How Maps Have Changed the World – Part II

Continued from the previous post, regarding how early map making has its impact on our understanding of maps today.

Left:  440 BC Map by Herodotus, copying the (Right) map of 500 BC by Anaximander, who was the first ancient Greek to draw a map of the known world. Note: in both cases there is no separate island shown for the area today known as the Malay Peninsula

Cartography continued to develop in China throughout its various dynasties and in 605 an early map using a grid system was created by Pe Ju of the Sui Dynasty, and in 801 the Hai Nei Hua Yi Tu (Map of both Chinese and Barbarian Peoples within the [Four] Seas) was created by the Tang Dynasty to show China as well as its Central Asian colonies. The map was 30 feet by 33 feet and used a grid system with a highly accurate scale. 

The Fra Mauro map, which is one great European/Asian/African map made around 1450 by the Ventian monk Fra Mauro. Note the circle and arrow pointing to the Malahy Peninsula, completely attached to the mainland (not an island as a reader has claimed)

In 1579 the Guang Yutu atlas was produced and contained over 40 maps that used a grid system and showed major landmarks like roads and mountains as well as the borders of different political areas. 16^th and 17^th century Chinese maps continued to develop to clearly show regions under exploration. By the mid-20^th century China developed an Institute of Geography that was responsible for official cartography. It emphasized fieldwork in the production of maps focused on physical and economic geography.
    Like Greece and China (as well as other areas throughout the rest of the world) the development of cartography was significant in Europe as well. Early medieval maps were mainly symbolic like those that came out of Greece. Beginning in the 13^th century the Majorcan Cartographic School was developed and consisted of a Jewish collaboration of cartographers, cosmographers and navigators/navigational instrument makers—they invented the Normal Portolan Chart, a nautical mile chart that used grided compass lines for navigation. 
    Consider for a moment that as a resident of North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, “up,” geographically, means northward toward what is considered by these individuals as the “top of the world.” On the other hand, if you were to live in South America, Africa, Australia and Indonesia, “up” means southward, to what would be to those people, the “top of the world.”

An image of the Earth taken in space showing the south pole at the top. In space there is no up or down—only in relationship to how individual faces

At the same time, if you were on a space station in outer space, looking down at the world, what would be the “top” and what would be the “bottom”? Of course there is no up or down because in space, everything is oriented to the direction one faces.
    In addition, the early Chinese compasses actually pointed “south.” Yet, that is not how Chinese maps were oriented, since, according to Jerry Brotton, a map historian from Queen Mary University, London, “the Emperor lived in the north of the country and was always put at the top of the map, with everyone else, his loyal subjects, looking up towards him.” Thus in Chinese culture, “the Emperor looks south because it’s where the winds come from, it’s a good direction. North is not very good but you are in a position of subjection to the emperor, so you look up to him.”
    Consequently, cartography developed in a myriad of ways, and not the same in each country or region. For example, in Europe during the Age of Exploration as cartographers, merchants and explorers created maps showing the new areas of the world that they visited, maps were designed with the mariner in mind, with detailed nautical charts and maps used for navigation.
    In the 15^th century Nicholas Germanus (meaning Nicholas the German) invented the Donis map projection, which had equidistant parallels and meridians that converged toward the poles. The Spanish cartographer and explorer, Juan de la Cosa, who sailed with Columbus, produced the first maps during his second voyage when he commanded the Nina. He also traveled with Amerigo Vespuci when they explored the coast of South America.

In 1527, Diogo Ribeiro (Ribero), a Portuguese cartographer, working on the first scientific world map called the Padrón Real (Census or Register General) from 1518-1532, and made navigational instruments, including astrolabes and quadrants. His maps showed the coasts of Central and South America accurately as well as the extent of the Pacific Ocean. 
    In the mid-1500s Gerardus Mercator (Gerard de Cremer), a Flemish (Belgium) cartographer, invented the Mercator map projection, on which parallels and meridians are rendered as straight lines spaced to produce at any point an accurate ratio of latitude to longitude (he also coined the term
“atlas” for a collection of maps). His work was mathematically based and one of the most accurate for world-wide navigation that was available at the time, and by the time he was age 24, he was a superb engraver, an outstanding calligrapher, and a highly skilled scientific-instrument maker, developing the most-widely used map projection and a standard taught in cartography.
    As the 16^th century continued, and on into the 18^th century, cartographic techniques continued to grow in their accuracy and additional maps were created due to further European exploration, which  showed various parts of the world that had not before been mapped.
    The invention of the compass, telescope, sextant, quadrant and printing press all allowed for maps to be made more easily and accurately, ushering in a more modern cartographic era. These new technologies also led to the development of different map projections that more precisely showed the world. For example, in 1772 the Lambert conformal conic was created and in 1805 the Albers equal area-conic projection was developed. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries the United States Geological Survey and the National Geodetic survey used new tools to map trails and survey government lands.

In the 20^th century the use of planes to take aerial photographs changed the types of data that could be used to create maps. Satellite imagery has since been added to the list of data and can aid in showing large areas in great detail. Finally, Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, is a relatively new technology that is changing cartography today because it allows for many different types of maps using various types of data to be easily created and manipulated with computers.
    Over all this time and effort, maps have accurately portrayed the world as it was known to the mapmaker of the time. To better understand some of the changes in the world that took place, it is helpful to know the mapping changes that occurred. As an example, we learn of the fourth part or fourth quarter, or quarter of the land mentioned in the Book of Mormon, which is the same concept used in early map making of the two parts, three parts and four parts of the world, or four quarters, or fourth quarter—giving us a different understanding of those terms than are used and understood today.
    For those who study history and know of its development that was recorded prior to the 1900s (when writing started its long downward slope of alteration and change), one gets a far different view at times of the history we think we know so well.
    Much like Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language aids us in better understanding the words and their meanings that Joseph Smith knew, as opposed to how we know them today, a knowledge of early map making and its progress over the centuries helps us better understand the world we live in and how it was viewed at different times by different peoples—which is not always the way we think today.