<P> The Vespucci passage above applied the "New World" label to merely the continental landmass of South America . At the time, most of the continent of North America was not yet discovered, and Vespucci's comments did not eliminate the possibility that the islands of the Antilles discovered earlier by Christopher Columbus might still be the eastern edges of Asia, as Columbus continued to insist down to his dying day . A critical step in the transition was the conference of navigators (Junta de Navegantes) assembled by the Spanish monarchs at Toro in 1505, and continued at Burgos in 1508, to digest all existing information about the Indies, come to an agreement on what had really been discovered, and set out the future goals of Spanish exploration . Amerigo Vespucci attended both conferences, and seems to have had an outsized influence on them - Vespucci ended up being appointed the first piloto mayor, the chief of navigation of Spain, at Burgos . Although the proceedings of the Toro - Burgos conferences are missing, it is almost certain that Vespucci articulated his recent "New World" thesis to his fellow navigators there . It was during these conferences when Spanish officials seem to have finally accepted that the Antilles and the known stretch of Central America were definitely not the Indies they had originally sought, and Columbus had insisted they were, and set out the new goal for Spanish explorers: to find a sea passage or strait through the Americas which would permit them to sail to Asia proper . In English usage the term "New World" was problematic and only accepted relatively late . </P> <P> While it became generally accepted after Vespucci that Columbus's discoveries were not Asia but a "New World", the geographic relationship between the two continents was still unclear . That there must be a large ocean between Asia and the Americas was implied by the known existence of vast continuous sea along the coasts of East Asia . Given the size of the Earth as calculated by Eratosthenes this left a large space between Asia and the newly discovered lands . </P> <P> Even prior to Vespucci, several maps, e.g. the Cantino planisphere of 1502 and the Canerio map of 1504, placed a large open ocean between China on the east side of the map, and the inchoate largely water - surrounded North American and South American discoveries on the western side of map . However, out of uncertainty, they depicted a finger of the Asian land mass stretching across the top to the eastern edge of the map, suggesting it carried over into the western hemisphere (e.g. the Cantino Planisphere denotes Greenland as "Punta d'Asia" - "edge of Asia"). Some maps, e.g. the 1506 Contarini--Rosselli map and the 1508 Johannes Ruysch map, bowing to Ptolemaic authority and Columbus's assertions, have the northern Asian landmass stretching well into the western hemisphere and merging with known North America (Labrador, Newfoundland, etc .). These maps place the island of Japan near Cuba and leave the South American continent - Vespucci's "New World" proper - detached and floating below by itself . The Waldseemüller map of 1507, which accompanied the famous Cosmographiae Introductio volume (which includes reprints of Vespucci's letters) comes closest to modernity by placing a completely open sea (with no stretching land fingers) between Asia on the eastern side and the New World (being represented two times in the same map in a different way: with and without a sea passage in the middle of what is now named Central America) on the western side - which (on what is now named South America) that same map famously labels simply "America". However, Martin Waldseemüller's map of 1516 retreats considerably from his earlier map and back to classical authority, with the Asian land mass merging into North America (which he now calls Terra de Cuba Asie partis), and quietly drops the "America" label from South America, calling it merely Terra Incognita . </P> <P> The western coast of the New World - the Pacific Ocean - was only discovered in 1513 by Vasco Núñez de Balboa . But it would take a few more years - Ferdinand Magellan's voyage of 1519 - 22 - to determine that the Pacific definitely formed a single large body of water separating Asia from the Americas . It would be several more years before the Pacific Coast of North America was mapped, dispelling lingering doubts . Of course, until the discovery of the Bering Straits in the 17th century, there was no absolute confirmation that Asia and North America were not connected, and some European maps of the 16th century still continued to hopefully depict North America connected by a land bridge to Asia (e.g. the 1533 Johannes Schöner globe). </P>

What was the new world and old world