Final answer:
The term 'New World' was coined by Amerigo Vespucci in his work 'Mundus Novus' in 1504. It was later popularized through maps and writings, including Martin Waldseemuller's map in 1507, which first used the name 'America' for the new continents.
Step-by-step explanation:
Who Coined the Term 'New World'?
The term 'New World' was coined to describe the Americas in a travel account titled Mundus Novus, which was published by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci in 1504. Vespucci's realization that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus were not Asia but a previously unknown continent led to the use of this term.
Intrigued European readers, including the influential mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller, propelled the term into widespread use with the publication of maps and texts. Waldseemuller famously attached the name America to his map of the new continents in 1507, a name that has endured to this day.
Christopher Columbus himself, despite his significant voyages and discoveries, mistakenly believed that he had reached the East Indies. It was not until later that the understanding of the Americas as a separate landmass became common knowledge, largely because of the works and explorations of Amerigo Vespucci and others after Columbus's initial voyages.