3.2 Case Study: Changing Worldviews: Maps
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Case Study: Changing Worldviews: Maps
If you were to imagine a map of the world, where would North America be? How big would it be?
Would your world look like this...
Or this?
Both maps show a space view of the world. The first map shows North
America at the top of the globe and South America is only partially
visible. The second map is a reverse projection that shows South America
on the top and North America partially visible.
How we see the world, and where we see our place in it, is part of our worldview. Early cartographers
put their own part of the world in the middle of the map. Not only
that, they often made their part of the world bigger than it really is.
Mercator Map Projection
In 1569, Gerardus Mercator published a map that is in common use today. He designed this map so navigators on ships could calculate distances and navigate the seas more easily. On a globe, the lines of longitude meet at the poles. On Mercator's map, these lines are parallel, which causes the Northern Hemisphere to appear very large. The Mercator projection represents shapes similar to how they appear on the globe, but it distorts the sizes of countries. For example, Africa and Greenland appear to be about the same size; in reality, Africa is fourteen times larger than Greenland! We must remember that Mercator was simplifying the charting of routes by sea captains; every route was a straight line on the map although the earth is actually spherical.
In 1569, Gerardus Mercator published a map that is in common use today. He designed this map so navigators on ships could calculate distances and navigate the seas more easily. On a globe, the lines of longitude meet at the poles. On Mercator's map, these lines are parallel, which causes the Northern Hemisphere to appear very large. The Mercator projection represents shapes similar to how they appear on the globe, but it distorts the sizes of countries. For example, Africa and Greenland appear to be about the same size; in reality, Africa is fourteen times larger than Greenland! We must remember that Mercator was simplifying the charting of routes by sea captains; every route was a straight line on the map although the earth is actually spherical.
Think about How do maps influence how we think about the world?
If we put our own nation in the middle, does that encourage us to think we are more important than the other nations? If we always see our nation at the bottom of a world map, are we encouraged to think we are less important or less connected to the real power in the world? If we can easily find our city or town, does that encourage us to believe we have an important place in the world?
If we put our own nation in the middle, does that encourage us to think we are more important than the other nations? If we always see our nation at the bottom of a world map, are we encouraged to think we are less important or less connected to the real power in the world? If we can easily find our city or town, does that encourage us to believe we have an important place in the world?
Maps do, however, shape our understanding of world history because they reveal how different cultures have understood the world.