Cartographic propaganda is a map created with the goal of achieving a result similar to traditional propaganda. The map can be outright falsified, or created using subjectivity with the goal of persuasion.Tyner, 1974 The idea that maps are subjective is not new; cartographers refer to maps as a human-subjective product and some view cartography as an "industry, which packages and markets spatial knowledge" or as a communicative device distorted by human subjectivity. However, cartographic propaganda is widely successful because maps are often presented as a miniature model of reality, and it is a rare occurrence that a map is referred to as a distorted model, which sometimes can "lie" and contain items that are completely different from reality. Because the word propaganda has become a pejorative, it has been suggested that mapmaking of this kind should be described as "persuasive cartography", defined as maps intended primarily to influence opinions or beliefs – to send a message – rather than to communicate geographic information.Tyner, Judith A. (2015). "Persuasive Cartography". In Cartography in the Twentieth Century, ed. Mark Monmonier, 1087-95. Vol. 6 of The History of Cartography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
History
The T-O map is a historical example of cartographic propaganda during the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance maps became more widely used in general and their use began to take on a more cultural and political character, more similar to the cartographic propaganda that is seen today.Barber and Harper 2010, p. 16. This use was especially practiced in Italy, where the competition for resources between city states in the central and northern Italian heartlands led to a precocious awareness of the practical utility of maps for military and strategic purposes, as well as civilian uses such as the planning of forts, canals, and aqueducts. In sequence, the usage of cartographic propaganda has increased remarkably alongside the rise of the modern state.Black 1997; Black 2008
The interwar period in Germany fostered the development of cartographic propaganda.Boria 2008 German propagandists discovered the advantages of cartography in the re-representation of reality. For the Nazi regime, the most important goal in producing maps was their efficiency in providing communication between the ruler and the masses. The use of maps in this manner can be referred to as "suggestive cartography", as being capable of dynamic representations of power.
This period of geopolitical cartographic development was a continuous process associated with Nazis and World War II; the development of cartographic propaganda is closely related to the wider Nazi propaganda machine (Tyner 1974). There were three different categories of propaganda maps that were used by the Nazi propaganda machine; (1) maps used to illustrate the condition of Germany as a people and nation are identified; (2) maps taking an aim at the morale of the Allies via a mental offensive through maps specifically designed to keep the U.S. neutral in the war by changing the perception of threats; and (3) maps as blue-prints of the post-war world. During this period, this approach to cartography expanded to Italy, Spain, and Portugal as cartographers and propagandists found inspiration in the "positivistic trends of the German world".Boria 2008, p. 287; Cairo 2006
This more overt use of maps as propaganda continued into the Cold War period. Post-World War II U.S. cartographers modified projections to create a menacing image of the Soviet Union by making the Soviet Union appear larger and thus more threatening. This approach was also applied to other nearby communist countries, thereby accentuating the rise of communism as a whole. The April 1, 1946, issue of Time published a map entitled "Communist Contagion", which focused on the communist threat of the Soviet Union. In this map the strength of the Soviet Union was enhanced by a split-spherical presentation of Europe and Asia which made the Soviet Union seem larger as a result of the break in the center of the map. Communist expansion was also emphasized in this map as it presented the Soviet Union in a vivid red color, a color commonly associated with danger (and communism as a whole), and categorized neighboring states in terms of the danger of contagion, using the language of disease (states were referred to as quarantined, infected or exposed, adding to the presentation of these countries as dangerous or threatening). More generally, during the Cold War period, small-scale maps served to make dangers appear menacing; some maps were made to make Vietnam appear close to Singapore and Australia; or Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. Similarly, maps illustrating rocket positions used a polar azimuth projection with the North Pole at its center, which gave the map reader the perception that there existed a relatively small distance between the countries on opposing sides of the Cold War.Black 2008
Methods Scale, map projection, and symbolization are characteristics of cartography that can be selectively applied that will therefore transform a map into cartographic propaganda.
Scale and generalization Scales are used to relate distance because maps are usually smaller than the area they represent.Monmonier 1996, p. 5. Because of the need for a scale, the cartographer often makes use of map generalization as a way to ensure clarity.Monmonier 1996, p. 25. The size of the scale affects the use of generalization; a smaller scale forces a higher level of generalization.
There are two types of map generalization; geometric and content. The methods of geometric generalization are selection, simplification, displacement, smoothing, and enhancement.Monmonier 1996, p. 26. Content generalization promotes clarity of the purpose or meaning of a map by filtering out details irrelevant to the map's function or theme.Monmonier 1996, p. 35. Content generalization has two essential elements; selection and classification. Selection serves to suppress information and classification is the choice of relevant features.
Map projection Map projection is the method of presenting the curved, three-dimensional surface of the planet into a flat, two-dimensional plane.Monmonier 1996, p. 8. The flat map, even with a constant scale, stretches some distances and shortens others, and varies the scale from point to point. Choice of map projection affects the map's size, shape, distance and/or direction. Map projection has been used to create cartographic propaganda by making small areas bigger and large areas bigger still.Monmonier 1996, p. 94. Arno Peters' attack on the Mercator Projection in 1972 is an example of the subjectivity of map projection; Peters argued that it is an ethnocentric projection.Crampton 2010
Symbolization Symbols are used in maps to complement map scale and projection by making visible the features, places, and other locational information represented on a map.Monmonier 1996, p. 18. Because map symbolization describes and differentiates features and places, "map symbols serve as a geographic code for storing and retrieving data in a two-dimensional geographic framework." Map symbolization tells the map reader what is relevant and what is not.Monmonier 1996, p. 19. As a result, the selection of symbols can be done subjectively and with a propagandistic intent.
Historical themes The map is a symbol of the state and has thus been used throughout history as a symbol of power and nationhood.Monmonier 1996 As a symbol the map has served many purposes of the state including the exertion of rule, legitimation of rule, assertion of national unity, and was even used for the mobilization of war.
Exerting imperial rule in medieval and renaissance Europe
Cartographic propaganda in medieval Europe spoke to the emotions rather than to reason and often reflected the prestige of empires.Barber and Harper 2010, p. 52.
The Fra Mauro World Map (1450) was intended for display in Venice and shows the Portuguese discoveries in Africa and emphasizes the feats of Marco Polo. The Honourable East India Company commissioned a copy in 1804, implying that the company was following in the footsteps of the Portuguese empire.
"The Americas" (1562) was created by Diego Gutiérrez and serves as a powerful celebration of Spain's New World Empire. In this map, King Philip II is shown riding the turbulent Atlantic Ocean on a chariot; this illustration is reminiscent of the Roman God Neptune. References like this were intended to strengthen Spain's image in Europe and its claim to the Americas.
European rulers often tried to intimidate visiting envoys by displaying maps of their ruler's lands and forts, with the implication that the maps of the ambassador's nation would be conquered as well.Barber and Harper 2010, p. 35. For example, in 1527, during festivities for the French ambassador in England, maps depicting aerial views of French towns being successfully besieged by the English decorated the walls of a Greenwich pavilion specially built for the ambassador's visit.
Legitimizing colonial rule European colonial powers used the map as an intellectual tool to legitimize territorial conquest.Monmonier 1996, p. 90. Ramsay Muir's Cambridge Modern Historical Atlas (Cambridge, 1912) compiled a selection of imperial triumphs which he displayed on the Atlas.
Maps during the colonial period were also used to organize and rank the rest of the world according to the European powers. Edward Quin used color to depict civilization in Historical Atlas in a Series of Maps of the World (London, 1830). In the introduction of the atlas Quin wrote, "we have covered alike in all the periods with a flat olive shading ... barbarous and uncivilized countries such as the interior of Africa at the present moment."
Asserting national unity A single overview map of an entire country serves as an assertion of national unity.Monmonier 1996, p. 88. The national atlas commissioned during the rule of Elizabeth I bound together maps of the various English counties and asserted their unity under Elizabeth's rule. A few decades later, Henry VI of France celebrated the reunification of his kingdom through the creation of the atlas, "Le theatre francoys".Monmonier 1996, p. 89. The atlas includes an impressive engraving proclaiming the glory of king and kingdom.
Political use in the 19th and 20th centuries
In the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries the political potential of cartographic shapes became used more widely and began to be used for more blatantly propagandistic purposes.Barber and Harper 2010, p. 161. Map and globe can be used as symbols for abstract ideas because they are familiar to the masses and they harbor emotive connotations. Maps are often incorporated as an emblematic element in a larger design or are used to provide the visual framework on which a scenario is played out.
Fred W. Rose created two propaganda posters depicting the British general election in 1880 in which he used the map of England, "Comic Map of the British Isles indicating the Political Situation in 1880" and "The overthrow of His Imperial Majesty King Jingo I: A Map of the Political Situation in 1880 by Nemesis".Barber and Harper 2010, p. 162. He was also the creator of the 1899 "Angling in troubled waters".
Henri Dron used the figure of the world map in the 1869 propaganda poster, "L'Europe des Points Noirs".Barber and Harper 2010, p. 163.
Coaxing during World War I and II