Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Maps

Recently, while doing some basic research for a future project, I wondered what a tribal/nation map of Africa would have looked like without Europeans mucking about with borders and nation building and other shenanigans. And I found this map:

African nations before European colonization.
This map looks to be relatively accurate, but of course I wouldn't know, because I am not a scholar of African studies. The map appears to be wrong end up because the makers turned the western version of north-south on its head. Or put things right, if you care to be so inclined.

The thing is, you have a vast palette of many nations that likely make more sense linguistically and culturally than anything the European colonialists imposed on the inhabitants of the continent.

And I also wanted to know what North America would have looked like without the meddling and mass murder committed by European warlords here. The best I could find was a map that shows merely what the lower-48 of the USA would have resembled if the continent had not felt the bloody tread of colonialism from Europe. I'd like to see one of all of North America (for reasons of my own). Noting, of course, that there were probably some tribes and nations that were wiped out from disease before any European historians got a chance to make records of them.

Tribal boundaries pre-European?
If anyone reading this blog knows of any good books and maps on this subject, let me know.


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