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Unit 4
In your textbook you read how Europeans and other cultures came in contact with one
another and how their knowledge of the world grew. As people began to rethink their
relationships with others, their ideas about what the world looked like began to change .
• As you read the following essay. think about how peoples' beliefs about their iocation are
reflected in the maps they make. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions
that follow.
Mapmaking and Relative Location
I
During the Renaissance, Europeans studied the
work of Arabian mapmakers and thus rediscovered
Ptolemy. They stopped drawing maps based on
religion, but their new maps were inaccurate for a
new reason. They were sure that the knowledge of
Ptolemy, who was a European, must be superior to
that of Arabs, who were neither European nor
Christian. Ignoring Arabian improvements to
Ptolemy's data, European mapmakers adopted his
faIse belief that Asia stretched far•
•
ther east than it does. Their bias
led to the most important mis"Any
map you
take about relative location ever
made. The new, inaccurate maps
make is bound to
persuaded
Columbus that he
reflect some of your could reach Asia by sailing west
for only a few weeks. Without a
beliefs about yourself false idea of the nearness of Asia,
he might never have set sail on his
and others. , ,
"enterprise of the Indies."
you
f make a map of your world, that map is
bound to reflect some of your beliefs about
yourself and others. Those beliefs will become
especially apparent when you have to decide
where to locate yourself relative to others on your
map. A brief look at the history of mapmaking
shows this kind oflocational bias at work.
Maps Before Modern Times
The geographer Ptolemy, who lived
during the second century A.D., knew
that the world was a sphere, as did
many scientists of his day. He also
had very accurate and detailed
knowledge of the lands around the
Mediterrranean
Sea, which he
recorded in various tables-the forerunners of modem maps.
Unfortunately, during medieval
i
times Euro peans lost in terest in !S!S!IIIl!\W@-=Jlll:W:::lIiIl!!llll!l!l::liilCll!!!8!!!iiMMIl!IBI!I!CJIW:::l!§!liIIIDII1IIB
Ptolemy's work because it did not
The Biasof Modern Maps
agree with their notion of the earth. They believed
that the relative positions of the lands ofthe world
Do mapmakers still reveal cultural bias today?
Actually, they often cannot help it. Bias of one kind
reflected God's supreme plan, as revealed in the
or another is reflected in many of the terms used on
Christian story of the crucifixion, So they commonly drew maps in which the Holy Land was at
maps, in the basic layout of maps, and even in the
types of maps mapmakers are called on to make.
the center of the earth (see the illustration on the
For example, not long ago American and
next page). On their maps, the Mediterranean Sea
formed a T, a reminder of the cross on which
European mapmakers labeled Southwest Asia the
"Near East," and East Asia the "Far East." But clearly,
Christ died.
Meanwhile, the Arabs were preserving the work
those regions were only "near" or "far" in relation
to the location of Europe or the east coast of the
of Ptolemy and improving upon it. Still, their maps
United States. And the popular term "Middle East"
reflected their belief in their own importance, just
is similarly biased. The "Middle East" is only "the
as did Christian maps. For example, the Arabian
geographer Edrisi, working in A.D. 1154, put Arabia
middle" to an observer in Western Europe or the
United States. For this reason, such terms
at the center of his map of the world.
8 • Geography and History
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Medieval Map
from Christian Europe
Arabian Map
by Edrisi, 1154
are going out of
fashion.
Most flat maps
of the world available in Europe and
the United
States
today are laid out so that
the western hemisphere is on the left and the eastern hemisphere is on the right. Unfortunately,
these maps put Europe at the center of the
universe again, just as medieval maps did. They
reinforce the idea that the developed countries of
Europe are the most important places on earth.
Actually, there is little reason why the hemispheres
could not be reversed. Likewise, most maps are
made so that north is at the top and south is at
the bottom. This makes those who live south of
the equator-"down
under," as it is called-seem
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-'~~",
inferior. A map printed with south at the top
would be just as accurate.
Even something as simple as the way the round
surface of the earth is transferred or "projected"
onto a flat map may encourage cultural biases. The
most common type of world map, the Mercator
projection, was invented to help sailors plot courses
easily. It has the unwanted effect, however, of distorting Europe and North American nations so that
they look larger-and thus more important-than
lands at the equator. You can see on this page a
sample of a map that avoids this type of distortion.
Thinking of the world in only one way
prevents us from appreciating that today there are
many regional "centers of the world." And as
world power centers continue to shift in the
coming years, our outdated pictures of the world
may prevent us from keeping up.
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Focus on Geography
u
.s
1. Location How did the relative location of
lands shown on medieval European maps
reveal the cultural bias of their makers?
2. Movement How did the biasof Renaissance
mapmakers lead to the discoveryof the Americas?
3. Location How does the Mercator projection
reinforce the cultural biases of people in North
America and Europe?
Critical Thinking
4. Predicting Consequences The countries of
the PacificRim-the lands around the Pacific
Ocean-are expected to grow in economic
power during the next century. How might
world maps change to reflectthis shift in power? ~
Geography and History • 9