Places Named After Old Country Geographic Locations

Places Named After Old Country Geographic Locations What is the geographic connection between the province Nova Scotia in Canada and French New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean? The connection is actually in their names. Have you ever wondered why in many of the worlds centers of immigration like the United States, Canada, and Australia there are plenty of settlements with names like New Denmark, New Sweden, New Norway, New Germany, etc.? Even one of the Australian states is named New South Wales. These many new geographical places - New York, New England, New Jersey and many others in the New World are actually named after the original ones in the Old World. After the discovery of the Americas a necessity for new names appeared. The blank map needed to be filled in. Very often the new places were named after European geographical locations by just adding new to the original name. There are possible explanations for this choice a desire for commemoration, a feeling of homesickness, for political reasons, or due to the presence of physical similarities. It often turns out that the namesakes are more famous than the original ones, yet there a few new places that have disappeared in history. Famous "New Places New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico are the four new states in the United States. New York City, which gave the name to the state, has an interesting story. The English city of York is the father of its more famous new version. Before becoming part of the British North American colonies, New York was the capital of the colony known as New Netherland and bore the thematic name New Amsterdam. The small county Hampshire in the south of England gave its name to New Hampshire, in New England. The British crown dependency Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, is the original of New Jersey. Only in the case of New Mexico, there is no transatlantic connection. Its name has an easily explained origin related to the history of the U.S. and Mexico relations. There is also the case of New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana, which historically has French origins. Being part of New France (present-day Louisiana) the city was named after an important man - the Duke of Orleans, Orleans is a city in the Loire valley in Central France. Famous Old Places Speaking of Spain, we have to mention the idea of New Spain, another example of a former overseas territory named after a country. New Spain consisted of the present-day Central American countries, some Caribbean islands and southwestern parts of the U.S. Its existence lasted exactly 300 years. Officially, it was established immediately after the collapse of the Aztec Empire in 1521 and ended with Mexicos independence in 1821. Other "Old" and "New" Connections The Romans labeled Scotland as Caledonia so the present French New Caledonia island in the Pacific is the new version of Scotland. New Britain and New Ireland are islands in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. The name New Guinea itself is chosen because of the natural similarities between the island and the Guinea region in Africa. The outdated British colonial name of the Pacific nation Vanuatu is New Hebrides. The old Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of Great Britain. Zealand is the largest Danish island on which the capital city Copenhagen is located. However, the country of New Zealand is definitely a more famous place than the European original. New Granada (1717-1819) was a Spanish viceroyalty in Latin America encompassing the territories of modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Granada is a city and an important historical place in Andalusia, Spain. New Holland was Australias name for almost two centuries. The name was suggested by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1644. Holland is presently part of the Netherlands. New Australia is a utopian settlement established in Paraguay by Australian socialists at the end of the nineteenth century.