By Indraneel Ghosh
The map is one of the greatest inventions of our human history and, yet we know nothing about how it came to be. Have you ever wondered why it is the way it is? Why is the North pole always at the top of the map? Although it seems like a trivial and irrelevant issue, there is a lot of history behind this simple piece of paper. Today, the representation of maps is much more political than one might initially perceive.
The northward orientation of the maps is a relatively very recent development and it became famous only when European explorers started to travel across the globe in search of new lands.
Alternatively oriented maps
The profound arbitrariness of the current conventions is made evident by the early Egyptian maps which put South on the top. However, this is not an isolated example. Early American settlers used maps with the west on top as it was the direction in which they were headed on their exploratory journey. Christian cartographers placed East at the top as it was the direction pointed towards Jerusalem.
Alternatively, the Islamic map makers preferred putting south at the top. Since the initial Muslim inhabitations were to the north of Mecca, a south oriented map would have made the followers look upwards.
The Chinese, who invented the compass, thought that the compass pointed south. As a result, their maps were southward oriented. In ancient India, maps pointed to the East. One of the factors which support this hypothesis is that the meaning of the word Dakshina in Sanskrit refers to both right and South, indicating that maps in those times might have been East-oriented.
One of the recent developments to promote the use of southward-oriented maps was organised in Australia and New Zealand. The upside-down maps have become a symbol of movements with themes like no longer down under. At times, the orientation might is changed to make the map look aesthetic and visually appealing. For instance, maps published by the city of Santa Monica are rotated by 60 degrees so that the beach is always shown at the bottom of the maps. This not only makes the map appealing but much more usable.
Across the pages of history, we see maps with different orientations, but today, the North-oriented approach dominates all the others. So, what influenced our currently adapted conventions?
Possible theories of development
In the history of cartography, it is notable that the country or person who made a map naturally placed themselves at the centre or top of the map. Ergo, any country that held the most power at the time when the conventions became standardised would have heavily influenced the appearance of the map that we use today.
The Greek cartographer Claudius Ptolemy is credited with creating the first Atlas in human history. His collection of maps called Geographia is one of the earliest examples of the North-oriented maps. Influenced by his work, Gerardus Mercator became one of the first Europeans to design a North-up map of the world.
After the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Europe was the powerhouse of the world and had colonies all around the globe. European countries had the power to influence the smallest of conventions and in turn, they must have played an influential role in keeping the north on top and in shaping the modern cartographic conventions.
A compass traditionally points to the magnetic north, which puts Europe in focus. As the Europeans explored new lands, it became important for the seafarers to orient themselves with their compasses. Although Mercator had laid no emphasis on the point and had probably done it because of the European expeditions around the world, the convention stuck. The maps that we see today clearly reflect an attempt made by the Europeans to exert their dominance over the countries that they ruled during that period. This was further strengthed by the Americans who became a global powerhouse in the 19th century. A northward orientation also points towards the USA.
The inevitable reality of politics
It would be fair to state that the orientation of a map does not have a major impact on the presentation of information. However, the decision of orienting a particular map in a certain manner by the cartographer depends on various contextual factors. These include the frame of reference, the aesthetic value of the orientation, the political significance of the representation and the egocentricity of the cartographer. The orientation of the commonly used maps arises from the interplay of chance, technology and politics, as proven by the north-oriented maps, which subtly indicate the power dynamics that exist in our global society.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay