--- title: A History of the World in Twelve Maps description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/archive/7131398/a-history-of-the-world-in-twelve-maps/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-11-21T10:45:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T09:08:57.731Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A History of the World in Twelve Maps og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/archive/7131398/a-history-of-the-world-in-twelve-maps/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A History of the World in Twelve Maps twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) # A History of the World in Twelve Maps by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 21, 2013 10:45 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 21, 2013 10:45 AM UTC ## Claudius Ptolemy, World Map, 150 AD ![Harley 7182 ff.58v-59](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6def331364b81947/6998b4c5d32e933f80cd4fc7/e032325.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
In 150 AD, the Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy wrote a textbook entitled the Geography, which earned him the title ‘The Father of Geography’. Drawing on nearly a thousand years of classical learning, Ptolemy’s book provided a list of over 8,000 locations known to Greco-Roman civilization, centered on the Mediterranean. Ptolemy’s world stretches from the Canary Islands in the west to Korea in the east. Iceland is the northernmost point, there is no Pacific or American landmass, and South Africa is joined to Asia. Ptolemy’s book also provided a written description of how to draw world maps, using a grid of intersecting lines known as a graticule. He also invented two map projections. Ironically, no maps drawn by Ptolemy have ever been found; the first ones appeared in Byzantium over a thousand years after his death. dwinograd1 ## Al-Sharif al-Idrisi, World Map, 1154 ![The Entertainment for he who longs to travel the world was an Arabic geographical book written in Sicily in 1154 by the Muslim scholar Al-Sharif al-Idrisi. It was commissioned by the island’s Norman ruler, King Roger II, and drew on Greek, Islamic and Christian knowledge in creating one of the greatest medieval compendiums of geographical knowledge. The book contained seventy regional maps, and began with this exquisite circular world map, oriented with south at the top. Most early Islamic world maps were oriented this way because many of the communities that first converted to Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries lived directly north of Mecca, leading them to regard south as the correct direction of prayer.  The earth is encircled by sea and surrounded by fire, an idea taken from the Koran. Particularly noticeable is the vast African continent, dominated by the mountains believed to be the Nile’s source, a sketchy Europe \(though with an unsurprisingly large Sicily\), and t](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb27c87909949cebe/6998b4c607a30d139c77afcf/al-idrisis_world_map.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
The Entertainment for he who longs to travel the world was an Arabic geographical book written in Sicily in 1154 by the Muslim scholar Al-Sharif al-Idrisi. It was commissioned by the island’s Norman ruler, King Roger II, and drew on Greek, Islamic and Christian knowledge in creating one of the greatest medieval compendiums of geographical knowledge. The book contained seventy regional maps, and began with this exquisite circular world map, oriented with south at the top. Most early Islamic world maps were oriented this way because many of the communities that first converted to Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries lived directly north of Mecca, leading them to regard south as the correct direction of prayer. The earth is encircled by sea and surrounded by fire, an idea taken from the Koran. Particularly noticeable is the vast African continent, dominated by the mountains believed to be the Nile’s source, a sketchy Europe (though with an unsurprisingly large Sicily), and the Arabian Peninsula right in the middle. dwinograd1 ## Richard of Haldingham, Mappa-mundi, 1300 ![Around 1300 an obscure clergyman called Richard of Haldingham unveiled one of the most remarkable maps of medieval civilisation: his mappa-mundi, or world map. It is made from a flayed calf’s skin, and can still be seen today in Hereford Cathedral. The map contains over a thousand pictures and captions, revealing how medieval Christians understood the world. East is at the top, showing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the story of  Biblical time is told moving ‘down’ the map, ending at the westerly point of the Pillars of Hercules near modern-day Gibraltar. North is to the left and ends in Russia, while south is to the right, filled with cannibals and monstrous races from Africa. Jerusalem is at the map’s centre, with Christ triumphant at the very top, overseeing the Day of Judgement. This is a map about spiritually travelling towards god, rather than getting from one place to another.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffd5a7dcc2de7f10/6998b4c625f3ee4e736429e6/hereford_mappa_mundi_1300.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
Around 1300 an obscure clergyman called Richard of Haldingham unveiled one of the most remarkable maps of medieval civilisation: his mappa-mundi, or world map. It is made from a flayed calf’s skin, and can still be seen today in Hereford Cathedral. The map contains over a thousand pictures and captions, revealing how medieval Christians understood the world. East is at the top, showing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the story of Biblical time is told moving ‘down’ the map, ending at the westerly point of the Pillars of Hercules near modern-day Gibraltar. North is to the left and ends in Russia, while south is to the right, filled with cannibals and monstrous races from Africa. Jerusalem is at the map’s centre, with Christ triumphant at the very top, overseeing the Day of Judgement. This is a map about spiritually travelling towards god, rather than getting from one place to another. dwinograd1 ## The Yu Ji Tu, 1137 ![Maps come in all shapes, sizes and mediums, and this one, made by an unknown Chinese mapmaker dated 1130, is carved onto a meter-high stone, or stele, showing China’s coastline \(including Hainan Island\) and network of rivers \(especially the Yellow and Yangtze\) with remarkable accuracy. It is called the ‘Yu ji tu’, or ‘Map of the Tracks of Yu’, and was made under the Song dynasty \(907-1276\). For Joseph Needham, the great historian of Chinese science, it revealed ‘the extent to which Chinese geography was at that time ahead of the West’. It is the first Chinese map to use a grid with each of its 5,000 squares representing one Chinese li \(approximately 50 kilometres\) giving a scale of around 1:4,500,000. The title refers to the ancient legendary text the ‘Yu Gong,’ which describes an archaic, unified China defined by rivers and mountains. It is therefore a map about a legendary, lost China, which also doubles up as a printing press: the stele has been used to take rubbings of what](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04476dad21b68a4/6998b4c666d4e3a365cba855/map3.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
Maps come in all shapes, sizes and mediums, and this one, made by an unknown Chinese mapmaker dated 1130, is carved onto a meter-high stone, or stele, showing China’s coastline (including Hainan Island) and network of rivers (especially the Yellow and Yangtze) with remarkable accuracy. It is called the ‘Yu ji tu’, or ‘Map of the Tracks of Yu’, and was made under the Song dynasty (907-1276). For Joseph Needham, the great historian of Chinese science, it revealed ‘the extent to which Chinese geography was at that time ahead of the West’. It is the first Chinese map to use a grid with each of its 5,000 squares representing one Chinese li (approximately 50 kilometres) giving a scale of around 1:4,500,000\. The title refers to the ancient legendary text the ‘Yu Gong,’ which describes an archaic, unified China defined by rivers and mountains. It is therefore a map about a legendary, lost China, which also doubles up as a printing press: the stele has been used to take rubbings of what is carved on its surface, three-hundred years before print reached Europe. dwinograd1 ## Martin Waldseemüller's Universal Cosmography, 1507 ![In 2003, the Library of Congress bought Martin Waldseemüller’s world map for a world record $10 million dollars, because it is the first map to name America and show the Pacific. Widely regarded as ‘America’s birth certificate’, the map was believed lost until found by a Jesuit priest in a castle in Germany in 1900, where it remained 2003, when the library persuaded its owner, a German count, to sell it. Made by Waldseemüller and a team of scholars in Germany in 1507, its distinctive bulb-shaped projection reflects their attempt to keep up with the extraordinary period of rapid discoveries made by the Spanish and Portuguese from the late fifteenth century, including landfalls in southern Africa, India, Asia, and of course, the Americas. At the top of the map are Ptolemy \(left\) and Amerigo Vespucci \(right\), whose voyages proved conclusively that America was a separate continent, disproving Columbus’ belief that he had landed in Asia. It is a map that remains full of mysteries: how did ](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb51b845c0085f9d2/6998b4c67323af874a2ba87d/map1.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
In 2003, the Library of Congress bought Martin Waldseemüller’s world map for a world record $10 million dollars, because it is the first map to name America and show the Pacific. Widely regarded as ‘America’s birth certificate’, the map was believed lost until found by a Jesuit priest in a castle in Germany in 1900, where it remained 2003, when the library persuaded its owner, a German count, to sell it. Made by Waldseemüller and a team of scholars in Germany in 1507, its distinctive bulb-shaped projection reflects their attempt to keep up with the extraordinary period of rapid discoveries made by the Spanish and Portuguese from the late fifteenth century, including landfalls in southern Africa, India, Asia, and of course, the Americas. At the top of the map are Ptolemy (left) and Amerigo Vespucci (right), whose voyages proved conclusively that America was a separate continent, disproving Columbus’ belief that he had landed in Asia. It is a map that remains full of mysteries: how did Waldseemüller know about the Pacific six years before any European discovered it? dwinograd1 ## Diogo Ribeiro, World Map, 1529 ![This map by the Portuguese mapmaker Diogo Ribeiro is one of the first examples of political geography manipulating reality. Throughout the early sixteenth century Spain and Portugal were rivals for control of the spice trade, centered on the Moluccas islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1494 both powers signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, with a line drawn on a map running through the middle of the Atlantic, with everything to the west belonging to the Spanish, and everything to the east the Portuguese. Following Magellan’s first global circumnavigation in 1522, the question was where the line would fall in the eastern hemisphere. The Portuguese Ribeiro switched aides and was paid by the Spanish to make this apparently objective map, full of scientific detail, which shows the Moluccas \(in both the far left and right-hand sides of the map\) just within the Spanish half of the globe. Modern measurement suggests he was wrong, but it took hundreds of years to disprove his brilliant and ](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt576a9bd6bc308d11/6998b4c747fe5184b4559b10/nla-map-nk5631-e.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
This map by the Portuguese mapmaker Diogo Ribeiro is one of the first examples of political geography manipulating reality. Throughout the early sixteenth century Spain and Portugal were rivals for control of the spice trade, centered on the Moluccas islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1494 both powers signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, with a line drawn on a map running through the middle of the Atlantic, with everything to the west belonging to the Spanish, and everything to the east the Portuguese. Following Magellan’s first global circumnavigation in 1522, the question was where the line would fall in the eastern hemisphere. The Portuguese Ribeiro switched aides and was paid by the Spanish to make this apparently objective map, full of scientific detail, which shows the Moluccas (in both the far left and right-hand sides of the map) just within the Spanish half of the globe. Modern measurement suggests he was wrong, but it took hundreds of years to disprove his brilliant and extremely effective act of cartographic deception. dwinograd1 ## Gerard Mercator, World Map, 1569 ![By the mid sixteenth century, what everyone needed was a flat map allowing seaborne navigators to plot long distances using a straight line that took into account the curvature of the earth’s surface. The result was Gerard Mercator’s enormous 1569 world map, called a ‘Description of the Earth for Use in Navigation’. It used a famous projection that lengthened the parallels north and south of the equator. As can be seen on this map, such a method created maximum distortion at the Polar regions, but was remarkably accurate either side of the equatorial regions, particularly when sailing east or west \(as shown by the tiny ships in the Indian and Pacific oceans\). By the eighteenth century the projection had been adopted almost universally by European navigators, and was adapted by nineteenth-century atlases extolling the virtues of the British Empire. This led to Mercator being accused of ‘Eurocentrism’, an unfair criticism of the map and the man, considering Europe is not at its c](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c253675fd6a7e05/6998b4c71f670979c1f545a1/mercator_1569.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
By the mid sixteenth century, what everyone needed was a flat map allowing seaborne navigators to plot long distances using a straight line that took into account the curvature of the earth’s surface. The result was Gerard Mercator’s enormous 1569 world map, called a ‘Description of the Earth for Use in Navigation’. It used a famous projection that lengthened the parallels north and south of the equator. As can be seen on this map, such a method created maximum distortion at the Polar regions, but was remarkably accurate either side of the equatorial regions, particularly when sailing east or west (as shown by the tiny ships in the Indian and Pacific oceans). By the eighteenth century the projection had been adopted almost universally by European navigators, and was adapted by nineteenth-century atlases extolling the virtues of the British Empire. This led to Mercator being accused of ‘Eurocentrism’, an unfair criticism of the map and the man, considering Europe is not at its center, and that Mercator had his own problems with authority, standing accused of heresy by the Catholic authorities in 1544. dwinograd1 ## Joan Blaeu, Atlas Maior, 1662 ![The publication of Joan Blaeu’s Atlas maior in Amsterdam in 1662 was a truly baroque affair. In attempting to synthesize all celestial, terrestrial and geographical knowledge, Blaeu created an atlas that in its first edition ran to 11 volumes, containing 4,608 pages and 594 maps. Over subsequent editions he printed over five million pages of text, creating the largest book of its time. The atlas’s world map shows two hemispheres overseen by Ptolemy \(to the left\) with his geocentric views and Copernicus \(to the right\) with his revolutionary heliocentric perspective. Blaeu drew much of his information from privileged access to Dutch East India Company archives, although perhaps unsurprisingly for such an expensive project, his geography was relatively unadventurous. What was new was his decision to endorse Copernicus’s arguments that the earth was part of a solar system that orbited the sun. The planets are shown in correct proximity to the sun, with the moon peeping out from abo](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd6835b876f0799a/6998b4c807a30d17c177afd7/map2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
The publication of Joan Blaeu’s Atlas maior in Amsterdam in 1662 was a truly baroque affair. In attempting to synthesize all celestial, terrestrial and geographical knowledge, Blaeu created an atlas that in its first edition ran to 11 volumes, containing 4,608 pages and 594 maps. Over subsequent editions he printed over five million pages of text, creating the largest book of its time. The atlas’s world map shows two hemispheres overseen by Ptolemy (to the left) with his geocentric views and Copernicus (to the right) with his revolutionary heliocentric perspective. Blaeu drew much of his information from privileged access to Dutch East India Company archives, although perhaps unsurprisingly for such an expensive project, his geography was relatively unadventurous. What was new was his decision to endorse Copernicus’s arguments that the earth was part of a solar system that orbited the sun. The planets are shown in correct proximity to the sun, with the moon peeping out from above the two hemispheres. dwinograd1 ## Louis Capitaine, Map of France, 1790 ![The first survey of a nation to use modern trigonometric methods began in late seventeenth-century thanks to France's King Louis XIV’s royal astronomer, Giovanni Cassini. The next three generations of Cassinis spent years labouring over the creation of the Carte de France, a vast, 182-sheet map of the country on a scale of 1:86,400 which, if joined together, would cover twelve metres high and eleven wide. Teams of trained surveyors crisscrossed France, measuring every square meter \(a unit of measurement adopted by France in 1793, thanks largely to the Cassinis’ efforts\). Some were attacked, one even murdered by suspicious locals, but their heroic efforts led to some of the most accurate and beautifully engraved maps in the history of cartography. The survey was nearly completed when France was engulfed by revolution in the 1780s. One of the new republican regime’s first decisions was to nationalize the map, shown here in Louis Capitaine’s composite version. Its methods were to set the](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb32806d7046f53d4/6998b4c91500fb492aaa452a/2114005.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
The first survey of a nation to use modern trigonometric methods began in late seventeenth-century thanks to France's King Louis XIV’s royal astronomer, Giovanni Cassini. The next three generations of Cassinis spent years labouring over the creation of the Carte de France, a vast, 182-sheet map of the country on a scale of 1:86,400 which, if joined together, would cover twelve metres high and eleven wide. Teams of trained surveyors crisscrossed France, measuring every square meter (a unit of measurement adopted by France in 1793, thanks largely to the Cassinis’ efforts). Some were attacked, one even murdered by suspicious locals, but their heroic efforts led to some of the most accurate and beautifully engraved maps in the history of cartography. The survey was nearly completed when France was engulfed by revolution in the 1780s. One of the new republican regime’s first decisions was to nationalize the map, shown here in Louis Capitaine’s composite version. Its methods were to set the standard for all subsequent national mapping surveys. dwinograd1 ## Sir Halford Mackinder, The Natural Seats of Power, 1904 ![

The English academic, politician and imperial explorer Sir Halford Mackinder almost single-handedly invented both the academic study of geography and the concept of ‘geopolitics’. Throughout the late nineteenth century he campaigned successfully for geography to be studied as a subject in its own right at Oxford University. He was also, not coincidentally, an enthusiastic supporter of English imperialism, climbing Mount Kenya in 1899 and becoming an MP in 1910. In 1904 he gave a talk at the Royal Geographical Society entitled ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’, which was illustrated with this world map. Mackinder believed that central Asia, or what he called ‘Eurasia’, represented the pivotal area of the world’s politics, and that whoever controlled this vast, landlocked region and its resources would effectively rule the globe. The map influenced generations of thinkers and politicians, from George Orwell’s dystopian world of 1984 to the US foreign policy promoted by Henry](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80e84d114eee2df5/6998b4c866d4e34ea1cba859/heartland.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)

The English academic, politician and imperial explorer Sir Halford Mackinder almost single-handedly invented both the academic study of geography and the concept of ‘geopolitics’. Throughout the late nineteenth century he campaigned successfully for geography to be studied as a subject in its own right at Oxford University. He was also, not coincidentally, an enthusiastic supporter of English imperialism, climbing Mount Kenya in 1899 and becoming an MP in 1910\. In 1904 he gave a talk at the Royal Geographical Society entitled ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’, which was illustrated with this world map. Mackinder believed that central Asia, or what he called ‘Eurasia’, represented the pivotal area of the world’s politics, and that whoever controlled this vast, landlocked region and its resources would effectively rule the globe. The map influenced generations of thinkers and politicians, from George Orwell’s dystopian world of 1984 to the US foreign policy promoted by Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

dwinograd1 ## Arno Peters, World Map, 1973 ![With disillusionment at how geography had been manipulated for political ends throughout the twentieth century, the 1970s saw a significant change in attitudes to mapmaking. In 1973 the German historian Arno Peters published this new map projection which, he claimed, challenged the ‘Eurocentric’ dominance of Mercator’s, promising equality to the ‘developing world’ in Africa and Asia. Peters used what is known as an ‘equal area’ projection, which offered such a different world to Mercator’s: one critic said Peters’ map looked like ‘long winter underwear hung out to dry on the Arctic Circle’. It was a huge success with progressive church organisations and NGOs who adopted it as a more ‘equal’ map. It sold millions, and even featured on an episode of The West Wing. Unfortunately Peters claimed it was more ‘accurate’ than any other projection, which is not exactly the case since any projection produces some kind of geographical distortion. He also copied the projection method from ](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta93f95b718cd88b1/6998b4c983ec374624c789a9/map.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
With disillusionment at how geography had been manipulated for political ends throughout the twentieth century, the 1970s saw a significant change in attitudes to mapmaking. In 1973 the German historian Arno Peters published this new map projection which, he claimed, challenged the ‘Eurocentric’ dominance of Mercator’s, promising equality to the ‘developing world’ in Africa and Asia. Peters used what is known as an ‘equal area’ projection, which offered such a different world to Mercator’s: one critic said Peters’ map looked like ‘long winter underwear hung out to dry on the Arctic Circle’. It was a huge success with progressive church organisations and NGOs who adopted it as a more ‘equal’ map. It sold millions, and even featured on an episode of The West Wing. Unfortunately Peters claimed it was more ‘accurate’ than any other projection, which is not exactly the case since any projection produces some kind of geographical distortion. He also copied the projection method from a nineteenth-century Scottish clergyman named James Gall. dwinograd1 ## Homepage of Google Earth, 2013 ![The digital age has of course transformed maps—or geospatial applications, as they are known online—and the biggest winner has been Google, with its Earth application being downloaded by more than half a billion people, and its Maps becoming central to its domination of the online search market. Google has now taken its rightful place in the history of cartography, and is at the forefront of maps’ evolution from stone and papyrus to paper and now pixels. But there are concerns about the company’s monopolization of geographical data and its use of maps for primarily commercial ends. Nor does Google offer a ‘perfect map’ as it claimed recently: like maps throughout history, Google’s have to omit some things if they want to show others. It seems that rather than coming to the end of a chapter in the story of mapmaking, we are at the beginning of a fascinating new history of the world. And how it is mapped. Jerry Brotton is a professor of Renaissance Studies at University of London](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d43604808a0b66f/6998b4b99fbc7c46b8d98100/147648-004-6eeb782b.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
The digital age has of course transformed maps—or geospatial applications, as they are known online—and the biggest winner has been Google, with its Earth application being downloaded by more than half a billion people, and its Maps becoming central to its domination of the online search market. Google has now taken its rightful place in the history of cartography, and is at the forefront of maps’ evolution from stone and papyrus to paper and now pixels. But there are concerns about the company’s monopolization of geographical data and its use of maps for primarily commercial ends. Nor does Google offer a ‘perfect map’ as it claimed recently: like maps throughout history, Google’s have to omit some things if they want to show others. It seems that rather than coming to the end of a chapter in the story of mapmaking, we are at the beginning of a fascinating new history of the world. And how it is mapped.



Jerry Brotton is a professor of Renaissance Studies at University of London and the author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps.

History of the World in 12 Maps
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