Video: Mapmaking

﻿Hello, today we're going to be talking about mapmaking. In today's lesson, we will be looking at what a map is, and we will be looking at how mapmaking has changed over time, thinking both about how the appearance of maps has changed but also how their use has changed. And finally, we will be looking at how technology has influenced our use of maps today. Firstly we want to ask ourselves the question what is a map? A map is defined as a drawing of a particular area such as a city, a country or a continent represented on a flat surface. A map shows the main features of a place as they would appear if you looked at them from above. Geographers use maps as sources of information about places. Our second question is how have maps changed over time? The truth is that humans have always been interested in the world that we live in, and even going back to prehistoric times, maps have been found in cave paintings and even on bones. In fact, one of the oldest recorded maps was a nine-foot wall painting showing buildings and a volcano, found in Anatolia dating back to 6100 BC. Even the Egyptians created maps and drew routes on papyrus. Although very few examples of these have survived to the present day for us to study because papyrus has such a short life. Still thinking about this question of how mapmaking has changed over time, we talk about the evolution of mapmaking. Going back to the Roman Empire, mapmaking was mostly focused on practical uses. For example, the military, the army. Maps were needed so that the Romans could control their empire. Roman maps were mostly drawn for an area that they called Mare Nostrum which was the centre of the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, mapmaking advanced as the notes and writings of explorers were used to make maps both more accurate and more detailed. And during this time, great efforts were made by mathematicians to try and calculate the accurate circumference of the Earth. In the early modern period, maps became even more important as colonial powers expanded into more territories, and explorers discovered new lands. The most powerful countries at the time, like Britain, were keen, for example, to have maps to help them secure control over their ever-expanding empires, often with territories very far away. This image here is of Mercator's Map of the World, taken from 1569. Mercator's map is incredibly famous because it's the first attempt to make the Earth look right on a flat surface, which I'm sure you can consider is very hard to do 'cause as we know the Earth is a sphere. Mercator achieved this by keeping the lines straight. And in this way, it was really helpful for ship's navigators to chart their course. However, Mercator's map has been criticised quite significantly because of the size and shape of certain countries and how they appear on the map. We will review this in another lesson Let's continue with our question considering how mapmaking has changed over time. In the modern period, after the Industrial Revolution, two things happened. The first is that trade grew, and the second is that a wealthier middle class grew. As trade grew and countries were exporting and importing more goods with one another, travel increased for those people involved in trade, the merchants. But also, travel increased for the middle classes who had a little bit more money and were able to afford visiting new places. These two changes created a new demand for mapmaking, and to allow for this, maps became much smaller because people wanted to travel with them. During the 19th century, transport improved. It became both cheaper and more accessible to more people. So it became even more important to have up-to-date maps. Cartographers, mapmakers, put more and more effort into producing accurate and up-to-date maps which showed the road and rail network as it continued to expand and develop. And in this way, maps became more factual and less decorative than they had been in the past because the focus was on making sure that they were up to date and showed the road and rail network in all its detail. So what about today, how has technology influenced on maps? Well today, we can use a range of technology to help us find out about places, including satellite navigation, GPS and GIS. These new mapping technologies are now available to all of us and they have made maps both more accurate and more widely available. GIS stands for Geographic Information System. GIS describes a range of information that's gathered and applied to maps. There can be lots of information applied to the same map. The map is, of course, electronic. This helps people to compare a variety of information for one area. GPS stands for Global Positioning Satellite. And GPS uses satellites to identify and give directions to different locations. GPS can tell where users are, which direction they're travelling in, and even what speed they're travelling at. And then we have our mobile phones. Whereas previously, these mapping technologies weren't really available to the general population, with the growth of the internet and smartphones, people can now access these really sophisticated mapping tools in the palm of their hands. So what then are some everyday uses of GIS? Well, there are lots of sophisticated things that can be done with GIS and GPS. Flood mapping is one example. But there are also lots of everyday examples, and we probably don't even realise that we're using these technologies. Like when you take a selfie and you upload it to social media and it's able to show your exact location. Or when you want to go somewhere and use Google Maps to show you the quickest route to get there. Or when you send your location on WhatsApp so that someone can find you. I would now like you to pause this video and complete the independent task worksheet, checking your learning from this lesson. Well done for completing the independent task sheet. Let's now have a go at reviewing your answers. For answer number one, your definition has to have the word drawing and it has to have the word flat surface. You then just needed to include a use for maps, and that could be anything as simple as planning a journey or looking at the distance between two places. For task two, the key idea here is control. So check in your answer that you've written about the idea of control. Remember, we learnt that both in the Roman Empire and in the early modern period, maps were a really important tool for controlling territories. For the Romans, this was their empire. And in the early modern period, it was colonial powers who were expanding into new territories and using maps to try and create a situation where they could control these new lands and these new people. For task three, there were two big changes. Firstly, maps become smaller, but secondly, they became more factual. Or you could have said less decorative, less pretty. The reason they became smaller is that people started to carry them around with them. So you might have talked about merchants or travellers, the wealthy middle class, carrying maps in their pockets. If you talked about them becoming more factual, you needed to explain that the reason was because mapmakers, or cartographers, started to focus more on maps becoming more precise, and that was because the road and rail network was expanding and developing so rapidly that this became the focus of mapmaking. For task four, the answer is Geographic Information System. And then you needed to include one example of how it's helpful, and that could be any of the examples that we shared there or any others that you are aware of. Well done for completing today's lesson.

Worksheet: Mapmaking

Exit Quiz: Mapmaking

Completed: Mapmaking

In this lesson, you will be learning all about mapmaking. We will learn what a map is and how mapmaking and map use has evolved over time. We will also be looking at how technology has impacted on mapmaking and map use today.

Geography

Mapmaking

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