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Milestones of Cartography |
about 2300 B.C. |
The Babylonians produced the first maps which are still preserved. They were carved into clay tablets and based on surveyings which were executed for the imposition of taxes. |
6th century B.C. |
The first map which illustrated the known world at that time was made by the Greek philosopher Anaximander in the 6th century B.C.. |
2nd century B.C. |
Extensive regional maps in China which are drawn onto silk. |
in 1862 | first discribed: The stick map which was created by the residents of the Marshall Islands in South Pacific is one of the most interesting early type of map. This map was made of a grid of cane fibres which were arranged in a way that the location of single islands was shown. |
about 200 B.C. |
The Greek geographer, astronomer and mathematician Eratosthenes made one of the most famous maps of the antique. It illustrates the then known world from Great Britain in the northwest to the estuary of River Ganges in the east and Libyan in the south. This map possessed horizontal parallel lines for the first time which stood for lines of latitude. This map also had several lines of longitude, which however were arranged in anomalous distances. |
about 100 B.C. |
The Plate Carrée Map by the Greek Geographer Marinos of Tyre contained a grid of parallels and meridians for the first time. |
about 150 B.C. |
The Greek savant Ptolemaeus compiled his work Geographia in which the Earth was mapped in the way of the standard of knowledge at that time. These were the first maps which used an exact form of mathematical conic projections. Furthermore Ptolemaeus constructed a grid of geographic latitudes and longitudes. However, these maps included some inadequacies e.g. like the excessively dimensions of the Eurasian land area. After the fall of the Roman Empire the map production in Europe came almost to a complete standstill. Only monks whose main interest, however, was of theological nature (they mapped Jerusalem to the centre of the world) and who were not interested in geographical pecision at all made maps. |
1154 | In the same period Arabian mariners also produced very exact maps. The Arabian geographer Idrisi made a world map in 1154. |
12th century |
Both in the Maya- as well as the Inka-civilisation the art of mapmaking was very advanced. The Inkas already produced maps of their conquered countries in 12th century A.D.. |
13th century |
Since the 13th century mariners of the Mediterranean made exact maps (»Portolano maps«) of this semi-enclosed sea which mostly contained neither longitudes nor latitudes. Nevertheless they contained lines which specified the course between important habours. |
15th century |
In the 15th century editions of Ptolemaeus' maps were printed in Europe. In the following centuries these maps had wide influence on the European cartographers. |
1480 | First printed Mappae Mundi by Hans Rüst. |
1507 | A map of the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller from the year 1507 was probably the first one on which the newly-discovered land in the west was named America. The map was printed onto twelve single sheets and for the first time displayed also an explicit separation of North and South America. |
1570 | The Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius published the first modern atlas »Orbis Terrarum« which contained 70 maps. |
1584 | Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer published the first printed sea atlas (47 maps) »Spieghel der Zeevaerdt« (english edition: »the mariners mirror«, 1588). |
16th century |
During the 16th century numerous further maps were produced which considered the permanently growing knowledge that the seafarers and conquerors brought back home. Gerhard Mercator is considered to be the most important cartographer of the age of conquests. The conformal cylindrical projection, which he developed for his world map, turned out to be invaluable for seafaring. Mercators map often is called sea chart. |
17th century |
The accuracy of later maps was permanently advanced by a more precise determination of the degrees of latitudes and longitudes as well as the size and form of the Earth. The first maps which displayed a compass changement were produced in the first half of the 17th century. The first presentments of ocean currents took place in 1665. Up to the 18th century only the unexplored territories were unmapped. |
18th century |
After the end of the 18th century when the first wave of world exploration decreased whereas nationalism emerged as a moving spirit some European states realised step by step detailed national topographical surveying. |
1793 | The complete topographical surveying of France was published in 1793. This almost quadratic work has a side length of eleven meters. Great Britain, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and other countries followed suit soon. |
1897 | In the United States the manufacturing of topographical maps of the whole land was organised in 1879. |
1891 | In 1891 the International Geography-Congress suggested to map the whole world in a scale of 1 : 1,000,000. This task is not completed up to now. |
20th century |
In the 20th century a number of substantial technical developments concerning mapmaking took place. During World War I the technology of photo-shooting out of aeroplanes was developed and applied widely for mapmaking during World War II. |
1966 | Since starting the satellite »Pageos« in 1966 and the following satellites throughout the seventies the complete geodetic surveying of the Earth was traced with the aid of high-resolution photographing. |
1977 | Around 1977 only 40 % of the Earth's surface was covered by useful maps and the annual increase was only 1 %. |
The surveying of the Antarctic region is still going on. |
To the beginning of the project | |
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