15 - Divided States of America
I was alerted to these maps by a Turkish gentleman, who posts them on his website. They are a reaction to the map of the Middle East, re-drawn as it was in the July issue of the US Armed Forces Journal (mentioned earlier in this blog). This American vision has upset a lot of people in the Middle East, not in the least in Turkey, which, in that American scenario, would lose about a quarter of its current territory in the East to a Free Kurdistan.
Unfortunately, my Turkish is not very good, so I can’t read the text explaining the map-drawing competition. The caption above the maps is, however, clear: Divided States of America in, United States of America out. Some maps are funny, others are a bit grim, but every map speaks volumes about the ‘hearts and minds’ the current US administration has lost, around the world and particularly in the Middle East.
Here is a selection, taken from Açik Kistihbarat’s site.
(a) Canada comes south
- Greater Canada eats up a big slice of the US south of the 49th parallel, which presently forms the border between the US and Canada from Washington State to Minnesota.
- Greater Cuba includes Florida and parts of Georgia and Alabama.
- The rest of the East Coast states are the Republic of Afro-Americans.
- The Mid-West is divided between an English Colony in the north and a French Colony in the south - a reference obviously to the Louisiana Territory, which was a lot bigger than the present state of the same name, and French until 1803.
- Greater Mexico has reclaimed some of the territory lost after the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, including Texas, the original cause of the war when the Mexican ‘rebel province’ was annexed by the US.
- The West Coast states form an Evangelist Republic of America, which has re-sold Alaska to Russia.
- The rump of the US is a Republic of Native Americans.
(b) Afghano-America
The three countries most affected by American foreign policy get a big slice of the US, Iraq occupying the West Coast, Afghanistan the eastern part up to the Mississippi, Palestine most of what’s in between. A purple sliver between Iraq and Palestine is reserved for something I can’t translate. Bizarrely, two UN institutions get Louisiana (WHO) and Wisconsin and some of Michigan (Unicef).
A purple between Iraq and Palestine territory is Anti-war Americans.
Savas karsiti amerikalilar = antiwar americans.
Comment by okaym — November 7, 2006 @
Where are the parts “vietnam”, “central” and “south america” ? Splitted ?
Comment by Jean — November 9, 2006 @
hey you map-wierdos! Nobody mentioned it before, so I guess I gotta do it. 1st: this seems to be a turkish map. 2nd: the three “affected countries” are not occupying the u.s. incidentally. afghanistan, palestine (West Jordanland), ant the irak are mostly in their original shapes!
You can thank me now!
Comment by alexanderfromhamburgingermany — November 11, 2006 @
Texas fought a war of independence with Mexico and won. It was an independent country for nine years before voting to join the United States.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Texas
It was a dispute about the boundaries of Texas that later triggered the brief Mexican-American War.
Comment by mark — November 13, 2006 @
It’s odd that the first mapmaker points out the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which are actually owned by France today. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pierre_and_Miquelon)
Presumably France gets to keep them in this scheme.
Comment by Gochi Sanfrid — February 17, 2007 @
To suggest that the Far West of the USA will become the “Evangelist Republic” is funny.
Comment by David Sucher — March 6, 2007 @
These maps are really interesting in that they show us what people in foreign countries know and understand about the us,the people, the geographic divisions, etc, what there perceptions are, and it does it better than prose.
Comment by nygdan — May 12, 2007 @
Making most of the eastern US coast the “Republic of Afro-Americans” is equally ridiculous - there aren’t many African-Americans north of New York City. The Northern New England states in particular (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) are practically lily-white.
If he knew more about the USA, the Turkish gent would likely have put New England in Greater Canada.
Comment by Darrel Jones — June 4, 2007 @
@3: “hey you map-wierdos! Nobody mentioned it before, so I guess I gotta do it. 1st: this seems to be a turkish map.”
A little tip: it pays to read what a webpage says before commenting on it. Read from the very top of the page, slowy.
@7: “These maps are really interesting in that they show us what people in foreign countries know and understand about the us, the people, the geographic divisions, etc, ….”
These particular maps do no such thing: they’re simply jokes.
Comment by cloudberry — June 14, 2007 @
the new england african american republic struck me as beign VERY intentional.And funny too.
A thing that must be pointed out is that Europeans tend to know an awful lot more about the US than a lot of Americans know about Europe.
At one point I could name every state capital off the top of my head.
Comment by Pol x — June 22, 2007 @
hey very interesting.. good job man… first off all am gona applause u for the shape of the afghan,iraq, and falistin maps.. really clever.. and another thing i wud wanna add is this is soo true i mean the usa is up to divide every country mainly middle east for the start into diff lil territories based on religion, ethnicities and etc.. yet usa it self stands for “united states of america” which has so many ethnicites it self.. how about usa divides it self before other countries!
Comment by mukhtar — August 20, 2007 @
Great Site!
I really enjoy the comments the maps generate. Many of them, along ‘nationalistic’ lines, reinforce many of my beliefs.
These maps, submitted in response to a request for a rebuttal of an US Armed Forces Journal, are outstanding. The website to which you provide a link is great as well.
You hit it right on the head. These expose “the ‘hearts and minds’ the current US administration has lost.”
Comment by Komowkwa — November 19, 2007 @
This is a strangely obscure map - or at least the second one is. I understand where the derivations of the first one came from, but I can’t seem to make heads or tails of the second one.
Comment by trademark registration — December 22, 2007 @
I suppose that this is supposed to be a joke, but in truth this kind of thing would never happen. He United States are way too united for this kind of division to occur… unless, of course, what they were saying is that if the Middle-Eastern countries went to war with America and won, this is what they would force the country to be in. Interesting… although, I suspect the truth is for more grim. America would belong to one country only, regardless of their nationality, and that would be whoever wins the war… they’ll all fight for it, I’m sure.
Comment by toys — March 15, 2008 @
It’s interesting how a certain map can cause a stir among people. I guess I need to be very careful in my recent mapping project for a client; otherwise, I will end up causing too many arguments like this one too.
Comment by Oil portrait paintings — April 16, 2008 @
i have an idea about the regions given to UN agencies. louisiana to the World Health Organization, who might actually clean it up–between the toxic sites and the flood, the environment is the opposite of healthy. and maybe western wisconsin is being given to UNICEF for its grain production–UNICEF could use this grain and dairy to feed the world’s children?
i actually teach a world regional geography class, and i might use this to get my students thinking about it as a response to american orientalism…
thanks for all the great maps. your site is fascinating, fun, thought-provoking….(okay, i am a geographer, so am predisposed to liking maps)
Comment by kiki — May 6, 2008 @