144 - Single Guys Live in LA, Single Girls in NYC

This map out of the National Geographic magazine was sent to me by Xyzzy, a name that gives nothing away as to gender affiliation or relationship status. If Xyzzy is female and single, she’s a bit more likely than average to live on the East Coast of the US. If he’s male and single, he might just live on the West Coast.

This map might explain why ‘Sex and the City’ is set in New York, and not in Los Angeles. And why there’s so much gang violence in LA. So why can’t all those single guys from LA and those thousands upon thousands of single girls from NYC meet up somewhere in the middle?

143 - Ex Unum Pluribus: New American Nations

The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for ‘Out of Many, One’. Matt Kirkland, who provided me this map, thinks the US has become too unwieldy, and proposes to go the other way: Ex Unum Pluribus *, ‘Out of One, Many’.

Mr Kirkland’s website “is a bit of a grassroots movement, dedicated to breaking the US into smaller, more functional nations”. It provides some extra information on each of the new, smaller American nations, “and a fresh map so that anyone can submit a new proposal.”

The proposed new states are:

1. Côte d’Atlantique (Maine): “When the New Nations are born, Cd’A plans to ally herself with Canada, eventually opting for voluntary annexation. Official language: French. Capital: L’Amherst.” (Pop.: 1,3 million)
2. New England (New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and most of New York State): “New England expects to experience tense international relationships with its neighbors, New York, Jersey and Côte d’Atlantique.” (Pop.: 20 million)
3. New York (NYC and Long Island): “New Yorkers have neither the space nor the temperament for agriculture, and must import all foodstuffs.” (Pop.: 12,2 million)
4. Jersey: (Pennsylvania, Delaware, eastern Maryland, most of New Jersey): “Still smarting from losing Jersey City to the new nation of New York, Jerseyans plan to rebuild it – and call their capital New Jersey City.” (Pop.: 22,3 million)
5. The Confederate States of the Atlantic (most of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia): “The CSA is expected to adopt the Stars & Bars as a national flag at their first Confederation Conference.” (Pop.: 33,7 million)
6. The Magic Kingdom of Florida (Florida): “Somewhat astonishingly, the Kingdom plans to squeeze the entire executive branch of government inside Cinderella’s castle on the grounds of Walt Disney World.” (Pop.: 16,7 million)
7. West Kendiano (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and the western part of Virginia): “While most citizens assume that their new name is an amalgamation of its components, West Kendiano actually refers to the now-extinct Kendiano Native Americans who originally occupied this territory.” (Pop.: 29,3 million)
8. Soggy Bottom (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana): “Soggy Bottom will lead the new nations among exporters of grits.” (Pop.: 11,8 million)
9. The Boundary Waters (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota): “Revolutionary sentiment in ‘The Mitten’ (i.e. southern Michigan), as its citizens prefer to call it, is growing. Only time will tell if the Boundary Waters can hold together as a nation.” (Pop.: 20,5 million)
10. The People’s Republic of the Plains (Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa): “The PRP expects to dominate the annual International American Football Association championship tournament.” (Pop.: 31,8 million)
11. El Republico de Tejas (Texas): “Tejanos originally fought the proposals to dissolve the US, arguing they were never really part of the Union anyway.” (Pop.: 20,5 million)
12. Dakota (North and South Dakota): “With their share of the spoils of the defunct federal government, Dakotans plan to build a shining example of a well-planned capital. Dakota City will host 85% of the national population.”
Another fun fact: “Dakotans have proposed a revolutionary new system for their currency. Paper denominations of the ‘dakot’ will be numbered according to the primes and coins – one hundred ‘iotas’ equal a ‘dakot’ – will follow the fibonacci sequence. Math skills are expected to skyrocket as a result.” (Pop.: 1,4 million)
13. Northwest Territories (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming): “Only in theory will Olympia’s governmental powers reach past the Sierra Nevada. Most of the eastern high plains will most likely be controlled (peacably) by independent militias.” (Pop.: 12,3 million)
14. Calivada (California and Nevada): “After the dissolution of the US, Calivada will hold title to the world’s second largest economy.” (Pop.: 37,2 million)
15. Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico): “Once construction is completed, the Parlia-Dome of the Four Corners Capitol building will sit exactly at the juncture of its component states. Members will be able to sit through an entire session of parliament without actually leaving their state’s territory.” (Pop.: 14,1 million)
16. Ha’awaska (Hawai’i and Alaska): “Ha’awaska employs a bicameral capital system, keeping governmental functions cordoned off in Honolulu and Anchorage).” (Pop.: 1,9 million)

* I’m not sure this is the right declension, but my Latin’s a bit rusty. Shouldn’t it be Ex Uno Plures?

142 - Redonda: Once, Twice, Nine Times A Micronation

The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Leo I of Redonda

The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Robert I the Bald of Redonda

On his second transatlantic journey in 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first in a long line of Europeans to lay claim to an island he named Isla Santa Maria la Redonda, Spanish for ‘St Mary’s Round Island’. Today, it is still known as Redonda.

Columbus didn’t land on the island, probably because of its forbiddingly steep slope, the remnant of an extinct volcano’s cone. Redonda’s highest point measures 296 m, pretty tall for an island this small – reports of Redonda’s land area vary from 1.6 to 2.6 km². The island lies about 55 km south-west of Antigua. It is administered as part of the Caribbean nation of Antigua & Barbuda since 1967.

Redonda’s economic relevance to the world reached a high point in the decades after 1860, when its guano deposits were mined for fertiliser, yielding about 7.000 tons annually. This bird-shit-mining period was the only one during which Redonda was inhabited. The population reached its apex in 1901, with about 120 Redondans. The mining operations and the island itself were abandoned during the First World War; Redonda has been uninhabited ever since.

That’s all there is to the official story. Its micronational history starts as Redonda was proclaimed a personal kingdom by a Matthew Dowdy Shiell in 1865. A wholly fanciful claim, which has nonetheless flourished. Currently, there are rumoured to be no less than nine claimants to the Redondan throne.

Shiell was a banker on the nearby island of Montserrat, at present still a British overseas territory. He bought the island when his first son Matthew Phipps Shiell was born. It is reported somewhat unbelievably that the elder Shiell requested and received the title of King of Redonda from Queen Victoria, who granted it on condition that there would be “no revolt against colonial power”.

The younger Shiell (1865-1947) was crowned as Felipe I, the second king of Redonda, on his 15^th birthday. He dropped the last –l of his family name when he moved to England in 1885, where he rapidly found a niche for his short or serialised stories in popular magazines. Shiel became a prolific writer of fantasy and sci-fi novels, short stories and serials, and is the reason why the history of Redonda has had a literary twist to it ever since. The villain in Shiel’s serialised novel The Yellow Danger, Dr. Yen How, is said to have helped shape the better-known Fu Manchu. Shiel’s most acclaimed book is The Purple Cloud, a sci-fi novel about a man who returns from a solo polar expedition to find himself the last man alive. Stephen King has said it was one of the inspirations for The Stand.

In 1931, Shiel befriended the young poet John Gawsworth, who became his literary executor and heir to the throne of Redonda. Gawsworth (1912-1970), a.k.a. Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong, a.k.a. Orpheus Scrannel, a.k.a. King Juan I of Redonda, seems to have taken his royal title more seriously than his predecessor – or at least he tried to capitalise on it more. For it seems the semi-permanently bankrupt Gawsworth sold his royal title several times over, which is the main reason why today there are so many different claimants to the Redondan throne.

All this didn’t stop Gawsworth from bestowing the title to his literary executor. This John Wynne-Tyson, an independent publisher, became King Juan II of Redonda in 1970.

Wynne-Tyson abdicated in 1997 in favour of the Spanish novelist and translator Javier Marías Franco (°1951), who became his and Shiel’s literary executor and King Xavier I of Redonda. Marías Franco tells the story of his ‘coronation’ in Negra espalda del tiempo (published as ‘Dark Back of Time’ in English). The current monarch of Redonda also runs a publishing house and has installed a literary prize, both called Reino de Redonda (‘Kingdom of Redonda’).

A website with much information, most of it in Spanish, can be found here. The prize amounts to several thousand euros and a Redondan duchy. Some of the famous artists that have been granted Redondan titles include Pedro Almodovar (Duke of Trémula), Francis Ford Coppola (Duke of Megalopolis) and J.M. Coetzee (Duke of Deshonra).

There are “at least nine” contenders to the Redondan throne, according to Wikipedia. Some of the alternate kings, contesting Xavier I’s claim, include:

William Leonard Gates, a.k.a. King Leo I (1989-present), who maintains the Redonda Foundation (Redonda Foundation).

Robert Williamson, a.k.a. King Robert the Bald (1984/5-present), who maintains this Redondan website.

Max Leggett, a.k.a. King Max I (1950-present)

Interesting to note are the differences in the maps of Redonda as shown on King Leo’s and King Robert the Bald’s websites.

Robert the Bald’s version = Leo’s version

Murphy’s Cliffs = North Cliffs

Rasta Cliffs = White Cliffs

Morse Mound = Matthew’s Mound

Mitchinson’s Cliffs = South Cliffs

Reynolds’ Rock = Fletcher’s Rock

Phipps Point = South Point

Named by Robert the Bald, not by Leo

Anton Gaudi Cathedral Point

Wheeler’s Gorge

Nicholson Nook

King Robert’s Bottom

Christian Cove

Nor’easter Arch

Centaur’s Cave

Named by Leo, not by Robert the Bald

The World’s End

Admiral’s Rock

The Monk’s Rock

Queen Margaret Sound

Landing Rock

Split Rock (completely missing from A)

Lady Georgiana’s Rock (“)

L’Angelier’s Rock (“)

Cockaigne Rock (“)

Pinnacle Rock (“)

Identical namings

Fytton Peak

Blowhole

King Juan’s Peak

Wild Goat Gorge (approx. the same area)

Shiell’s Summit

Howard’s End

Redonda came in the news in mid-2007 when the Wellington Pub in Southampton, England, attempted to declare itself an ‘embassy’ of the uninhabited island in order to gain diplomatic immunity from a nationwide smoking ban on enclosed workplaces, including pubs. The Foreign Office responded that since Redonda is not an official nation, no such exemption can apply.

I had heard of Redonda, but not of this latest story, to which I was alerted by Glenn Rice, who also kindly provided me with the links to some of the Redondan pretenders.

141 - Europe As A Queen

Europe and Queen were two pretty awful soft metal bands from the Eighties, but fortunately, neither has anything to do with this anthropomorphic map of Europe as a queen.

The map was made in 1570 in Basel (Switzerland) by cartographer Sebastian Munster and is/was to be had for a mere US$ 1.400 right here, one of many rather excellent maps and map-related prints on sale at www.raremaps.com (not affiliated with this humble blog).

In their description of this map, the sellers add: “During the late 16th century, a few map makers created these now highly prized map images, wherein countries and continents were given human or animal forms. Among the earliest examples is this map of Europa by Munster, which appeared in Munster’s Cosmography.”

It’s unclear if the correspondence between these nations and body parts is indicative of some kind of hierarchy among European states. Anyways, here’s an overview:

HISPANIA (Spain) constitutes the head of Europe;

GALLIA (France) is the upper chest;

GERMANIA is the bosom;

ITALIA is Europe’s right arm, with SICILIA being the globus cruciger, the cross-bearing orb signifying wordly power throughout the Middle Ages;

DANIA (Denmark) is the left arm of Europe, holding what appears to be a ceremonial sword, another classic piece of regalia;

BOHEMIA (the Czech lands) is a circular area close to Europe’s stomach;

VNGARIA (Hungary) and SCLAVONIA (land of the southern Slavs) are the right thigh and and VANDALIA (probably a reference to the Wends, a collective name for Slavic peoples in present-day eastern Germany) and POLONIA form the left thigh of Europe;

LITHVANIA must be about the spot of Europe’s left knee;

LIVONIA, MACEDONIA , BVLGARIA, MOSCOVIA, MOREA (the mediaeval name for the Peloponnese peninsula), GRAECIA, SCYTHIA (present-day Bulgaria), TARTARIA (parts of present-day Russia) are folds ever further down Europe’s flowing red dress.

140 - The Great Australian Inland Sea

The Americas have the Mississippi and the Amazon, Africa has the Nile and Asia has the Ganges and the Mekong, among others. So why wouldn’t Australia have a large river system – or an inland sea?

Early surveyors of the unexplored centre and west of Australia, fanning out from the earlier settled east, kept on the lookout for Australia’s Amazon, or at least a large body of water, possibly connected to the outside ocean.

In 1827, former East India Company officer Thomas J. Maslen published this map of that inland sea in his book The Friend of Australia, which provided instructions for surveying and exploring the island-continent’s interior.

In retrospect, those instructions aren’t very useful; Maslen extrapolated the Macquarie and Castlereagh Rivers as headwaters of a huge river flowing across Australia into the Indian Ocean at Australia’s nort-west coast. This river separated a northern land-mass (labelled ‘Australindia’) from a southern one (named ‘Anglicana’).

It took a few more decades for the explorers to realise that Australia’s interior is extremely hot, dry, waterless and deadly. In the mid-nineteenth century, the ‘Dead Heart of Australia’ became part of the explorers’ and settlers’ vocabulary.

I found this map here on a gorgeous blog called Bibliodyssey, devoted to “books, illustrations, science, history, visual materia obscura, eclectic bookart”, which includes some very curious maps, such as this one.

139 - The Anaconda Plan

“We propose a powerful movement down the Mississippi to the Ocean, with a cordon of posts at proper points (…) the object being to clear out and keep open this great line of communication in connection with the strict blockade of the seaboard, so as to envelop the insurgent States and bring them to terms with less bloodshed than by any other plan.”

(from a letter from General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to major-general George B. McClellan, dated May 3rd, 1861)

The war that caused the highest number of American casualties wasn’t one of the US’s foreign adventures, but a purely homegrown disaster. The American Civil War between the northern and the southern states lasted from 1861 to 1865 and cost over 600.000 lives.

If US Army (i.e. northern) General-in-Chief Winfield Scott (1786-1866) had had its way, the number of casualties would have been a lot lower. At the beginning of the war, he devised a plan that would have ended the Secession of the southern states with minimal loss of life.

This plan involved strangling the Southern economy by a twofold blockade: an economic blockade of Southern seaports, preventing the export of cash crops such as tobacco and cotton and the import of arms; and taking control of the Mississippi River, thus dividing the main part of the Confederated States of America from its westernmost parts on the right bank of the river.

After a popular newspaper cartoon (pictured here), Scott’s scheme was called the ‘Anaconda Plan’, after the giant snake that throttles its victims. Incidentally, the name is borne by four types of South American snake, which makes the etymology even more paradoxical. For the consensus is that the name originates in faraway Sri Lanka, but it’s doubted whether it is Sinhalese (‘Thunder Snake’) or Tamil (‘Elephant Killer’) in origin.

Scott’s plan was not well received; the public mood called for a large-scale invasion. President Lincoln didn’t choose: he implemented the blockade as proposed by Scott, and the large-scale invasion. A total of two million Union soldiers repeatedly tried to capture Richmond, the CSA capital in Virginia, contributing to the eventual heavy toll in lives.

Winfield Scott was also known as ‘Old Fuss and Feathers’ and the ‘Grand Old Man of the Army’. Here are Ten ‘fun’ facts on this interesting warhorse:

1. He was an active-duty general for over 47 years, longer than any other person in American history, serving under 14 presidents from Jefferson to Lincoln and commanding soldiers in 5 wars: the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War and the American Civil War.
2. During the Mexican-American War, Scott commanded the southern army, landing at Veracruz and (on purpose) following the same route to Mexico City as Hernan Cortez in 1519.
3. Fat and vain, Scott was haunted by a quote from a letter from Mexico to the Secretary of War that was published to sabotage his reputation. “At about 6 PM as I sat down to take a hasty plate of soup” became a catch phrase that appeared in cartoons and folk songs for the rest of his life.
4. After the Mexican War, he served as military governor of Mexico City. He was nominated for US president by the Whig Party in 1852, but lost to Franklin Pierce. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1856, the first American to hold that post since George Washington.
5. During the war of 1812, he urged that British POWs be executed as retaliation for the Brits’ executing 13 Irish-American POWs that they considered their own subjects, and therefore traitors. President James Madison refused.
6. He earned his nickname ‘Old Fuss and Feathers’ for his insistence on discipline and decorum in the US Army, at that time mostly a volunteer force.
7. In 1839, he helped defuse the territorial dispute between Maine (US) and New Brunswick (Britain), which caused the so-called ‘Bloodless Aroostook War’. In 1859, he travelled to the Northwest to settle another faux conflict with the British over San Juan Island, the so-called ‘Pig War’.
8. Scott translated several Napoleonic manuals into English, including Infantry Tactics, which was the standard drill manual for the US Army from 1840 to 1855.
9. The phrase ‘Great Scott!’ – an interjection akin to present-day favourite ‘Oh my God!’ – may refer to him, as in his later years, he weighed 137 kg.
10. Winfield Scott is not to be confused with Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886), who also served with distinction in the Mexican-American War, also was a Union general during the Civil War, and also ran unsuccessfully for president afterwards (defeated by Republican James Garfield in 1880). ‘Hancock the Superb’ was in fact named after the other Winfield Scott, by then already famous as a hero of the War of 1812. And the latter was the commander of the former during the Mexican War. Another Winfield Scott is the songwriter who wrote the song ‘Return to Sender’ for the eponymous Elvis Presley movie.

This map taken from the relevant Wikipedia page.

138 - The Schlieffen Plan

In 1905, count Alfred von Schlieffen, Chief of Staff of the German Army, developed a plan to win the impending war with France and Russia. In the time it would take Russia to mobilise, a swift campaign on the Western front would defeat France, allowing the troops to then be shipped to the Eastern front. Thus, a Blitzkrieg (‘lightning war’) in the West would prevent a ‘Zweifrontenkrieg’ (a war on two fronts) and ensure a German victory.

Shortly before the outbreak of the war in 1914, Schlieffen’s successor count Helmut von Moltke adapted the plan: German forces would attack France from the north and south, squeezing the French into submission and subsequently meeting at Paris. This adaptation required invading neutral Belgium, which as it turned out would result in Britain declaring war on Germany – upgrading what already was a big continental war into the First World War.

The Schlieffen Plan didn’t work as foreseen: the German offensive came to a standstill at the Marne, the Russians mobilised quicker than the Germans thought and invaded East Prussia. Germany’s Western offensive didn’t prove to be the ‘Blitzkrieg’ they thought it would be. The war ground to a halt and became a deadly stalemate for the next three years.

And yet, the Germans fought the Second World War broadly along the lines of the Schlieffen Plan. In 1940, the ‘Blitzkrieg’ did go according to plan: France and the Benelux were defeated in a matter of weeks – but the Eastern campaign proved disastrous, and All was less than Quiet on the Western front… perhaps proving the dictum that each war is fought with the tactics best suited for the previous one. Or something like that.

137 - Occupied Territories

Dominique Taléghani is a French scientific journalist by day, a designer of imaginary cartographies by night. On his or her (Dominique is one of those unisex first names) blog, several examples are listed, among which is this one, Territoires occupés

Dominique mailed me to explain his/her fascination with maps – a fascination that most mapophiles understand, if not share:

« I’ve always loved maps of all sorts, for their inherent beauty but also as a starting point for intense daydreaming – I remember a map of the Yukon that I scoured for its smallest details for hours on end. »

Some of Dominique’s imaginary cartographies can be found on his/her blog, aptly titled Cartomane.

136 - New Iceland - A Forgotten Nordic Colony In Canada

When it comes to the discovery and colonization of America, Iceland can claim a longer pedigree than all other European countries. The Icelandic explorer Leif Eriksson (970-1020) was the first European in recorded history to set foot in North America, where he named three areas:

Helluland (‘Flatstoneland’, probably Baffin Island);

Markland (‘Woodland’, probably Labrador); and

Vinland (often translated as ‘Vineland’ but more accurately translatable as ‘Meadowland’, possibly on Newfoundland).

The USA celebrates each October 9th as Leif Eriksson Day, although he probably never set foot on what is now US soil.

More speculative, or just plain wrong, are theories that hold that Norsemen penetrated as far inland as Minnesota (where the Kensington Runestone, dated at 1030 but in all likelihood a recent forgery, was long held to be a true artifact of such an incursion) via the Hudson Bay and/or the Great Lakes. It is intriguing, however, that exactly this area of the continent was to be later heavily colonized by Scandinavians. Many Minnesotans are of Scandinavian descent.

A bit further north, there even was a flourishing Icelandic colony that for a while functioned as a semi-independent republic within the still fluid framework of Canadian westward expansion. Nyja Island (‘New Iceland’) was located in the Canadian province of Manitoba, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. It was the result of large-scale Icelandic emigration to Canada, especially in the late nineteenth century (in 1875, a volcano on Iceland erupted, exacerbating already precarious living conditions).

The areas of Icelandic settlement covered the area north of Boundary Creek as far north as Hecla Island, with Gimli in the Riverton area the focal point of Icelandic immigration. This was mainly due to the efforts of Sigtryggur Jonasson, an earlier Icelandic migrant, who wrote a pamphlet on behalf of the Canadian government entitled Nyja Island I Kanada (‘New Iceland In Canada’) and went back to Iceland to convince Icelanders to join him across the ocean.

Jonasson was part of an expedition to the north of Manitoba to find a suitable location for the colony. New Iceland had to be isolated, have good soil for farming and be close to a lake, for fishing. The only drawback of the eventual site, 18 miles upstream from the Icelandic River: an abundance of grasshoppers. For his efforts, Jonasson is remembered as the ‘Father of New Iceland’.

The very first Icelandic town in New Iceland was named Gimli, Icelandic for ‘Paradise’. Conditions were far from idyllic, however: low on resources, many colonists didn’t survive the first, harsh winter. The following year, 1876, saw the arrival of the Stóri Hópurinn, the ‘Large Group’ of 1.200 immigrants, swelling the colony’s population to nearly 2.000. At the close of that same year, the colony was ravaged by a smallpox epidemic, killing off as many as 500 colonists and resulting in a quarantine on the whole of New Iceland that lasted until the middle of next year.

In order to help the ailing and despairing colony to survive, a form of self-government was set up, modeled on the Althing back home. The Vatnsthing (‘Lake Parliament’) ruled over four districts:

• Vidinesbygd (‘Willow Point Community’, now the Gimli District);
• Arnesbygd (‘Ames Community’);
• Fljotsbygd (‘Icelandic River Community’, now the Riverton District); and
• Mikleyjarbygd (‘Big Island Community’, now Hecla Island).

“The Colony of New Iceland was recognized by the Canadian government as a separate nation with full jurisdiction on immigration, taxation and legal matters,” the website mentioned under comment #2 claims. No evidence of this exists. In any case, emigration continued, however, to better lands as far south as Dakota. In 1881, New Iceland barely counted a hundred inhabitants. The local newspaper folded, the government of New Iceland disbanded itself.

New Iceland fell on better times a few years after the great exodus, when fishing, farming and freighting offered better job opportunities. New Icelandic immigrants set up the towns of Riverton and Arborg (Icelandic for ‘Riverton’). In 1893, New Iceland was almost back to its previous numbers. In 1887, all of New Iceland was incorporated into Manitoba as the Gimli Municipality, thus ending the brief, fledgling existence of the first neo-Scandinavian state on American soil since Leif Eriksson’s brief transatlantic adventure.

In over a century of its existence, Gimli has welcomed a steady trickle of Icelandic immigrants, but also many Ukranian and Native newcomers, lending the tourist town a multicultural ambiance. The Icelanders, in turn, have impressed their identity upon Manitoba; the local university offers courses in Icelandic language and culture.

This map, which covers the southern quarter of Lake Winnipeg’s western shore, was suggested to me by James L. Erwin, and can be found here: http://timelinks.merlin.mb.ca/imagere1/ref0172.htm

135 - Update On the GDP Map of the USA

I’m not in the habit of extensively revisiting strange maps already posted here, as there are so many more out there. But the map of the ‘US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs’ (in the previous post) elicited such a deluge of interesting replies (including several cool spin-off maps) that it merits a second look.

First, a word about its origin. The map was suggested to me by a reader of the blog – the reference can be found at the end of the previous post. Trying to trace back the ultimate original source dead-ends; two fortuitous mails have since shed more light on the origin.

It turns out the map used in post #131 is a ‘remake’ of the original one. That map was entitled ‘The United States of the world’ and appeared in the Toronto newspaper the Globe & Mail, on March 8, 2005. It was sent to me by Ann El Khoury over at peoplesgeography (type in ‘petrol prices’ in the search field at the top of her page and check out the revelatory map of global price differences).

Here is that original map:

The small print at the bottom credits the concept of the map to a political scientist at Brigham Young University. This is contested by Douglas Coupland, who first mailed me to claim credit for the map, and then again after he found the map in his archives to express that he was “amazed and appaled” by the Globe and Mail’s apparent rogue crediting.

Mr Coupland quite adamantly states that he conceived this map, and spent “a lot of time” on the phone with the Globe and Mail’s magazine editor in the process. I have no reason to doubt him, and am very happy to hereby give him due credit - also because he kindly promised to send me another map he conceived.

Until then, let’s have a look at some of the spin-offs this map has generated.

One remark that crops up about the map mentioned above is that it doesn’t compare US economic size with that of its nearest competitors (as they’re all too big to ‘fit’ into just one state’s economy). This alternate map (found here) does just that, comparing the economies of the next four largest GDP countries to multiple states. Thus:

• China’s GDP equals that of California, Oregon, Washington State and Nevada – oh, and Alaska and Hawaii
• The UK’s GDP compares to that of New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and (apparently) Washington DC
• Good ol’ Deutschland’s GDP is as big as that of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
• Japan gobbles up all the remaining states, being all of New England, the Midwest and the West (minus the ‘Chinese’ coastal states and Nevada)

As remarked in the original post, the GDP comparison map is slightly misleading, since it might compare a state with a small population with a populous country, thus giving a skewed idea of personal wealth in both entities. A more individual criterium of wealth (or at least of development) is life expectancy at birth.

Leonardo Monasterio’s blog, about “regional economics, cliometrics and development” translates the map to that yardstick. Not easy, since “the differences in life expectancies at birth among US states (are) quite small and we had to repeat countries and even include the USA in the map.”

All states seem to be linked to countries that at first glance belong to the developmental top tier – except for Ohio and Delaware, which are on a par with Cuba, a relatively poor country but with excellent health-care.

Mr Monasterio, a Brazilian I’m sure, also posted this map (found here), revisiting the original idea on his home nation – itself a collection of states with greatly varying economic performance. More so than in the US, apparently: the range is from Finland to Sierra Leone. GDP is highest in the southern coastal states, lower everywhere else. This list of Brazilian states, ranked for GDP (found here at Wikipedia, quoting the 2004 GDP in the Brazilian currency, the real: 1 real currently buys you half a US dollar) links the states to the countries that replace them in the map reproduced here below:

1. Sao Paolo (BRL 546.607.616): Finland
2 Rio de Janeiro (BRL 222.564.408): Egypt
3 Minas Gerais (BRL 166.564.882): Kuwait
4 Rio Grande do Sul (BRL 142.874.611): Morocco
5 Parana (BRL 108.699.740): Croatia
6 Bahia (BRL 86.882.488): Ecuador
7 Santa Catarina (BRL 70.208.541): Bulgaria
8 Pernambuco (BRL 47.697.268): Kenya
9 Brasilia Distrito Federal (BRL 43.522.926): Cameroon
10 Goias (BRL 41.316.658): Panama
11 Amazonias (BRL 35.889.111): Iraq
12 Espirito Santo (BRL 34.488.268): Uruguay
13 Para (BRL 34.196.694): Jordan
14 Ceara (BRL 33.261.175): Trinidad & Tobago
15 Mato Grosso (BRL 27.935.132): Bolivia
16 Mato Grosso do Sul (BRL 19.954.505): Uganda
17 Maranhao (BRL 16.547.977): Afghanistan
18 Rio Grande do Norte (BRL 15.906.902): Zambia
19 Paraiba (BRL 14.863.913): Macedonia
20 Sergipe (BRL 13.121.517): Nicaragua
21 Alagoas (BRL 11.556.013): Guinea
22 Rondonia (BRL 9.744.908): Haiti
23 Piaui (BRL 8.611.106): Niger
24 Tocantins (BRL 4.768.864): Mongolia
25 Amapa (BRL 3.720.013): Mauritania
26 Acre (BRL 3.242.123): Central African Republic
27 Roraima (BRL 1.864.318): Sierra Leone

One final map, sent to me by Kanishka Gangopadhyay (brilliant name, that) who rightly remarks that “there’s been some controversy about the US States/Countries map you posted a while ago (…) Apparently someone took it upon themselves to correct it — though I can make no claim as to the accuracy of this map.”

This map was found here. Phew. That’s it, for the time being. If there’s any maps similar in concept to these ones that I missed, please let me know and I will add them to this post.