70 - Sykes-Picot: Western Designs On the Middle-East

In November 1915, diplomats François Georges-Picot (for France) and Mark Sykes (for Britain) negotiated an ‘understanding’ about how to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence for their respective countries. At the time, the area was still under control of the Ottoman Empire, linked to the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary) and therefore an opponent of the British, French and other Allies in World War I.

The Sykes-Picot Plan was secretly agreed to by the British and French governments on May 16, 1916. The outlines of the combined zones of influence have partially determined the borders of Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia as they still stand today. Internally, the zones do not correspond to the present border situation.

According to Sykes-Picot, there were to be:

• An ‘A’-zone of French influence, somewhat corresponding with present-day Syria but without coastal access, and extending far into present-day Iraq, to include the city of Mosul.
• A ‘B’-zone of British influence, roughly correspondent to present-day Jordan and Iraq and including the Israeli port city of Haifa. Also included were the southern part of present-day Israel (i.e. the Negev desert), and a band of territory extending deep into the Arabian peninsula.
• A ‘Blue’ zone of direct French control, in central Anatolia with extensions towards the south (the Syrian coast) the west (the southern Turkish coast) and far inland.
• A ‘Red’ zone of direct British control, in southern Iraq and extending southwards over Kuwait to include the Persian Gulf coast of Arabia.
• An international zone in the Holy Land, pending consultation with other world powers.

France and Britain would be left free to decide on state boundaries within the areas of their control. The main criticism of the Sykes-Picot Agreement was that it failed to take into account the wishes of the Arab populations in the area – who had been promised self-determination by some Western interlocutors, such as Lawrence of Arabia, who promised the Arabs a homeland in exchange for siding with the British against the Turks.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was later expanded to include Italy (which would receive some Aegean islands and a sphere of influence around Izmir/Smyrna on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor) and Russia (which would get Armenia and parts of Kurdistan). Due to the Communist Revolution of 1917, Russia’s claims were denied. Italy’s claims were formalised in the Treaty of Sèvres (1920).

Whether or not as ‘revenge’, Lenin released a copy of the confidential agreement, causing great embarrassment among the Allies – and growing distrust among the Arabs. In fact, the Sykes-Picot Agreement is seen as a negative turning point in Arab-Western relations, which have not been ‘baggage-free’ since.

Sykes-Picot was reaffirmed at the Sanremo Conference (1920), although the borders of the resultant states (the French mandate area of Syria-Lebanon, the British mandate areas of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq) did not correspond exactly to the zones of influence in the original agreement.

69 - Not Kansas, But Just As Rectangular: The Land of Oz

Oz is an imaginary magical monarchy, first introduced in L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). In all, Baum wrote 14 childrens’ books about Oz, presenting himself as the ‘Royal Historian’ of Oz. After his death, Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the series. Using clues in the series, fans have drawn up maps of Oz.

The Land of Oz is rectangular in shape, divided along the diagonals into four counties:

• Munchkin Country (east)

• Winkie Country (west)

• Gillikin Country (north)

• Quadling Country (south)

In the centre is Emerald City, the capital and seat of Princess Ozma. Oz is completely surrounded by deserts, insulating the country from invasion and discovery. The isolation may be splendid, it is not total: children from our world got through, as well as the Wizard of Oz and the more sinister Nome King. To prevent further incursions, Glinda created a barrier of invisibility around Oz.

Peculiar on some maps is that west is right, while east is left (while north is still top and south bottom). Some say this is because Baum looked at the wrong side of a glass slide while copying the map. Others believe the reversed compass rose simply reflects the ‘confusing’ nature of Oz, possibly due to Glinda’s spell. The reversal of east and west makes sense in that the Wicked Witch after enslaving the Winkies was called the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ even though Winkie County is on the right hand side of the map. Robert A. Heinlein claims in his book The Number of the Beast that Oz is on a retrograde planet, spinning in the opposite direction of Earth.

Oz is the largest country on the continent of Nonestica, which also includes the countries of Ev, Ix and Mo (also known as Phunniland). Nonestica lies in the Nonestic Ocean – possibly a local name for the Pacific Ocean. In fact, some hints indicate that Oz is in the South Pacific: there are palm trees and horses are non-native. In Ozma of Oz, Dorothy is sailing to Australia when she is washed overboard and lands on the shores of Ev. Intriguingly, Oz is commonly used to refer to Australia, which borders the South Pacific Ocean.

The origin of the word ‘Oz’ is uncertain. One story holds that L. Frank Baum took it off a filing cabinet, which was divided into two alphabetical drawers: A-N and O-Z. Another holds that it is a corruption of Uz, the biblical homeland of Job. It could also be a reference to ounce (abbr. oz.) – with the story of Oz being an allegory for the populist struggle against the gold standard (personified by the powerless, frightened wizard in the books).Other theories state that ‘Os’ is and old English word for God, and in Wicked, a clever parody on the Oz material, it is proposed that Oz derives from ‘oasis’ or ‘ooze’, being a reference to the creation legend of a great flood.

(this map taken from this page).

68 - Where Delaware Met Pennsylvania (2): the Wedge

The Pennsylvania-Delaware border is characterised by not one, but two cartographic anomalies. One is the Twelve Mile Circle (see previous post), the other one is the Delaware Wedge, an area of about 3 km² literally plugging the gap between the western part of the Circle and the northeastern edge of the Maryland border (which incidentally is synonymous with the Mason-Dixon line here). Pennsylvania recognised Delaware’s claim on the Wedge only in 1921. Here’s how it happened:

1632. The charter for Maryland gives the entire Delmarva peninsula (*) up to the 40^th parallel to the Calvert family who, besides Maryland, also own the Province of Avalon on Newfoundland).

1644. The Duke of York decides that the area around New Castle should be administered as a colony separate from Maryland.

1681. William Penn receives his charter for Pennsylvania, which grants him land west of the Delaware River and north of the 40^th parallel. Any land in a 12 mile radius from New Castle was excluded from Pennsylvania… But this merely demonstrates the sometimes shoddy chartering of the area: New Castle is actually 25 miles south of the 40^th parallel. Later, the Penns acquire the Three Lower Counties, desiring access to the sea. They do remain a separate possession, though.

1750. Delaware’s northern and southern borders are fixed, by the surveying of the Twelve Mile Circle (in the north) and the Transpeninsular Line (in the south). This sort of settles the boundaries between the three states, which remained vague for almost 80 years. The Calverts (Maryland) and the Penns(Pennsylvania and Delaware) reached an agreement on the demarcation of their possessions:

· The Transpeninsular Line;

·  A Tangent Line, connecting the middle of the Transpeninsular Line with the western side of the Twelve Mile Circle;

·  A North Line from the tangent point to a line 15 miles south of Philadelphia, running at 39°43’ N (as a compromise to the 40^th parallel).

·  Any part west of the North Line remains part of Delaware (this segment is known as the Arc Line)

Between 39°43’N latitude, the Twelve Mile Circle and the North Line lies a small ‘wedge’ of territory, well east of the Mason-Dixon Line and therefore outside the jurisdiction of Maryland. Ownership of the Wedge only became an issue after Pennsylvania and Delaware became separate states.

Pennsylvania claimed the Wedge on the basis that it lay beyond the Twelve Mile Circle and therefore should be Pennsylvania’s by default. Delaware claimed the Wedge because Pennsylvania was never supposed to be this far south. Because it is south of the Compromise Line of 39°43’ N, it should be Delaware territory. In 1921, Pennsylvania finally agreed.

Due to the complexities of determining this border (tangent lines and all), astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon were hired. They surveyed the border between the possession of the Calvert and Penn families and in the process drew up what became known as the ‘Mason-Dixon Line’. Even today, the Mason-Dixon Line is referred to as the dividing line between the North and the South (also known as ‘Dixie’).

(*): the name of this peninsula is composed of the three states occupying it: DELaware, MARyland and
VirginiA. It doesn’t appear to have a proper name of its own, and it’s unclear if the peninsula ever had one, and from when it was actually called by its present acronym.

67 - Where Delaware Met Pennsylvania (1): the Twelve Mile Circle

Your typical American border is the straight line, as demonstrated by the US-Canadian border that follows the 49th parallel for approximately 1.245 miles (2.000 km), longer than any other linear boundary; and by Utah Phillips’ observation that “out west the states are square”.

A delightful exception to the straight border is the circular demarcation between Pennsylvania and Delaware, dubbed the Twelve Mile Circle. This is the only US boundary that’s a true arc… Unless you consider the 49th parallel border and all the other boundaries based on latitude (which are therefore centred around the North Pole) as arcs too.

As the name implies, the circle has a radius of exactly 12 miles, centred on the cupola of the New Castle courthouse. The centre of the circle has been fixed on that cupola since 1750, but the Twelve Mile Circle is older than that, dating back to the original deed of Delaware by the Duke of York to William Penn, on August 24th of 1682:

“All that the Towne of Newcastle otherwise called Delaware and All that Tract of Land lying within the Compass or Circle of Twelve Miles about the same scituate lying and being upon the River Delaware in America And all Islands in the same River Delaware and the said River and Soyle thereof lying North of the Southermost part of the said Circle of Twelve Miles about the said Towne.”

This paragraph has caused another demarcatory anomaly in the Delaware River, the border between Delaware and New Jersey. In most rivers that divide two political entities, the boundary is drawn right down the middle of the stream. Yet in this river, the Twelve Mile Circle continues into the river up unto the New Jersey shoreline. And only there does the state of Delaware stop, claiming the entire river and hemming in New Jersey.

New Jersey has challenged this demarcation up to the Supreme Court (in 1934 and 1935), which refused to rule and instead reprimanded the states for even fighting about this. And yet, as recently as 2006, a study was commissioned on the border dispute. Legislators of both states have made aggressive noises about each others’ claims, Delaware symbolically calling upon the National Guard to defend state shores and New Jerseyites obliquely mentioning the battleship named after their state, moored just upriver…

This image taken from Wikipedia, here.

66 - The World in (George Orwell’s) 1984

In George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984’, the world is ruled by three superstates:

• Oceania covers the entire continents of America and Oceania and the British Isles, the main location for the novel, in which they are referred to as ‘Airstrip One’.
• Eurasia covers Europe and (more or less) the entire Soviet Union.
• Eastasia covers Japan, Korea, China and northern India.

Unfortunately, there’s not much ’super’ to these states except their size. All three are totalitarian dictatorships. Oceania’s ideology is Ingsoc (English Socialism), Eurasia’s Neo-Bolshevism and Eastasia’s is the Obliteration of the Self (one imagines some kind of buddhist-inspired fascism. If one can). These ideologies are very similar, but the people are not informed of this.

The three states are in a perpetual state of warfare – sometimes two against one, sometimes all three against each other. These wars are fought in the disputed territories, running from North Africa over the Middle East and southern India to Southeast Asia.

And yet…

And yet the war might just not even be real at all. It’s clear that the Oceanic media are one-sided and fabricate ‘facts’. A dissident book central to ‘1984’ suggests the two other powers may actually be a fabrication of the government of Oceania, which would make it the world government. Or, on the other side of the scale of thinkable alternatives: Airstrip One is not an outpost of a greater empire, but the sole territory under the command of Ingsoc, which fabricates eternal global war to keep its people permanently mobilised, scrutinised and on rations.

This map taken from Wikipedia’s ‘1984′ page.

65 - “Eastland, Our Land”: Dutch Dreams of Expansion at Germany’s Expense

In the Netherlands straight after World War II, there existed plans both official and unofficial to annex a large area of Germany as a way of obtaining war reparations (plans not to be confused with the more fanciful, pre-war plans described in posting #50 on this blog, which were used by the Nazis to scare the Germans into fighting to the bitter end).

64 - Sannikov Land, an Arctic Phantom Island

In 1811, the Russian merchant and explorer Yakov Sannikov reported seeing a ‘bluish fog’ to the northeast of the New Siberian Islands. In 1886 and 1893, fellow Russian explorer Eduard Toll also sighted what many by then presumed to be an as yet undiscovered island, provisionally named ‘Sannikov Land’. Intensive searches couldn’t locate it, but Sannikov Land appeared on maps well into the first half of the 20^th century.

Only then could scientists prove beyond doubt that Sannikov Land did not exist. In fact, it might be considered something of a modern version of Frisland, the ephemeral isle in the North Atlantic concocted several centuries ago by Venetians, appearing on maps for many years afterwards (see posting #62 on this blog).

And yet, some argued, Sannikov Land might have existed at some point in the past. It could have been an island composed of fossilized ice or permafrost, subsequently destroyed by (unfrozen) water. This theory is not given much credence, though.

Sannikov Land did prove fertile breeding ground for Russian SF-writer Vladimir Obruchev, who in 1926 wrote an eponymous novel in which the island is the last escape for a tribe of Yuit (Siberian Eskimo) pushed away from the mainland by more recently arrived tribes. In Obruchev’s story, the island is heated by a volcano, hosts mammoths and a tribe of Neanderthals called Vampoo, and ultimately is destroyed by an eruption of the volcano.  In 1973, ‘The Sannikov Land’ was the title of a Soviet SF movie.

This Russian-language map, taken from the Alison Bridge website (an online allohistory game), shows the presumed location of Sannikov Land (indicated as Zemlya Sannikova in Cyrillic script) to the north of the New Siberian Islands, in the upper right hand side of the map. In between lies Bennett Island.

63 - A Map to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine

The Superstition Mountains to the east of Phoenix, AZ reportedly hold a legendary motherlode of gold known as the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Truth and fiction about this mine have been unrevokably mixed up through the years, producing 62 varieties of the legend. But before we get into those, here are some genuine facts about the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine:

62 - Frisland, an Italian Fabrication in the North Atlantic

The discovery of America was an Italian enterprise, but not to the credit of a Genoan named Columbus. In the 14^th century, Venetian brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno sailed west on the Northern Atlantic, discovering places they called Frisland and Icaria (two islands near Greenland), Estotiland (on the North American mainland) and Drogio (an island close to the mainland, possibly Nova Scotia).

61 - United Shapes of America

This canvas by artist Kim Dingle doesn’t look like a map, more like a herd of cows. But actually it’s a collection of maps. The artist asked teen-aged school kids in Las Vegas to draw their country in the shape they thought it had. It’s one of the strange maps in a book called ‘You Are Here’, which… collects unconventional maps. I hadn’t heard of that book before, but needless to say, I immediately ordered it. I found it on this page, somewhere on the site of the Carnegie Mellon University.

60 - Madha and Nahwa

These names sound like they’re out of Arabian Nights - which is pretty close. Madha and Nahwa are the names of two territories on the Arabian peninsula which up until 15 minutes ago I had never before heard of. Together, they form a type of enclave/exclave complex which I would like to call The Omelet.

59 – A German Map of the Empire of Love

In the 18^th century, sentimental cartography was very much à la mode, with this map as one of the finer examples. ‘Das Reich der Liebe’ (‘the Empire of Love’) by Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, was published in Leipzig in 1777. In a brief explanatory, it describes how pilgrims set out from the Land of Youth, where are located the sources of the rivers Joy and Wish and may end up in any of six other countries.

58 - It’s a Pig’s World

Pigs (or hogs, or swine, or Sus - the Latin name for the species) are  omnivorous mammals of Eurasian origin, closely related to hippopotami and generally more known for being tasty than clever - although they are pretty intelligent, often considered on a par with dogs.

57 - Carpatho-Ukraine, Independent For Only 24 Hours

Carpatho-Ukraine must have been the shortest-lived state in history. It existed for a mere 24 hours, declaring its independence from Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 and formally annexed by Hungary one day later. Predominantly inhabited by Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Subcarpathian Ruthenia (or Transcarpathia) came to be the very tail-end of the snake-like post-war construction known as Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.