32
votes
What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
That looks to me a lot like a map of (in the instance of the Gray areas) where there were active independence movements going on, particularly with far-right party backing.
Quebec:
This province has ...
- 118k
31
votes
Accepted
Which period is this game map supposed to represent?
1400
A notable feature of this map is the English possession of Western France, which means that it's no later than 1453, when France took Bordeaux. Since in the Diplomacy game you color only the ...
- 1,323
28
votes
When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
What a wonderful question! Dom Henrique is one of the chief characters of this story, and that means we need to explore him more than the general Portuguese knowledge. These explorations as a whole ...
- 10.8k
23
votes
Accepted
What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
The main purpose is – per caption – to illustrate the varying degrees of censorship:
Dictatorial Control of the Agencies of Public Communication
Varying Degrees of Control, Censorship and ...
- 80.8k
16
votes
Which period is this game map supposed to represent?
This map is not historically accurate.
For example there is an entity called "Prussia" and an entity called "Novgorod", while in reality they never existed at the same time.
It's a mixture of maybe ...
- 4,629
14
votes
Accepted
When would the Japanese have been able to recognize their archipelago?
Realistically speaking a reasonably knowledgeable Japanese person would've been able to spot Japan on a world map, based on the islands' relative position to Korea and China. This is probably true ...
- 97.5k
13
votes
Accepted
Where can I find a world map from the Victorian period?
There are some atlases for 1890 or thereabouts on the internet archive. This one here is exactly 1890.
The world-wide atlas of modern geography, political and physical, containing one hundred and ...
- 1,284
13
votes
Accepted
Have map projections and distortions ever affected treaties?
One example would seem to be the 1867 treaty by which the United States purchased
Alaska from Russia. The issues that arose are described Michael Byers and James Baker by in their book International ...
- 77.4k
12
votes
How did 2nd century Romans decide where to build Hadrian's wall?
The Romans were good surveyors. Vitruvius described surveying tools and methods in a book that was still used in the Middle Ages, hundreds of years after it was written.
By laying out stakes at fixed ...
- 37.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What was the first map of Antarctica having a shape based on real evidence?
General answer: it will probably depend what you define as "the shape". Ultimately, once landfall was made on opposite coasts (1820-1840), and land was proven to be there, it was a matter of looking ...
- 9,112
12
votes
Accepted
When did inadequate or inaccurate maps produce important historical consequences?
Treaty of Tordesillas defined a division of new lands between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. Since it was so difficult to define where that meridian ...
- 4,901
11
votes
Accepted
What was the extent of Japanese control after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and before surrender?
http://omniatlas.com/maps/eastasia/19450815/ has a map that shows the Empire of Japan. It was very big even during the surrender.
- 260
10
votes
Accepted
How old is Philippe Buache's map of New Discoveries?
The date depends on whether one is referring to date of completion or date of printing. The map was completed by April 1750 but the 1st edition was not printed until June 1752.
The earliest public ...
- 108k
10
votes
Accepted
Where can I find maps and other historical resources / references of Calcutta / Kolkata in the Victorian era?
Maps and Images
There are several sites which have maps of Calcutta around the period you are interested in:
Bengali Cultural Heritage has maps from 1842 to 1910, including several from the 1850s.
...
- 108k
10
votes
When did inadequate or inaccurate maps produce important historical consequences?
Delaware
Bad maps are the whole reason for Delaware's existence.
Ownership of the west shore of Delaware Bay had been controversial because of the Swedish and Dutch settlements that had preceded the ...
- 5,275
9
votes
Accepted
Has Mohenjo-daro been reconstructed?
There's an article here with details and reconstruction pictures like this one. Most of the site is small houses and you can see from photos many have not been reconstructed but there is still a lot ...
- 418
9
votes
How did 2nd century Romans decide where to build Hadrian's wall?
The technology to determine the narrowest point in northern England is as nothing compared to that necessary for supplying Roman towns with running water and baths, as with the Nimes Aqueduct in ...
- 72.3k
9
votes
Where to get historical Finland railways map for 1939 year?
The National Land Survey of Finland site has digital maps from before 1939 available for viewing, including Karelia (below).
- 72.3k
9
votes
How to build historical maps?
For me, this is not a question of "where is a tool to do cartography for me" but rather "how do I build a map that shows what I want to show". The first is something that doesn't exist, at least in a ...
- 10.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Can anyone explain why the Scottish flag on this map from 1504 has a red cross on a white background?
I recently looked at this question again, and thought it might be another example of the colorization process being inaccurate. I thought to find other copies of this map (or other works at least by ...
- 38.7k
8
votes
When did inadequate or inaccurate maps produce important historical consequences?
After the mutiny of the Bounty in 1789, Christian Fletcher's group of 9 mutinees and 20 abducted Tahitians decided to settle on Pitcairn Island, which had already been discovered but was wrongly ...
- 5,839
8
votes
When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
gktscrk answers the question directly but, although it is true that there were legends and fears, and simple minded sailors, it is absolutely false that the elite did not expect to find anything ...
- 4,100
7
votes
What was the extent of Japanese control after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and before surrender?
I am adding a map of 1942, to show Japan's maximum extent, to contrast with the excellent map put up by Sadiq.
Compared with 1942, Japan had lost most of Burma to the British, and most of Manchuria ...
- 104k
7
votes
Do any Byzantine maps survive?
I'm sure there are better examples, but I'm particularly fond of the only pre-1453 map of Constantinople, which dates from 1422 (see below). Wikipedia has a list of old manuscript maps, which appear ...
- 3,075
7
votes
When was the use of detailed maps for military campaigns widely adopted?
To add to Pieter Geerkens great answer, another forerunner to modern military mapping is of course the Roy Military Survey of Scotland produced from 1747 to 1755. The whole map is available online.
...
- 171
7
votes
How to build historical maps?
No, there is no universal, online tool for making arbitrary historical maps. As comments showed, certain tools can offer some insight into matters of historical geography, but publications that need ...
- 27.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
Europeans knew about China, India, and South-East Asia. In fact, at the time, the Indies referred collectively both to what we would call the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia.
As can be seen in ...
- 194
6
votes
How did 2nd century Romans decide where to build Hadrian's wall?
Measuring, surveying, and map making are ancient practices by the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Druids, Chinese... pretty much everyone knew how to trace and measure lines and angles over a long distance....
- 54.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Do any Byzantine maps survive?
A map manuscript of the world by the monk Cosmas Indicopleustes (Cosmas "the one who sailed to India") survives today:
Wikipedia describes the map as follows:
The map is oriented with north to ...
- 3,935
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible