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.
Funny, I thought the book mentioned, early on, that polar regions were also fought over…
Comment by Eric — January 22, 2007 @
Ah yes - Airstrip One. And maybe Orwell didn’t get it entirely wrong after all.
At around the time of the early 1980s Greenham Common protests against the siting of US nuclear missiles on British territory, a left-wing cartoon and poster was produced which showed a map of the UK, modified as a giant runway underneath an American flag.
As I recall, it looked something like this map.
The concept of Britain as an advance US airbase gathered weight in 1986, when the Margaret Thatcher approved the American attack on Ghadafi’s compound in Tripoli, which took off from RAF Lakenheath in England.
More recently, and incidentally amidst some quite determined local opposition, USAF Fairford in Gloucestershire was used in March 2003 as the starting base for a series of B-52 bombing missions during the “Shock and Awe” campaign on Baghdad.
With that background, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that Orwell’s concept still carries a certain political currency in the UK today - just take a look at this image from 2006.
Plus ça change, George …
Comment by Roads — January 22, 2007 @
Here’s another map for you:
http://hindusutra.com/archive/2007/01/14/map-of-bharat-varsha-great-india-during-the-mahabharata/
Comment by ubuntonista — January 24, 2007 @
[...] en Strange maps: The World in (George Orwell’s) 1984.) Technorati Tags: 1984 | Trackback [...]
Pingback by Las penas del Agente Smith » El mundo en 1984 — January 26, 2007 @
It has been quite a while since I last read 1984 (10+ years), but my take on things was that the war was clearly fabricated; that is, there may have been a war, but it was waged to keep the population in check. The way I understood it, the great powers all benefited from the war continuing, and none was actually interested in winning.
Of course, as I said, this was a long time ago; my recollection of the book is… rusty.
Comment by secretgeek — February 4, 2007 @
[...] Via Strange Maps [...]
Pingback by Oceania Doesn’t Lend Itself Nearly as Well to Chants « mStem — February 7, 2007 @
interesting…how accurately the areas of the world that inhabit muslims have been put into the “Disputed” category…even to the extent that the maker knows southern india has a large population of muslims…
Disturbing regionalistic…though with current world events in mind, disturbingly possible.
Comment by WhosThatGuy — February 9, 2007 @
Funny large reminiscence of the Caprivi-strip there in Eurasias yellow zone…
Comment by holger ebermann — February 12, 2007 @
Thanx very much. this is our research subject.
Comment by Hsyn — May 7, 2007 @
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Pingback by strange maps « Lilypad — June 13, 2007 @
El mundo según George Orwell en la novela 1984.
MAPA. En 1984, la novela distópica de George Orwell, en el mundo gobiernan tres superestados: • Oceania cubre completamente el continente americano, Oceanía y las Islas Británicas. • Eurasia cubre Europa y casi toda la Unión Soviética • East…
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Pingback by El mapa del mundo en “1984″, según Orwell at ::gskbyte | blog — June 28, 2007 @
Actually, “Airstrip One” only referred to the British Isles and may have meant only England alone. In the opening chapter of the book, London is described as the “– chief city of Airstrip One, itself the third most populous of the provinces of Oceania.”. I also had the impression (but don’t have the patience to look for it in the text) that Oceania’s African holdings didn’t go quite as far north as this map shows.
Comment by Eric Arthur Blair — October 9, 2007 @
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Comment by MoreNarodyNaSait — November 24, 2007 @
“that is, there may have been a war, but it was waged to keep the population in check. The way I understood it, the great powers all benefited from the war”
That’s correct. They used war as a means to destroying surplus, which helped keep the proles suppressed
Comment by Makolyte — June 12, 2008 @
[...] presentiment that the world of the future is bound to be poorer and, simultaneously, engaged in constant warfare. This prediction seemed, for quite a while, to be one of the few he got wrong. Yet Orwell, it [...]
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