Atlas

I just saw the most recent Hindi film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan! It was a great movie, so much so that it inspired me to choose this Bollywood-related map. The map depicts the countries that provide the Indian movie industry with the most revenue and therefore shows where Indian culture is most influential. Naturally, India is colored in red to indicate that it is Bollywood’s main source of revenue. Eight countries are shown in blue because they are “important and consistent revenue earners.” Pakistan, India’s neighbor to the west, falls under this category; this is unsurprising since it shares so many historical and cultural similarities with India. The United Arab Emirates are also blue, which can be explained by the fact that South Asians make up about half of that country’s population! In Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom are colored blue. As the former ruler of India and home to many Indian immigrants, it makes sense for Bollywood to be prominent in the U.K. I wonder why this is the case in Germany; perhaps there are many Indian immigrants there as well. Canada, the United States, and Australia are all blue, probably because they all have sizable Indian populations. (Interestingly, they also have long historical ties with the United Kingdom.) The last blue country (the islands to the east of Australia) is Fiji, which has a very prominent Indian population. It is quite special that this tiny country is an important revenue source for Bollywood! The third and final group of countries on the map are the “erratic revenue earners,” shown in green. All four of these nations - China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Brunei - are located in either East Asia or Southeast Asia. Since they are relatively close to India, it makes sense that Indian popular culture would have an impact in these countries. But why are they “erratic” sources of income? Does the popularity of Bollywood fluctuate? Why might this be? Although these questions remain unanswered, this map is clearly indicative of Bollywood’s (and India’s) importance in global culture.

This map is in honor of nocturnallyyours, who asked for a medieval map! (Unfortunately, I am not aware of the map’s year or country of origin. This uncertainty should be taken into account when viewing it.) The artistry of this map is its best quality; this applies to medieval maps in general. The sea monsters, ships, and mermaids found in the ocean as well as the wavy pattern of the water itself suggest that cartographers viewed the world as a magical, awesome place. I wish that modern maps incorporated more of this attention to beauty. The map’s representation of the continents is also very interesting. Jerusalem is located in the center of the world, which reflects the beliefs of Christians during the Middle Ages and helps explain why the Crusades occurred. Europe, Asia, and Africa are depicted as three leaves originating from Jerusalem. While their shapes are not accurate, they are oriented correctly in relation to one another. This suggests that mapmakers did have some geographical knowledge. England and possibly Denmark are drawn to the north of Europe, and what appears to be the Red Sea is correctly drawn between Africa and Asia. A vague representation of America subtitled “Die Neue Welt” (The New World in German) can be seen in the southwest corner. This indicates that when the map was produced, the Americas had been discovered but had not been properly explored. It is also important to note that Australia and Antarctica do not appear on the map. These findings are indicative of one of the most useful functions of medieval maps to geographers and historians alike: they inform us of what their makers did and did not know about the world!

This map continues the Olympics theme begun by the previous map. Instead of showing the number of medals won by each country, it conveys both the number of times each country has made an Olympic bid and the number of times each country has actually hosted the Olympics. The color of the country represents the number of bids it has made: a pinker color indicates more Summer bids, while a bluer color indicates more Winter bids. Furthermore, the darker the shading, the more bids made by that country. The rings (a takeoff on the Olympic rings, of course) communicate the number of Olympic Games hosted by the country. Red rings represent Summer Games; blue rings represent Winter Games. Now that the map has been explained, it can be analyzed! The first thing that stands out to me is that there are only three rings in the Southern Hemisphere, indicating that a total of three Olympic Games have been held in that half of the world. That is a staggering statistic! It suggests that the Northern Hemisphere has dominated the political and cultural (in addition to sporting) worlds for the past century. Another interesting observation is that the United States and Italy are the only countries that have made more than four bids for both the Summer and Winter Olympics, yet the U.S. has hosted five more Games than Italy. I wonder what caused Italy’s poor success rate. Despite Italy’s few hosting successes, Europe has dominated the Olympics, hosting more than half of all Games. (Europe contains 28 rings, while the rest of the world has 22.) This is not surprising, considering that continent’s continued influence on the world stage. Finally, it is quite unsettling that no African country (except South Africa) and only a few Asian countries have even made a bid to host the Olympics. Of course, this would require a great deal of infrastructure, technology, capital, and organization, all of which are generally lacking in these developing countries. Hopefully, this map will include these countries in the future as they grow economically and socially.

This map shows the world based on the results of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I chose it because my impatience for the London Games is growing! This map only depicts countries that won at least one medal; in addition, the countries are represented by circles that are sized according to the number of medals won by that country. For this reason, the United States is represented by the largest circle, China by the second largest circle, and so on. It is clear from the map that the United States, China, and Russia were the most successful countries, and that Europe (shown in green) won the most medals of any continent. South America, Africa, and Asia seem underrepresented in relation to their population; this is not surprising since these continents are still developing. This finding in addition to the large size of small (population-wise) countries such as Australia, Cuba, and Canada suggests that Olympic success is not related to population. It is interesting that currently or formerly Communist countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Germany, and Ukraine earned so many medals - I wonder what the implications of this are.

This map shows the 30 busiest airports in the world by passenger traffic in 2004. While it is not the most aesthetically pleasing of maps, it is quite intriguing. Airports are indicators of economic prosperity and political power; thus, the location of the busiest ones has geopolitical implications. The most striking feature of the map is that more than half - 17 out of 30 - of the airports are located in the United States. This gives some support to the claim that the U.S. is still the leading world power. The remaining airports are located in Western Europe and East Asia, regions of high population density and economic importance. None of the 30 busiest airports are found in South America, Africa, or South Asia, which are all home to a significant portion of the human population. This suggests that the amount of activity at an airport does not necessarily relate to the size of the local population. It is also interesting that none of the 30 busiest airports are in the Southern Hemisphere. (Of course, there is relatively little inhabited land in that half of the world.) In conclusion, this map is valuable because it reveals the current balance of political and economic power in the world.

This map depicts the French-speaking world (called le monde francophone or la Francophonie in French). France and its overseas territories are shaded red, countries or regions where French is the native language are orange, countries where French is the official language are gold, and countries where French is important are yellow. Places with French-speaking minorities are represented by purple squares. This map shows that French is still spoken around the world, something that all Francophiles can take comfort in and even celebrate.

This map is similar to the other three in that it is a world map; it differs from them because it is over 100 years old. This is a wonderful find in my opinion, because I love antique objects, especially old maps. This map is not only visually appealing; its representation of the extent of the European powers’ influence is striking. France’s possessions (colored blue) in Africa and Southeast Asia stand out most to me (take that, everyone who says that French isn’t useful!). The dominance of the British Empire is shown by the fact that there is at least one area of peach on all six inhabited continents. My final observation is how strange it is that such small countries as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and even Denmark succeeded in imperializing vast quantities of land in every corner of the globe.

This map depicts global population density. Lighter colors indicate lower population density, while darker colors indicate higher population density. It is evident that the most densely populated areas of the world are southeast China, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe. The map is especially interesting when it is compared with the map of GDP density (found in the previous post). In general, population density corresponds to GDP density; this suggests that wealth is distributed proportionately. However, the eastern United States and Western Europe have disproportionately high GDP densities, while the opposite is true for southeast China and South Asia, among other regions. Thus, this map of population density confirms the idea that global wealth is unevenly distributed.

This map illustrates the severe disparity in the distribution of global wealth. It is astounding what a small fraction of the world is represented by the darkest shade of red, indicating a high GDP density, especially when it is compared with the wide swaths of yellow, indicating a low GDP density. This is a great example of how maps can be used to visually communicate issues of importance in a variety of fields, including economics.

This map shows the distribution of language families around the world. It’s one of my favorite maps because it combines geography and linguistics, two of my favorite subjects. I think it’s fascinating to see the similarities in languages spoken thousands of miles apart.