Theater of war in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia - National Geographic Society (1942)

Theater of war in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia - National Geographic Society (1942)

7274 x 8561

‘I’m in love with the way Ireland is represented on this map

According to Wikipedia, the Brits and Irish were disputing the name of Ireland, starting in 1937. Then, the Irish wanted to call it Éire in Irish but Ireland in English; the Brits wanted to call it Eire (no accent) in English to better separate it from Northern Ireland. There was mention of an Irish politician who was ambivalent to that fact; he appreciated the nation being called Eire but also knew that calling it Ireland would cement its claim to the whole island.

It’s hard to say what the NatGeo map makers were thinking when they made this. Maybe they were following the British state’s example; maybe they were opting for a more nativist representation of Ireland. Probably, they just picked what would best represent the country to those reading the map and didn’t give it much thought’

Central Europe during the time of the Hohenstaufen Emperors (1250)

Central Europe during the time of the Hohenstaufen Emperors (1250)

7462 x 9714

‘Wow, I thought Italy was fragmented at that time, but I didn’t know that Western Germany was even more! I wonder whether some Northern or Central Italian cities which were still fairly independent in XIII century, such as Bologna, should have been shown as separated entities from the territory around. In any case, very interesting map. Greetings from Kirchenstaat!’

All types of vegetation and urban/built-up areas of Europe

All types of vegetation and urban/built-up areas of Europe

5000 x 3532

‘I am a norwegian who loves nature and I remember I had plans to travel around europe and see all the nature then I looked at google maps and got really dissapointed. Where is all the nature left in europe?? It’s just a few patches of woods surrounded by farms and cities. It seems you can’t get lost in nature because if you walk just a little it ends..’

1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)

1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)

4140 × 3700

‘Reddish hues are Germanic languages, bluish ones are Romance, green Slavic.

The big light pink blob in the center is High German. To the north of it, darker pink, Low German and, further north and darker, Danish. The reddish hue on the border between Danish and Low German, and also in the Netherlands, is Frisian. Continuing counterclockwise you have Dutch, French, Italian; then purple is probably Friulian, which here is counted as a separate language while things like Lombardian are grouped as dialects of Italian.

Next comes Yugoslavian, including Slovenian and Bosnio-Croat-Montenegro-Serbian. Brown is Hungarian, light green is Slovakian, the green almost entirely surrounded by German is Czech, the green entirely surrounded by German is Sorbian, the green with lots of small German enclaves is Polish. The yellowish tone in the northeast is likely Lithuanian’–eukubernetes