History of the World Map by Map

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While, for an avid historian, it presents little, if anything, that is new, what it does present is so attractively done that it seductively entices you to read it, cover to cover. It is a fascinating book even for the serious historian who may well have “seen it all”. It is equally attractive to readers of all ages from about ten and above. A magnificent and beautifully illustrated book in the best of DK (or Dorling Kindersley) tradition. From the detailed credits, It can be assumed that much of the first rate artwork was undertaken in India where the publisher obviously maintains a large and very talented staff. That artwork is simply brilliant. Local mapping became deeply granular. The British Ordnance Survey began mapping the U.K. down to the square yard, and the German entrepreneur Karl Baedeker produced similarly nuanced maps of European cities. Tourists could now confidently tour foreign realms, their annually updated guides in hand, able to locate individual buildings, much like today’s citizens peering at Google Maps on their phones. Being prominent on a local map was valuable to merchants, so mapmakers in the U.S. sold the rights. “If you paid more, you’d get your building cited,” Short notes. “It was like advertising.” As much as is included, though, no book can cover every possible historical topic. One examkple that was surprisingly missing was mention of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland during the 20th Century caused by the oppression of Catholics by the Protestant authorities and business class. Learn how something like the printing press can define a time, or how the Allies in Europe could defeat the Nazis. There is so much to read about in this remarkable history book, and just as much to look at.

T H E A N C I E N T W O R L D 3 0 0 0 b c e – 5 0 0 c e 200 bce–9 ce The Romans 3 THE FIRST ALPHABETS 1500–1050bce 4 WESTERN ALPHABETS 1050bce–250ce take their alphabet with them as they conquer The earliest alphabet – a system of symbols denoting The peoples who traded with the Phoenicians, such western Europe all language sounds, both consonants and vowels – as the Greeks and Etruscans, adapted the Phoenician DENMARK can be traced to c. 1500 bce, as what is known as alphabet for their own languages. The Roman alphabet, Proto-Canaanite or Proto-Sinaitic. Some experts now used all over the world, derives from the script suspect it developed from a subset of Egyptian of the Etruscans. Exactly how the alphabet reached hieroglyphs. The people who used it passed the idea northern Europe, where it might have triggered the on to the Phoenicians, who had developed it into their development of runic alphabets, remains unknown. own alphabet by 1050 bce. Being maritime traders, they took their alphabet around the Mediterranean. Spread of alphabets Phoenician- Runic alphabets influenced alphabet Proto-Canaanite and Phoenician alphabets BRITAIN 200–300 ce Runes – alphabetic 1600 bce The earliest known ASIA scripts made up of straight writing in Greek is in the “Linear B” GAUL lines – develop in northern script of the Myceneans Massalia Germany and Scandinavia 1050 bce The Phoenician alphabet Gades EUROPE contains 22 symbols denoting only 700 bce The Etruscans of consonants – these three are northern Italy, borrowing equivalent to the Roman 250 bce Brahmi script from the Phoenicians and “B”, “H”, and “S” (possibly influenced by Greeks, develop their Rome GREECE Hattushash syllabic or alphabetic own alphabetic script scripts from the West) ITALY Troy Tell Brak 3400 bce Pictographs Sahara Mycenae in Sumer (southern is used in India LUWIA M Mesopotamia) represent Syracuse esop the earliest known writing M editerrane Crete Ugarit o t a a n Sea mia Arabia Susa Harappa Valley Uruk 1750 bce The Minoans of Crete Memphis Persepolis I ndus write in their own version of EGYPT Mohenjo-Daro hieroglyphs, but also use an Ganges as-yet-undeciphered script Pataliputra called Linear A 1700–1500 bce Proto-Canaanite, the earliest known alphabet, is thought to have 2 EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS 3200bce–400ce 2050 bce By the Nile travelled from the Nile 200 ce Arabic script INDIA Middle Kingdom of Delta or Sinai Peninsula develops in the early The Egyptians developed their hieroglyphs towards Egypt, some hieroglyphs to the Levant centuries ce, and may have the end of the 4th millennium bce. Hieroglyphs are have come to denote SABA’ evolved from the script of pictorial symbols representing ideas, syllables, or sounds, such as “m” the Nabateans, who built sounds. People used them mainly for carved temple (owl), “b” (lower leg), the city of Petra in what inscriptions. Hieroglyphs fell out of use after the and “aa” (forearm) is now Jordan temples to the Egyptian gods closed in the 4th century ce, but this was not before the idea of hieroglyphic A F R I C AETHIOPIA 2600–1800 bce The origin and writing seems to have passed to Crete and Anatolia. 900 bce subsequent disppearance of the Indus Alphabetic writing Valley script are both mysteries, and its Egyptian hieroglyphs Spread of hieroglyphs spreads south to intricate symbols are not yet understood become the ancient South Arabian script, centuries before Arabic took over 600 bce–100 ce 1 PICTOGRAPHS TO CUNEIFORM 3400bce–100ce Ancient Ethiopic (Ge’ez) evolves as Writing was first devised in Sumer. Sumerian an offshoot of scribes first used pictographs (picture-like South Arabian symbols), but simplified these into wedge- ▷ Never to be forgotten shaped marks. These marks give the Hieroglyphs were painstaking to technique its name, which comes from the write and were not used for Latin cuneus – a wedge. From Sumerian everyday purposes. They were cities such as Uruk, cuneiform spread used for inscriptions intended to across Mesopotamia, and peoples from last forever – and these, on the the Hittites in Turkey to the Persians in tomb of Nefertari, queen of Iran used it to write their languages. pharaoh Rameses II, appear new after more than 3,250 years. Cuneiform tablet Sumerian cuneiform Spread of cuneiform You've heard on "Jeopardy!" someone answer "What was the Hanseatic League" and want to know why you never heard of it before. Ptolemy gathered documents detailing the locations of towns, and he augmented that information with the tales of travelers. By the time he was done, he had devised a system of lines of latitude and longitude, and plotted some 10,000 locations—from Britain to Europe, Asia and North Africa. Ptolemy even invented ways to flatten the planet (like most Greeks and Romans, he knew the Earth was round) onto a two-dimensional map. What did he call his new technique? “Geography.” Come on a journey through global history, told in more than 130 specially made maps that each offer a window on a key event. Step into the action and follow Ghengis Khan sweeping through China, Napoleon conquering Europe, or two world wars raging across the globe. See empires rise and fall - from the Egyptians and the Aztecs to the British Empire and the Soviet Union.

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Learn how something like the printing press can define a time, or how the Allies in Europe could defeat the Nazis. You know there were people living throughout North America before Columbus stumbled upon Hispaniola in 1492, but you may be surprised by the maps that show the volume of settlements by a diverse number of native cultures across the current U.S. and Latin America. PREHISTORY BEFORE WRITTEN RECORDS BEGAN IN AROUND 3000 BCE, THE STORY OF HUMANS WAS RECORDED FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS BY THE FOSSILS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRACES OUR ANCESTORS LEFT BEHIND.

Mercator’s projection was inspired by the accuracy of portolan maps. DEA PICTURE LIBRARY/De Agostini/ // Getty ImagesChina especially would disagree, probably, because there is little continuity show between dynasties, and many periods of external domination. Very minimal coverage of Africa, which is unjustified. India also.. besides Ashoka/Buddhism and the Vegas, what of historical value should be remembered. These were all massive population centers, getting very little legacy.

Visit Machu Picchu via Google Earth and hike the Inca Trail with Street View. Courtesy Google Street View Manhattan was Fairchild’s second first aerial survey. His first, a map of Newark, New Jersey, failed to gain notice. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division This history book reaching across millennia gives you a broad view of the pivotal events in our past. With 140 maps, complimented with pictures, info boxes, and timelines, there's so much to enjoy and learn about. You will gain a strong understanding of some of the forces and movements across continents that have shaped our world. Maps don’t just show us where to go, but also where we’ve been. If you’re interested in finding out more about the biggest events in world history, then this book all about history of the world is perfect for you! A modern reproduction of the Hereford Mappa Mundi. Europe is in the lower left quadrant. Universal History Archive // Getty ImagesMilner worries, though, that GPS is weakening something fundamental in ourselves, corroding not just our orientation skills, but how well we remember the details of the world around us. A 2008 study in Japan found that people who used a GPS to navigate a city developed a shakier grasp of the terrain than those who consulted a paper map or those who learned the route via direct experience. Similarly, a 2008 Cornell study found that “GPS eliminates much of the need to pay attention.” Some map historians agree that a subtle change is at hand. Short tells me that he likes the convenience of GPS-brokered directions—“but what I do lose is the sense of how things hang together.” Ancient sailors navigated the seas by keeping in sight of land and observing the sun and stars. If clouds rolled in, they pulled in their sails and waited for better visibility. Released in 2005, Google Earth provided an interactive, 3D image of the globe formed from millions of overlapping satellite photographs overlaid on a 3D digital earth. Close-up 3D details are added from aerial images that capture the depth of buildings and terrain. After the Roman Empire fell, Ptolemy’s realistic geography was lost to the West for almost a thousand years. Once again, maps were concerned more with story­telling: A famous 12th-century map made by the Islamic scholar al-Sharif al-Idrisi—commissioned by his protector and patron, King Roger II of Sicily, a Christian—neatly blended Islamic and Christian cities together, while centering the world on (of course) Roger’s landholdings. Most certainly—because it already has. Three thousand years ago, our ancestors began a long experiment in figuring out how they fit into the world, by inventing a bold new tool: the map.