My latest review from CurrClick:
This book consists of 25 blackline maps (each in versions both with and without labels) that cover the period from 1600 – 1850. Of these, twelve deal with the region normally called the New World (i.e. North, Central & South America with surrounding oceans.) Australia, discovered by Europeans in the 17th century and settled as a penal colony in the late 18th century, is represented in one map that simply shows the voyages of James Cook and Abel Tazman in the region. The other half of the book is given over to maps that can be used to situate the events of the New World against the background of world history: the expansion of Russia and of Sweden; Elizabethan London and the Industrial Revolution in England; the United Netherlands which established colonies in the New World; the kingdoms of China & Japan during the period; the exploitation of Africa, etc.
Maps in the book tend to be very simple, often with no scale or key although some do include this. Labelling is clear and easy to read, and I can’t say just how important this is! So many of the maps I have found elsewhere were drawn in the period, and are so crowded with details as to make them pretty much useless. I also appreciate that the book uses the land shapes that we have been taught to recognize, rather than reverting to the shapes drawn by the explorers themselves, which can appear distorted or incomplete.
As the main political divides in North America from the 15th to 17th centuries existed in what lands belonged to the English or French and not at the 49th parallel, I did find the collection lacking in maps dealing with lands now part of Canada. The map of “Native American Tribal Groups 1600 – 1850,” for example, includes only tribes encountered to the south of the current US-Canadian border – a line that only came into existence in 1783. This is a rather arbitrary cut-off considering the time frame and, not to put too fine a point on it, results in the complete omission of peoples representing three entire language families and in the neglect of the greater majority of the Na-Dene and Algic speakers – these families being two of the three largest aboriginal groups in what is now the United States and Canada.
Similarly, the map entitled “Europeans Settle in America 1607 – 1624″ completely misses out Quebec City (founded in 1608) and Montreal (founded in 1611) both of which are still standing today and have had significance from the 17th, right into the 21st century. Canada isn’t even mentioned in the list of geographical regions covered at the beginning of the book – although Tasmania, Estonia and the Sahara Desert get a mention.
For those who need a basic, low-cost package of maps to help with the study of American history during the Age of Exploration, this book is a wonderful buy. Educators need not hunt high and low, or try to draw maps of their own, to find easy outlines that will fulfill their needs. The accompanying “lesson plans” offer a handful of ideas for how to use each map, and there is both a glossary and a list of regions that can be used for vocabulary/spelling lessons. Combined with timelines and narrations from texts read, these maps contribute to the creation of a personal history of which the student can be proud. I am happy to see this perennial favourite available as a quick, low-cost download!
NOTE: Those educators who expect to be using the entire Knowledge Quest Maps collection (5000 BC to present) are advised that a bundle is available on CurrClick, at a significant savings.
Average Rating: 5 / 5 
New World Blackline Maps
Knowledge Quest
Supplied by CurrClick; Cost $11.24 US on discount
This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and was originally published at CurrClick. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
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Tags: 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, Age of Discovery, Age of Exploration, blackline maps, New World, printables, teaching social studies
