4/15 geography question

Factual Questions
1

  1. Anthropologists beleive it may have been inhabited for as long as 13,000 years.

  2. On a 1640 Dutch map, it’s named for the European explorer whom discovered it. However he had already named it what we know it as today.

  3. In early 19th century, Darwin compared some inhabitants to depraved animals.

  4. For centuries it was beleived to be connected to the larger landmass Terra Australis .

I’m guessing Tasmania, but would like some confirmation.

Thanks again in advance.

2

It’s Tasmania, discovered by Abel Tasman. He also discovered New Zealand (after the Maori did, of course.)

3

How does Tasmania fit condition 2? Your link states (AFAIK) correctly, that he discovered it and named it Van Dieman’s Land. But we don’t call it VDL today. We call it Tasmania. So in effect, it’s the opposite of what the second sentence of condition 2 says.
How about Australia itself? I know that Terra Australis was once considered to be a massive continent extending far to the south, and that originally, Australia was thought to be an outcropping of this continent. Maybe the 1640 map called Australia “Tasmania”. The weakness of this is that others had discovered bits of Australia before Tasman.

4

I say Tierra Del Fuego

  1. It was once named after Magellan who discovered it. Tasmania can’t fit because it currently is called Tasmania.
  2. Darwin had some bad things to say about the people here
  3. Terra Australis is Antartic which is righ nect to Tierra del Fuego
5

Actually, to correct myself Terra Australis isn’t Antartica but an imaginary southern landmass

6

Yep its Tierra del Fuego or Magellanica.

7

You’re right! The 13,000 years should’ve been the give-away. Tasmania was populated much longer ago than that. My bad.

8

What the hell is the question? :confused: [sup]completely[/sup]

9

I think it might be Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
History
It is believed that Papua New Guinea was originally inhabited by Asian settlers over 50,000 years ago. The first European contact in 1526-27 was by the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses, who named the island Ilhas dos Papuas (Island of the Fuzzy Hairs). The Spaniard Inigo Ortiz de Retes later called it New Guinea because he thought the people similar to those of Guinea in Africa. Further exploration followed, including landings by Bougainville, Cook, Stanley and John Moresby.

10

Sounds like Tierra del Fuego. I’ll post back tomorrow when she gets the answer.

Thanks again everyone.

11

See point #1 in the OP.

12

One interesting little tidbit about Tasman that I think is true is that, although he discovered a lot of things on his voyages, he sailed completely around the continent of Australia without ever seeing it. Quite a feat.

13

It was Tierra del Fuego.

Thanks again for the help. New one should posted Tues or Wed next week.

14

woo hoo