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As noted in the previous post, most maps of continents found in online images searches divide several countries, particularly Russia and Turkey, along conventional continental lines yet avoid dividing Indonesia in the same manner. Evidently, in the popular cartographic imagination, geopolitical factors override geophysical factors in the delineation of continents in some instances but not […] The post The Problem of Mapping Transcontinental Countries appeared first on GeoCurrents.
The division of the terrestrial world into seven continents is seemingly the simplest topic in geography, yet it is actually one of the most complex – which is precisely why I find it so fascinating. Unfortunately, the educational establishment grasps only its superficial simplicity, ignoring the more important and interesting issues involved. The result, to […] The post The Conceptual Incoherence of the Standard Continental Model appeared first on GeoCurrents.
The two previous GeoCurrents posts examined the biological significance of continents by looking at the distribution of animals. It is time now to turn out attention to plants. One of the most influential divisions of the world into “floristic kingdoms” is that of botanist Ronald Good, found in his 1947 book The Geography of Flowering […] The post Floristic Kingdoms and the Architecture of Continents appeared first on GeoCurrents.
If the division of the terrestrial world into continents is partially but misleadingly rooted in geology, as recent GeoCurrents posts have argued, we must also ask whether it reflects the distribution of animal and plant life. Are continents, in other words, entities of biological significance? To answer this question, it is useful to begin with […] The post Zoogeographical Regions & the Architecture of Continents: The Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace appeared first on GeoCurrents.
More in cartography
As noted in the previous post, most maps of continents found in online images searches divide several countries, particularly Russia and Turkey, along conventional continental lines yet avoid dividing Indonesia in the same manner. Evidently, in the popular cartographic imagination, geopolitical factors override geophysical factors in the delineation of continents in some instances but not […] The post The Problem of Mapping Transcontinental Countries appeared first on GeoCurrents.
Is this a map, a landscape painting or a beautiful piece of propaganda? This panoramic map was produced at the beginning of the 1900’s in London by W. H. Payne for Letts, Son & Co., a British stationary and map seller. The perspective is from a hilltop in British India, now Pakistan, overlooking Afghanistan. Two British soldiers in the foreground are looking out over Kandahar and other lands yet to conquer. In the far distance, along the Amu Darya (once known as Oxus River) lies the boundary of Russian territory. The Great Game was an 18th Century rivalry between the British and Russian Empires. This map was produced in that milieu with both sides vying for control over central Asia. The British aimed to create a protectorate in Afghanistan to prevent Russia from having access to the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Sea. Eventually borders were agreed upon but not entirely as seen below. The line along the western frontier is boundary of Persia, now Iran. The dominant mountain in the far distance looks a bit fanciful but may be inspired some of the peaks around Azhdar National Park. After failing to conquer these lands the British eventually settled for Afghanistan as an independent buffer state between the empires.
The division of the terrestrial world into seven continents is seemingly the simplest topic in geography, yet it is actually one of the most complex – which is precisely why I find it so fascinating. Unfortunately, the educational establishment grasps only its superficial simplicity, ignoring the more important and interesting issues involved. The result, to […] The post The Conceptual Incoherence of the Standard Continental Model appeared first on GeoCurrents.
