3.2.2 Maps
Completion requirements
3.2.2 Maps
How should contemporary society respond to the legacies of historical globalization?
If you were to imagine a map of the world, where would North America be? How large would it be?
Would your world map look like this...
Reverse Projection
Image in the public domain
The first map shows the world from space — with North America in the middle. Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa are partially visible, and Australia cannot be seen.
The second is a reverse projection map that shows Antarctica on the top and Australia in the middle. This type of map is becoming popular in Australia and New Zealand.
Of course, you can ask why north is usually up on maps! Take a globe into your hands and turn it to view it from various angles — note the various possible perspectives. . . . and remember that up means away from the earth.
Where do you fit in? A Grade 3 student in Canada's Far North was learning about world geography. She could locate easily her settlement, Fort Resolution, high on the globe on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake. "Here I am!" she exclaimed. "And here is Yellowknife," she pointed to the little dot representing the territorial capital, directly north of the lake. She could see herself as a significant part of a larger world.
Later that year, she went on a bus trip to Edmonton. As the bus drove through High Level, Peace River, and Grande Prairie, she asked her teacher, "How many people live in this town?" Although each one was significantly larger than Fort Resolution, none of these towns were marked on her globe.
In her childhood experience, Fort Resolution, a tiny community of fewer than 500 people, was the centre of her world. In the context of what she had learned by looking at the globe, Fort Resolution was of greater international significance than many other larger communities elsewhere on the world.
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 other nations? If we can find our city or town easily, does that encourage us to believe we have an important place in the world?
How we see the world and where we see our place in it is part of our worldview. Map-makers have the challenge of peeling the orange of Earth and making it lie flat without tearing or stretching it â an impossibility! Early cartographers put their own part of the world in the middle of the map. This meant that they often made their part of the world bigger than it really is. (You try it with a globe. Look at the globe with your own location directly in front of you. Glance around to see what happens to the shapes and sizes of other parts of the globe â and you cannot even see the other side of Earth!)
Would your world map look like this...
Spaceview
Michael Pidwirny,University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Michael Pidwirny,University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Reverse Projection
Image in the public domain
The first map shows the world from space — with North America in the middle. Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa are partially visible, and Australia cannot be seen.
The second is a reverse projection map that shows Antarctica on the top and Australia in the middle. This type of map is becoming popular in Australia and New Zealand.
Of course, you can ask why north is usually up on maps! Take a globe into your hands and turn it to view it from various angles — note the various possible perspectives. . . . and remember that up means away from the earth.
Where do you fit in? A Grade 3 student in Canada's Far North was learning about world geography. She could locate easily her settlement, Fort Resolution, high on the globe on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake. "Here I am!" she exclaimed. "And here is Yellowknife," she pointed to the little dot representing the territorial capital, directly north of the lake. She could see herself as a significant part of a larger world.
Later that year, she went on a bus trip to Edmonton. As the bus drove through High Level, Peace River, and Grande Prairie, she asked her teacher, "How many people live in this town?" Although each one was significantly larger than Fort Resolution, none of these towns were marked on her globe.
In her childhood experience, Fort Resolution, a tiny community of fewer than 500 people, was the centre of her world. In the context of what she had learned by looking at the globe, Fort Resolution was of greater international significance than many other larger communities elsewhere on the world.
Reflect
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 other nations? If we can find our city or town easily, does that encourage us to believe we have an important place in the world?
How we see the world and where we see our place in it is part of our worldview. Map-makers have the challenge of peeling the orange of Earth and making it lie flat without tearing or stretching it â an impossibility! Early cartographers put their own part of the world in the middle of the map. This meant that they often made their part of the world bigger than it really is. (You try it with a globe. Look at the globe with your own location directly in front of you. Glance around to see what happens to the shapes and sizes of other parts of the globe â and you cannot even see the other side of Earth!)
Mercator Projection
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
The Mercator projection: The Mercator map from 1569 is used commonly today. It was designed to make navigation of ships easier because straight lines represented the shortest distances between points. (Of course, that required the poles not be be points but to have the same length as the equator! In fact, the Mercator map seems to say, Imagine Earth as a rectangle rather than a sphere.) On a Mercator projection, Africa and Greenland appear about the same size. In reality, Africa is fourteen times larger than Greenland!
Eurocentric attitudes: The Mercator projection makes the northern hemisphere look far larger than it is. This map showed the European and North American people that their countries were bigger than they were, which supported their their ideas about their importance in the world and in world history.
Eurocentric attitudes: The Mercator projection makes the northern hemisphere look far larger than it is. This map showed the European and North American people that their countries were bigger than they were, which supported their their ideas about their importance in the world and in world history.
The Peters projection: In 1974, a cartographer named Arno Peters published a projection meant to correct problems with the Mercator projection. It represents accurately the size of the continents, but it distorts their shapes. Can you see how much smaller North America and Europe appear, and how much larger Africa is? But notice also how stretched Alaska is or how skinny South America and Africa are.
Neither one is correct! Making a flat map that represents the round shape of the earth is difficult. Try peeling an orange in one piece, then flatten it. It will tear or stretch in various places! Neither the Mercator nor the Peters projection portrays the world accurately.
Neither one is correct! Making a flat map that represents the round shape of the earth is difficult. Try peeling an orange in one piece, then flatten it. It will tear or stretch in various places! Neither the Mercator nor the Peters projection portrays the world accurately.
Gall Peters Projection
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Robinson Projection
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Michael Pidwirny, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
The Robinson projection is a newer map that tries to correct the problems of previous maps. Again, you can see how much bigger Africa is in comparison with other parts of the world — and Africa is big. You can see how tiny Greenland really is!
Newer maps are being developed to show the world's actual appearance. Perhaps you have seen some interrupted projections that seem to tear the orange peel of Earth's surface in the oceans instead of stretching everything out of shape. They show shape and relative size with better accuracy.
Newer maps are being developed to show the world's actual appearance. Perhaps you have seen some interrupted projections that seem to tear the orange peel of Earth's surface in the oceans instead of stretching everything out of shape. They show shape and relative size with better accuracy.