Political maps

Here’s a colourful map of Europe. Each country is a different colour. What can we learn from this map? All we can see are coast lines by the ocean, and the borders between the countries. But we cannot see where there are mountains or lakes or rivers.

We cannot see any cities. We cannot see anything about climate or nature. We can simply see the borders of various states. This is a political map. But what determines where the borders between states are situated?

The simple answer is that humans decide what a political map should look like. Humans cannot move a mountain range or a sea, but we can change borders between countries. Here is a political map of Europe, at the start of 1989. We see countries like Czechoslovakia in central Europe, and Yugoslavia, by the Mediterranean sea. In eastern Europe, there is a large country, called the Soviet Union.

But in the autumn of 1989, big changes take place in eastern, and central, Europe. People who have for a long time lived under dictatorship protest against their leaders and start a revolution. Over the following years, several states in eastern Europe cease to exist, and other states are formed. So, the political map needs to be redrawn. A few years later it looks different.

The Soviet Union is no longer there, and where the Soviet Union once was, there are now several smaller states. Czechoslovakia is also gone. It is split into two states, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. This division took place after peaceful negotiations. Yugoslavia, on the other hand, is broken into seven countries, after a series of bloody wars.

So, political maps can be changed, through both peaceful, and violent, means. In Germany, two states — East and West Germany — join together into one united Germany, having been divided for 45 years. These are some examples of how political maps can change because of decisions made by humans. History is full of these examples. Sometimes, a border follows the shape of nature, like here, between the countries Germany and Poland.

The rivers Neisse and Oder, form a large section of the border. On one side of the water, is Germany, on the other side, is Poland. Mountain ranges can also create a natural border, like the Pyrenées, between France and Spain. The natural borders are usually wiggly and irregular - like the shapes of the nature. Other borders are completely straight, and do not at all look natural.

In Africa, for instance, many of the state borders, cut straight through large land areas. These borders were drawn with a ruler, during a conference in Berlin in 1884 and 1885. European states decided to take control in large parts of Africa, and the European leaders divided the continent between themselves. Then, like now, politics decided where state borders should be drawn. And politics is carried out by humans.

So, humans, form the political map.