorers misjudged sizes and geography of the world and assumed a lot based on mythical and fantasy stories. 13th and 14th century cartographers and geographers assumed there existed numerous fable characters from heaven and made divine stories on them. Then came the concept of 'phantom islands' or 'ghost lands' - fictional continents, seas, islands all across the globe. One such misinterpretation was to believe California (today part of USA and Mexico) as an island. The whole of today's California (the US state) and two provinces of Mexico - Baja California and Baja California Sur - were together believed to be one single island till the mid-18th century.

California has been mentioned at various erroneous locations in old maps. Some have even located it near Arctic Ocean (which, as explained in of the previous posts here, was again assumed as a cluster of islands) or just to the right of the Indies (the Caribbean islands) etc. Early Spanish explorers arrived to California in the 1500s and saw some waterfalls and assumed that it would be intense enough to separate the land from the rest of the continent (which itself was less explored by that time). What is even more interesting is that they made it official and on several maps with a large amount of North America explored, California is still shown as an island.

In early 17th century, the Spanish ships sailed once again to verify this and when some of the Jesuits arrived, they traveled as far as Santa Cruz River Valley (which is today's Mexico-US border near Arizona) and saw Colorado River draining into the Sea of Cortes (today's Gulf of Mexico). Even after reporting this news that there is still land beyond that point, the Spanish (and other European) mapmakers clung to their strong belief, so much so that one of them even claimed to have sailed around the island. Finally in 1747, this debate was ended and one could now see California as a fully integrated part of the mainland.

Since the beginning, California was surrounded by territories such as Nova Albion (New England) in the north, Mexicvm Novum (New Mexico; much bigger than today's) in the east, a stretch of territory marked as Florida or Louisiana in the far east and Mar Del Svd Del Zvr (technically, Mar del Sud del Zur or Sur; South Sea) in the west. Even till the end of the 18th century, the name 'California' was used only to denote the Mexican one and the American part was still called as New Albion. In early 1820s maps, one would see the name slowly changing to New California (the American part) and Old California (the Mexican part). The separation of names came only in the 1830s when on maps one could clearly see California and Baja California as two separate entities.

In 1846 for a brief period, California separated from both Mexico (California was yet to join the US by this time) to form California Republic covering today's American California, Arizona, New Mexico and adjacent parts. The Bear Flag Revolt, as its popularly known was subsided by US forces and in 1850, California became an American state. It's interesting as even now the flag of California has 'California Republic' mentioned on it with a bear marked, symbolizing the 19th century revolt.

The map here is of the 16th-17th century era when California was believed to be an island.

USA in mid-1800s : massive territorial changes

By 1850s, the eastern part of today's USA was properly defined (except the partitioning of Virginia). The western part started to evolve dramatically giving rise to numerous new states such as Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma etc. By early December 1850, the last tiny territory of Horseshoe Reef (in Lake Erie) was purchased from the United Kingdom. And from late December, interesting acquisitions began.

Towards the end of December 1850, territorial exchanges took place between Texas, New Mexico and Utah Territory (whose boundaries were different from what they are now) to form a couple of 'unorganized territories'. An intermediate territory called as State of Deseret, that was spread out between California, Oregon Territory and Utah Territory was now dissolved and a part of Oregon Territory was carved out to form Washington Territory. By 1854, new organized territories of Kansas, Nebraska and Indian Territory was carved out, of whose maps were much bigger than today's. By 1859, Oregon Territory was reorganized to form proper Oregon state with remaining area going to Washington Territory. Same year another intermediary region called Jefferson Territory was formed snatching lands from Territories of Kansas, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Nebraska.

Jumping to 1861 when things started to appear a little more dramatic. Utah Territory is now sliced partially to form Nevada Territory, Colorado is already carved out (not yet a state) from the same Utah Territory and a new area is about to get formed - Dakota (spelled originally as Dacotah). The American Civil War has just started and Jefferson Territory is now dissolved. By 1863, another new territory is carved out of the Washington Territory - Idaho Territory. This would be followed by Montana in 1864, and with the ending of the war, Nevada becomes a proper state. By 1869, most of the western part was organized although some of the territories were yet to attain statehood.

After two decades, Dakota is now divided into North Dakota and South Dakota and at the end of 1880s, Montana and Washington would be attaining statehood. 1890s would follow up with Idaho and a new state of Wyoming. In 1907 the Indian Territory would be reorganized as Oklahoma and incorporated as a state. New Mexico and Arizona would become states in 1912.

Technically, it was 1977 when the last territorial dispute between American states on mainland USA would be resolved; a tiny piece of land ceding from Texas to Mexico. Prior to this several other interstate or US-Canada or US-Mexico territorial conflicts were settled down. And if we count the territorial anomalies or changes outside mainland USA, it would be the gaining of independence of Palau in 1994 which was formerly part of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (a group of Micronesian territories such as Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands and Palau out of which only Northern Mariana Islands are even today part of USA).

Also interesting is to see changes in administrative headquarters of these territories and states. Oregon's capital was Corvallis before it changed to Salem in 1855. Fillmore City is shown as the administrative HQ of Utah before it changed to Salt Lake City in 1855 again. Topeka was changed from Lawrence in 1856 for Kansas and Omaha City served capital of Nebraska before Lincoln became in 1867. These were the 'de facto' capitals before a proper headquarter was planned out.

Its interesting again as USA once had its territories all across the globe except Europe (if Liberia and Panama - which was part of Colombia before 1903 - are considered as well). At present except for some islands in Pacific Ocean and in Caribbean Sea (which are known as Unincorporated Territories), USA doesn't have any other colonies or land territories.