Why was Greenwich, England chosen as the site for the Prime Meridian?

Question

I know that it was voted and everything but I really need to know why in the world Greenwich was chosen? Did it have to do geographically? or it was just a superpower in those times? Or maybe England was just the main port back in the past and with a lot of ships passing there it became established?

Answer 1

Since 1870, geographers and scientists of allied disciplines from all nations have been trying the possibility of fixing a common zero for longitude and time reckoning throughout the globe. And it was the Prime Meridian, which was the first to be discussed. Hipparchos was the first astronomer to determine the differences in longitude, of which he used Rhodes. Ptolemy , following the Marinus of Tyre, adopted a meridian through the Canary Islands, which marked the western boundary of the world, whereas, to the east, there seemed to be no such boundary.

In 1871 the first International Geographical Congress (IGC) took place at Antwerp. The view expressed was for passage charts for all nations, not necessarily coastal or harbour charts, the Greenwich meridian should be adopted as the common zero for longitude, and that this should become obligatory within fifteen years. It was also recommended that, whenever ships exchanged longitudes at sea , they should be based on Greenwich. This did not apply to land maps and coastal charts, these should keep its own prime meridian.

However, the 2nd IGC in Rome in 1875 discussed the whole matter again without coming to any further conclusions. France did express that if we were to accept the metric system, then they would accept the Greenwich meridian. Eventually, it was agreed internationally that a prime meridian was needed, and that it should be Greenwich.

Answer 2

It's sort of the last one.

About 70% of international sailing vessels already used Greenwich as their reference meridian on their maps in 1884, when the decision was made. Since none of the other candidate reference meridians offered a compelling reason to overrule a simple majority, Greenwich became Prime.

Answer 3

prime meridian chosen greenwich england

Answer 4

The French wanted to use Paris, but they got out-voted. England was a superpower, and they did have a lot a ships, but that wasn't the main reason.

Mostly, it was that there were more people using maps made in England than maps made in France. And that was because the English had more ports around the world, with stores selling maps imported from England, or making their own maps to English standards.

Answer 5

Greenwich is a borough of London. There is an observatory there, so it was logical for the British, who did a lot of longitude studies in the 1700s, and invented the clock that allowed for longitude fixing at sea, to designate Greenwich as such.

Answer 6

Greenwich is the site of the Royal Observatory which was where astronomical observations were taken