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Anti-imperialism or new imperialism? Examining the production and content of the World Map / Karta Mira 1:2500000 (1956-1989)

  • Since the late 19th century, the idea of producing a map series that depicts the entire world in a uniform style and at a standardised scale has been a fascinating one. After the Second World War, when the prospects of the International Map of the World at a scale of 1:1,000,000 continued to face severe problems, cartographers from socialist countries in Europe produced the Karta Mira, a world map at a scale of 1:2,500,000. In our work, we examined the content of selected Karta Mira sheets,Since the late 19th century, the idea of producing a map series that depicts the entire world in a uniform style and at a standardised scale has been a fascinating one. After the Second World War, when the prospects of the International Map of the World at a scale of 1:1,000,000 continued to face severe problems, cartographers from socialist countries in Europe produced the Karta Mira, a world map at a scale of 1:2,500,000. In our work, we examined the content of selected Karta Mira sheets, particularly the depiction of settlements, competing territorial claims, and place names. Avoiding the ongoing debate about so-called ‘map falsification’ in socialist countries, we shifted our methodological approach by conceiving the Karta Mira as a representation of Cold War rivalry in geography and cartography. From that perspective, the production of the Karta Mira appears as an attempt to achieve two opposing aims at once. On the one hand, in fear of nuclear war, cartographers hid strategic and relevant cities and shifted various other Soviet cities to an extent that map reviewers might have criticised the accuracy of the map. On the other, questioning territorial claims of Western colonial powers on Karta Mira sheets, as well as the fact of realising the long-cherished plan of a standardised world map, the Karta Mira challenged Western geographical discourses and, from the perspective of its makers, proved the superiority and technical efficiency of socialist geography.show moreshow less

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Metadata
Document Type:Working Paper
DOI:https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.19837.87526
Creator and project details
Author:Christian LotzGND, Charlotte Gohr
Publisher:Herder-Institut
Place of publication:Marburg
Publishing Institution:Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
Name of Event:Royal Geographical Society's Annual International Conference 2017
City of event:London
Title details
Title (English):Anti-imperialism or new imperialism? Examining the production and content of the World Map / Karta Mira 1:2500000 (1956-1989)
Page Number:12
Release Date:2017/11/08
Date of Publication (online):2017/11/08
Year of first Publication:2017
Language:English
Subject indexing
DDC-Classification:9 Geschichte und Geografie / 91 Geografie, Reisen / 910 Geografie, Reisen
LeibnizOpen Subject classification:Geowissenschaften
GND Keyword:Kartografie; Osteuropa; Ost-West-Konflikt
Manifestation description (file/s)
File Size:31848 KB
MIME-Type:application/pdf
Legal information
Licence / Usage Agreement (German):License LogoUrheberrechtlich geschützt
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