In an era when world maps were not yet common, people had very little knowledge about the shapes and distributions of continents. It wasn't until the late 16th century that Dutch scholar Gerhardus Mercator created the first world map, which provided a preliminary understanding of the Earth's geography. By the late 19th century, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener made a remarkable discovery: the coastlines of West Africa and East South America remarkably resembled each other. This observation inspired him to propose the theory of continental drift.
Wegener believed that in ancient times, the Earth consisted of a single massive landmass known as Pangaea, which gradually split and drifted to its current positions due to the effects of Earth's rotation and gravitational forces from celestial bodies. In 1912, Wegener published a paper outlining his theory. Despite facing skepticism from many, the theory of continental drift gradually gained support in the scientific community as oceanic geological research advanced and paleomagnetism developed. Today, precise measurements from satellites have confirmed that continents are indeed moving slowly.
