Why are maps oriented the way they are?

Question

What I mean is, why is North America always on the far left (west) and Asia on the far right (east)? I know it's due to the prime meridian (which is just an imaginary line), but WHO and more importantly, WHY was it decided that a round planet should be broken up in that particular way? Was it done way back when the Earth was supposedly flat and that way of making maps just continued to be passed down?

And why are we (in North America) called Westerners, when in reality, there is no real west? If you want to get technical, Asia is to the west of us just as much as we are to the west of them since the Earth is round.

Is it all done just to make things simpler? Because to me, it kind of just complicates things.

Answer 1

Your questions have more to do with history than with geography...

Why is North America always on the far left and Asia on the far right? Well, let me rephrase that: why is Europe always in the middle? Because the first world maps were put together in Europe, which for a long time thought itself to be the center of the world. Since then, the layout became a sort of an unwritten standard, partly because it allows the greatest amount of landmass to be shown with the least distortion...

Why are North Americans called Westerners? Again, the answer has to do with Europe. Ancient Greeks thought of themselves as Westerners, since they only knew of major civilizations to their East (most notably, Persia). Romans have inherited that notion, which subsequently passed on to medieval Europe. There, it took on an additional meaning, because in 1054, Christianity divided into Catholicism (Western Christianity) and Orthodoxy (Eastern Christianity). A Westerner, therefore, was someone who thought that the pope in Rome (rather than the patriarch in Constantinople) was the highest religious authority. Reformation did not change this notation, since there was no clear geographic boundary between Catholicism and Protestantism. Catholics and Protestants were still collectively referred to as Westerners, as opposed to Muslims or Eastern Christians. When Europeans started moving to North America (as well as Australia and New Zealand), they still thought of themselves as Westerners...

More recently, West and East were labels hung on the opposing parties in the Cold War. U.S., its Western European allies, and Japan were collectively referred to as "the West"; Soviet Union, the countries of the Warsaw Pact (all of which were located in Eastern Europe) and a few other Communist countries (such as Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and North Korea) were collectively referred to as "the East". A funny thing about it is that Greece and Turkey, which belong to the "East" in the religious meaning of the term (Greece is an Orthodox country, while Turkey is Muslim), belong to the "West" in terms of Cold War geopolitics, since they are NATO members...

Answer 2

You didn't ask, but North is on the top because early stargazers would look up and see the stars circling around a common point in 1 direction, so the even the earliest maps were drawn with that as most prominent direction: the top of the map.

Now look at the International date line. It runs through the Pacific Ocean in the place that has the least amount of land in a straight path from the North to the South pole. It was decided it would go there for a very good reason: on the West side of the line, it is 23 hours after the other side. Imagine driving to work and having to pass from Today to Tomorrow. Then driving to Yesterday to get home again. The potential for confusion is too great, so they put it away from where people would live.

Why are those who live in North and South America called Westerners? That goes back to the International Date Line. That line and the meridean opposite it (the Greenwich Meridean) are what decides East and West. Everything to the East of Greenwich is in the Eastern hemisphere and everything West is in the Western hemisphere, which places the entire North and South America in the Western hemisphere, except the Aleutian Island chain in Alaska. That's why we are Westerners.

The converse, which you didn't mention is that almost all of Europe are clearly in the Eastern hemisphere, but they are also considered Westerners, but that is due to them being on the Western side of the Eurasian landmass.

Answer 3

Because maps are made using different projections. The world is round and the only way that you could take a 3 dimensional object and make it 2 dimensional is through these projections. There are lots of mistakes when doing so and thus not a single map is 100% correct. It's kind of hard to explain these theories via the net because we learn the theories for Geography with relevant examples and pictures. Try browsing the net for map projections. And if you take a map and take a look below it, you will see a name like Mercator, cylindrical projection etc. Those are the types of projections used to draw maps.

Answer 4

It's all the supposition.
I think it were some of the modern explorers, geographers, who after knowing that the earth was round, tried to divide it into zones with refrence to a standard time, so that they could link the tome of one place with another. And that was how I think the meridan was established.

North Americans were posibly called westerners in the 18th century when Columbs discovered America. It was because the explorers in those times thought that earth was flat and America laid to the west of Europe and Asia to its East.

Answer 5

I think it was due to Canadian Sir Sanford Fleming - he created the standard time zone system used by the whole world today. Before his idea, everybody kept time by when the sun was highest (noon).

When the time zones were created, it was handy to put Greenwich, England as 0 degrees, and 180 degrees (the International Date Line) on the other side of the world all the way up and down the Pacific. Thus, the line where you go from one day to another isn't over any populated areas.

Hence, east of 0 degrees is the Eastern Hemisphere, and west of 0 is the Western Hempisphere.

It wasn't because Europe saw themselves as the center of everything, it is because there was nowhere else but the Pacific to stick the 180-degree International Date Line. And Europe just happened to be on the exact opposite side of there.

Answer 6

I find most maps to have the Americas smack dab in the center and angled toward North America. This is probably because of the mapmaker's home territory. Regarding the West vs East, that is a concept as old as the hills, originating back when Europe thought is was the center of the world. Therefore America was West and Asia was East. That just stuck.

Answer 7

When America was first discovered, it was found west of the known land. This then was passed down through the ages, and we now have the same old map, although some maps show it the exact opposite way, for what reason I have no clue.

Answer 8

How would you like it. The world revolves around you! You have to look at the development of Cartography and the time-line of the New world discovery. Maps are flat for navigation purposes.The origin of the earliest known civilizations were in Europe, which way did they circumnavigate and how did this evolve? How did mathematics and astronomy contribute in the earlier time period? How did accuracy of map making affect travel? Did you think that Maps purchased in Europe may look different than the maps of the world we know of today? Do you think Russia in the 70's disclosed maps of military accuracy? Maps are changing daily through natural and man made influences. Perspective!

Answer 9

Maps today are the result of millennia of study and observation and focus on the exact lay of the land. The period of Colonialism was one of great development in mapmaking techniques, and actually led in some ways to the development of the modern map.

Maps first began with merchants learning land or sea routes, but leaving all other areas empty or filling them in with illustrations. Then with trading some landmarks were added to the maps and eventually over time they became more detailed because of colonial holdings.

With modern technology, Cartographers- map makers have the entire world mapped geographically with amazing precision , Information on the maps have widen to include not just the lay of the land, but the content of the land, it's goods and people with colours signifying land, water or mountain terrain etc.

Answer 10

Because maps are made using different projections. The world is round and the only way that you could take a 3 dimensional object and make it 2 dimensional is through these projections. There are lots of mistakes when doing so and thus not a single map is 100% correct. It's kind of hard to explain these theories via the net because we learn the theories for Geography with relevant examples and pictures. Try browsing the net for map projections. And if you take a map and take a look below it, you will see a name like Mercator, cylindrical projection etc. Those are the types of projections used to draw maps.