Remarkable Maps: 100 Examples of How Cartography Defined, Changed and Stole the World

Cartography provides marvellous waypoints for changes in different cultures through history, both scientifically and artistically. It can also be an expression of political struggle and aspiration. Some maps have been weapons. Anyone who doubts this need only trace the bitter history of the Balkans. Some of the maps in this book had devastating consequences, such as the 1885 map of Africa that carved up the continent among the European colonial powers. Some maps are simply beautiful, such as the ‘Dream Time’ maps of the Australian Aborigines or the brilliantly engraved Dutch maps of the 16th century. Others are scientifically outstanding for various reasons, like William Smith’s geological map of England and Wales, the work of one man that profoundly changed our understanding of geological forces and at the same time revolutionised the science of paleontology. The maps considered here include pure works of the imagination, like the maps of Middle-Earth in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, surely the most mapped non-existent place ever. Some are sinister, even disturbing: consider the Nazi ‘Utopian’ city plan. What all the maps have is their own fascinating story. The cartographic achievement of Lewis and Clark in mapping the American West is one of the great adventures, as is the British mapping of all India – which took 60 years. While approachable as a series of extraordinary short stories, these maps are organized to explain the chronological development of cartography and to reveal the scientific and sometimes political background.