1000 Years Of Europe, 5 Minutes

From Thatsaabguy:

Holey moley. I just discovered the most astonishing video. It's on YouTube, and can be found here:



It comes from this fellow's account, which has some other interesting stuff in it (moreso if you understand Russian).

Very fascinating film!

#700

Europe Map In Lego Kinda More Awesome Than Original

From Thatsaabguy:

Who doesn't love Lego? If you don't, you're some kind of commie freak or something. How about a gigantic floor map of Europe, made entirely of Lego?


Thanks to our friends at gizmondo.com, we can bask in the glory of almost 300k bricks laid out in a lovely topo map of the European continent. Even big cities get represented, like Brussels...


HT to Jim, thanks buddy!

#695

The New Iron Curtain?

This week on Slate:

A Tale of Two Europes By Anne Applebaum

"Forget East and West, Europe is dividing itself into North and South."



From 1947 to 1991 the Cold War divided Europe into East and West. Winston Churchill popularized the term "Iron Curtain" to describe the dividing line. In her article, Applebaum discusses the new economic relationships in Europe, and sees a new division: North and South. In her (admittedly broad) generalizations, the countries of the North have embraced austerity measures to deal with the economic downturn, while the South is in a bit of a shambles... (France and the UK appear to be somewhere in the middle.) I just read them... I don't write them.

But I was inspired to draw the new "Iron Curtain" on this map.

T-Shirt Tuesday: Empire Builder

Previously on Cartophilia:

Railroad board games with great maps: Railways of the World (Railroad Tycoon), Ticket to Ride and Settlers of America: Trails to Rails.

However, there is an entire category of rail games not yet covered here; the so-called "crayon games". The grandaddy of these game from Mayfair is Empire Builder. In this game, you actually get to DRAW ON THE GAME BOARD with special wax crayons, or depending on the board, dry-erase markers. In Empire Builder, you build track routes between cities of North America by drawing the connections. Build an efficient network and deliver goods between these cities to make the most money.



Empire Builder is just the beginning. Also available, Eurorails:


[Boardgame map photos from BoardGameGeek]

Other Mayfair crayon rail game maps include Britain, Australia, India, China, Russia and Mars!

In these games you cannot help but learn a few things about the geography of these countries and regions. Which brings us to the T-shirt for today: Everything I know about U.S. Geography I learned from Empire Builder, available from Off World Designs.



Actually, I already knew a fair amount of geography before playing these games, but they are great fun nonetheless.

HT to Phil (Thatsaabguy)

Europe in Detail, American (or Swedish?) Style

German Carto-fan, Rudolf, sent this funny map to me. It is an "American version of Europe in detail."


Click on image for readable version.

Poking fun at the average American's lack of geographic knowledge is fair game... In fact, I think this map has FAR MORE detail about Europe than the average American has ever really given any thought.

I pointed out the fact that there were no notes about Belgium and a few other countries on the map. He made up his own on the spot:

Belgium: Part of France and Netherlands, economy runs on "Manniken Pis" souvenirs.
Austria: Folk who like pronouncing A like in puking
Slovakia: sheep cheese and bacon for all meals
Malta: more churches than police

(Belgians, Austrians, Slovakians and Maltese, direct your complaints to Rudolf... Everyone else direct your complaints to ninsianna.com, where you can find this and other amusing "US View of the World" maps.)

UPDATE 5/14: I agree with the commenters below... this map has been mislabeled. I think it was probably created by a European, most likely a Swede.

#590

Why There Is No Jewish Narnia

C.S Lewis' Narnia stories are based on Christianity. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth were influenced by Norse and other Northern European mythologies. In the Jewish Review of Books, Michael Wiengrad asks Why There Is No Jewish Narnia? Why are there so few fantasy novels based on Judaism?

So why don’t Jews write more fantasy literature? And a different, deeper but related question: why are there no works of modern fantasy that are profoundly Jewish in the way that, say, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Christian? Why no Jewish Lewises, and why no Jewish Narnias?

In the course of this discussion, Weingrad reviews two examples of "Jewish fantasy" novels, The Magicians by Lev Grossman and Ha-Mayim she-bein ha-olamot (The Water Between the Worlds) by Hagar Yanai. The latter novel, written in Hebrew, includes a map of an alternate-history Europe and Middle East dominated by the Babylonian Empire.

European Union: Fair Weather Friends?

Apparently Greece's struggling economy has some members reconsidering that nation's membership in the European Union. The Economist has run several stories on this problem, including one with this illustration:

Might other nations back out of the EU? How disappointing? I thought the whole point of the EU was that these nations would pull together to make each other stronger. This kind of unity has been an inspiration to other regions to increase cooperation (if not integration) of their economies. Step up, Europe.

Via Geographic Travels

Be My Cartographic Valentine 2010

Darling, be my cartographic valentine...



States United, print available from Etsy seller "beauchamping".




Via Kris Harzinski




From the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
HT to Joel




Personalised Bespoke Map Heart: just tell them the location and they'll find a vintage map to create this one-of-a-king gift.




Show your MoTown Hometown love with this Detroit Map Heart Necklace.




Map Heart Valentine, blank note cards.

#545

Simpsons 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago tomorrow (Dec 17), The Simpsons graduated from a short animated bit on The Tracey Ullman Show to their own series on the fledgling Fox network. Since then, Matt Groening's dysfunctional family has become a pop culture icon.



Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson all live in the elusive town of Springfield. Where is Springfield? Scholars have studied this question for years, to no avail. However, the geography of Springfield itself has been carefully charted by Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan in their Interactive Map of Springfield





Meanwhile, while searching for Simpsons related maps, I found this very strange Simpsons map of Europe:

New Map Tie and the Big Five Oh Oh!

This is Cartophilia
post #500!

(Queue the balloons
and music!)

That's post #

D
.5K
1111101002
1F416

I forgot to note my 2nd Anniversary back in September but, by golly, I'm not going to let this milestone go unnoticed!

Woot!

Ok, enough of that. Today I am going to highlight this nifty map tie.

Ms. Cartophiliac found it last week at a thrift store. Score!

I find the way the tie designer mashed together geographic features to be reminiscent of the Calendria map from earlier this month, as well as Island Girl and Coastal Merger

UPDATE 11/19: And of course, the Mapkini!

On to 1,000!

Leviathan

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, is a young adult steampunk novel set in an alternate-history Europe. The Great War is coming, but instead of the Allies vs Central Powers, it is the Clankers vs Darwinists. The Clankers have developed great steam powered machines, and the Darwinists have bred giant beasts as their weapons.



The map illustration is intentionally reminiscent of the "allegorical maps" of the period.

Via boing boing

Europe 2020

The Map Scroll has posted a speculative map from Coming Anarchy (which appears to be down at the moment...). What if all the separatist movements of Europe were to succeed?:



With the continued integration of the European Union this map becomes less far fetched. If individual European states continue to cede power to EU, will it matter if Scotland, or the Basques or Flanders has its own local government?

Previously:
Another Europe
Disunited States of America

#435

Another Europe

Miguel Farah sends me this thought experiment map, wherein he plays "what if" with European history.

What would have happened if Simon de Montfort had failed and the Crown of Aragon had continued its northern expansion? What would have happened if the Castilian and Portuguese counties hadn't survived? What if the Sami people had had their own country? Or if the Austrians had avoided being robbed Tyrol by the Italians? Or if Bavaria had refused to be a part of the German Empire in the XIX century? Or if ...? When reading history, there are many occasions where one asks himself questions like this and speculates about the changes those would bring to a political map.

Significant divergences include an East/West schism in the Roman Catholic Church and the Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes progressive and gives its many ethnic groups greater autonomy (thus avoiding WWI). More...

I always enjoy alternate history, and maps always make these stories more interesting.

Related:

Disunited States of America
The People's Republic of America
Alternate Nations of North America
Roswell, Texas

Pizza Box Diplomacy

High School students on a trip to Costa Rica, created their own homemade Diplomacy game board out of a pizza box.



From the Practical Leadership blog, via Boing Boing.

Diplomacy is the classic game of negotiation. With incredibly simplistic movement mechanics players can only win by negotiating with other players, forming and breaking alliances.

Previously on Cartophilia: The Rubicon of a Diplomacy Player

Catan Germany and Rome

Klaus Teuber is the inventor of the award winning board game,
Settlers of Catan, first published in 1995 in Germany by Kosmos and later in the United States by Mayfair Games. While this game uses a map, it is a very simple hex grid on an imaginary island. The hex pieces are rearranged each game, but the shape is generally the same, and non-distinct...



However, in 2006, Tueber released the first in a planned series of Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome. This game uses the basic Catan mechanic (collect and trade resources, expand your holdings) on a map of Western Europe:



Last year he released Catan Geographies: Germany. Based on a map of Germany (designed by Michale Menzel), this game still uses trade, building, and settlement, and allows you to build famous German landmarks such as the 'Brandenburg Gate' or the 'Dresdner Dom'. Intended as a family game to learn an celebrate German geography and history.



It will be interesting to see if Tueber will continue these series with other historical scenarios or countries. Catan: Conquests of Napoleon? Catan: American Civil War? Catan: China? The possibilities are endless.

Czech Artist Commemorates EU With Stereotypes

Czech artist David Cerny has put together a controversial sculpture to commemorate the European Union. Each country is represented by a stereotype: Romania has Dracula, Sweden has IKEA, France is on strike. Not surprisingly, more than a few countries are less than pleased. For some reason, Bulgaria as a squat toilet left a few Bulgarian art lovers cold... I would be surprised if Germans appreciated the swastika turned autobahn.

Cerny was paid £350,000 for the project.

Reported in several places, notably The Map Room and Boing Boing.

Edible Maps

An tasty assortment of edible maps...

An exercise in map symbols from Ms. Welch's Class:





Marzipan Europe from Strange Maps:



A Somalia cake from Ms. Jimenez's Class (watch out for the pirates):



And finally, Catan Cake. An edible version of the boardgame, Settlers of Catan:



MMMmmmmmmmmaps!....

#268

The Mouse That Roared

The Mouse that Roared, a 1959 film starring Peter Sellers, based on the book by Leonard Wibberley, tells the story of the tiny, mostly forgotten country of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.



In the opening segment of the film, the narrator is trying to find the tiny country. Measuring no more than five miles (8 km) long and three miles (5 km) wide, the Duchy and lies in a fold in the Northern Alps, adjacent to France and Switzerland.



In order to resolve a budget deficit, the government of Duchess Gloriana XIII decides to declare war on the United States. They expect to lose of course, but expect their defeat to be followed by millions of dollars in foreign aid.



When the declaration of war is ignored, they send an invasion force to New York.



The filmmakers intersperse the scenes of this journey with map animations of their misadventures at sea. I just had some fun clipping these stills out of the video.



Without rehashing the entire plot, instead of losing, as ordered, the expiditionary force wins the war! Hilarity ensues. While not a map, this scene late in the film also caught my fancy. Regular readers of this blog know of my love for boardgames, so I was tickled by this scene where diplomats from Britain, France, the USSR and the United States, while waiting to cross the border, kill time by playing a boardgame:



The Mouse That Roared is an amusing little farce that showcases Peter Sellers understated comedic talent. Recommended.

Play With Spider

Play With Spider: "An experimental project to make a natural spider in Flash, combining math and graphics."



While it is fun to watch the spider clean up all the dead flies, I am distracted by the 15th century map of Europe.

Via Boing Boing

Zagria

Michael5000 has created a handy index to his Forgotten Lands.

Zagria
Capital: Brevogrod
Population: 6,734,232 (1995 Census)
Area: 38,860 km2
Literacy Rate: 98%
Independence: 1672
Per Capita GNP: $12,030
National Anthem: “To Zagria we Pledge”

Economy: Zagria is an agricultural exporter, especially of grains, apples, grapes, and cheese. A coal/steel based heavy industrial sector suffers from aging and obsolete factories and facilities and from international competition. Oil fields underlying the southern plains of Svisla province provide Zagria’s most important source of foreign exchange.



Zagria is an anomaly in Eastern Europe. In this region of the Earth, as in no other, countries represent the territorial aspirations of cultures. The Poles have their Poland, the Slovaks their Slovakia, the Magyars their Hungary, and the half-dozen former Yugoslavs their half-dozen former Yugoslav republics. Yet within this mosaic of nation-states sits heterogeneous Zagria. Polyglot (Hungarian, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian), religiously inclusive (Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, and, surprisingly, Lutheran), Zagria is easily as culturally diverse as any other similarly sized piece of land on Earth.

For all of this, many observers find Zagrian society is disappointingly prosaic. Its many ethnic groups have neither walled themselves off into discrete enclaves, nor exhibited an unusual degree of mingling or intermarriage. There is little sense of animosity or contention between the people of this land, but neither is there any widespread sense of patriotism or national unity (Menillini, The New Nationalism).



Since independence, Zagria has gone through prime ministers at a rate of more than one per year, with parliamentary coalitions in constant flux and no political party able to maintain a stable majority. Post-communist economic stagnation and a widespread culture of corruption and bribery have created fertile grounds for a shadow oligarchy of ostentatious gangster-businessmen and their well-dressed thugs. To the average Zagrian of any culture, such things have long since ceased to excite much anger. “In Zagria,” wrote Brevograd’s great novelist Gnadyy Zvorić, “public life is as constant as weather, and as fruitfully cursed.”

Flag: Based on the shields of the medieval dukes of Zagria, the flag is a simple black diagonal through a field of dark green.

UPDATED 2008-08-28



#219