Knowing the right distances would be extremely important for them. Columbus thought the world map looked like this, which is why he set out on his trip and why almost everyone in Portugal and Spain (rightfully) thought he was an idiot. He got lucky there was an entire continent between Europe and Asia.
We would if the focus of the map was to depict the routes of the first explorers.
Very good point!
Knowing the right distances would be extremely important for them. Columbus thought the world map looked like this, which is why he set out on his trip and why almost everyone in Portugal and Spain (rightfully) thought he was an idiot. He got lucky there was an entire continent between Europe and Asia.