Archive for the ‘Maps’ Category

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Map of Kosovo

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The map of Kosovo, which was produced in February of 2000, is showing the distribution of NATO troops all over the region (US, Italy, France, Great Britain). In order to read this map first of all, you would have to know that by 2000 Kosovo had broken away from Serbia (right?) in an attempt to claim their independence, and was under NATO occupation to establish and maintain order. This map depicts this occupation, and divides the entire area into sections based on the western powers. This map is showing Kosovo as a an occupied state of western powers, not as an independent state.

Also, there was a caption stating the presence of Russian troops, however a Russian section on the actual map is not portrayed, as with the other occupying powers. This could mean that Russia did not support the independence of Kosovo – meaning they were in support of Serbia maintaining their dominance over the region – or that NATO was denying to acknowledge the presence of Russian troops, or the importance of Russian influence. This depiction could also mean NATO was in support of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.

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Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

 The first map that my group looked at was about the settlement trends in Yugoslavia from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. From what I saw it looked as if geographic factors dictated the area’s in which they settled and that Rusyn-??? settlements drastically rose in number in the time between 1900-1921.

The second map that my group looked at showed ”Operation Join Guardian” in which NATO forces deployed a peacekeeping operation.  

The older map book that details how the war was fought in Yugoslavia was very interesting if you could open the pages without damaging them. This map showed operations from 1941-1945 that detail the way in which the war was fought, and how Yugoslave forces went from fighting a losing battle in which they were surrounded to taking back their country with the aid of Soviet forces.

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Fun with Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The first map comes from a Yugoslav government map book which attempts to show where the popular uprisings of 1941 occurred in Yugoslavia. First, the term popular has a controversial socio-political connotation that plays against the Nazi and anti-partisan elements that didn’t view their uprising as popular, but rather as a guerrilla uprising. The legend shows the three main colors/symbols used on the map, namely the areas “liberated” by the Yugoslavs whereas the other side at the time and on up until the collapse of the republic. The boundaries of the republic aren’t represented adding to the idea of a universal ethnic cause, whereas these groups and ethnicities were extremely divided and are even so until the present.

The second map is from the Stars and Stripes paper, which is a pro-American military publication. The map of Kosovo was made in February 2000, and attempts to show the political/military boundaries of the NATO occupation for the area. The map shows towns, cities, which nation’s army occupies the areas, strategic areas like airports and waterways, and even ski/recreation area in the north. The map seems too cut and dry to have a political slant. The lines and colors looks like someone just doodled the map for simplicity to the eye as opposed to slightly more in-depth maps like the previous with hills and mountainous areas or the Mercator projection that shows an obvious Eurocentric perspective of the world with less map area given to Africa and Antarctica, and more area shown/blown up of Greenland and Russia and Canada. Arguably without this map and others of the day, I’m certain that where we are now in terms of cartography and exploration would be years behind where we could be if they weren’t made.

Posted in Kosovo, Maps, Research resources, Vince, Yugoslavia | 3 Comments »

Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The important thing that I learned from today’s lesson was that maps could be quiet different based on different perspectives. When we think of maps, we usually think about maps of different countries. Without all those national boundaries, it would be hard to think about maps. However, when I saw maps beyond those limits, maps seem like contain lot more details and information than what I initially thought. I saw three maps today, which were the map of ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, NATO’s Kosovo military mission map, and Yugoslavia battlefield map during the WWII. All those maps put different priorities on their maps based on their purposes and perspectives. For example, from Kosovo mission map, I could see lots of strategically important cities and towns for transportation, which I would normally not pay much attention to since they’re minor details. Yugoslavia ethnic group map was very interesting too, because I could get very valuable information through looking at where certain groups of people live.

Saeil

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Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The first map my group and I looked at was of Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine and it showed the villages of a certain group of people. I believe that the people first started out in 18oos near the bottom of Poland. When they started migrating outward they went more to the north and east rather than the west and south. They migrated all the way up to the top of Poland, into Ukraine, few went to Hungary and Yugoslavia, and many went up to Slovakia.

The second map my group and I looked at was the one of Kosovo. It seemed as if all the countries (Italy, France, Britian, United States, and Germany) had equal territory to cover and control but it was as if the British and the United States’ territories had more people and more commotion going on in their, so therefor they most likely had more responsibility.

The third map my group and I look at was the war effort in Yugoslavia in 1943. It seemed as if the enemies were beginning to invade and launching an attack on the southern part. The Yugoslavians seemed to have tried and launched a counterattack, but it wasn’t working. Much of the territory outside of country was already occupied by the enemy and they weren’t going to have a good chance at first.

Posted in Maps, Stephanie, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The two maps that I looked at were the political European map from the Czech Republic, and the Croatian Atlas.  The Political European map seemed like the typical map of Europe.  One thing that was different was that there was not much water on the map.  The only Island that were really shown were England, and Iceland (titled Island on the map).  The center of the map was on Poland, but right below that was Prague, where the map was published.

The other maps we looked at were in the Croatian Atlas.  I thought that this was interesting because the maps went back farther than the history of Croatia as a country.  There were historical maps of the Croatian people, and even some maps of tourism in 1989 in communist Yugoslavia.  The Atlas was translated by a team of Croats into English, and I think that it gives an interesting look into the Croat mentality.

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Maps: “Mission: Kosovo” & Russian Settlement Map

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The first map, titled “Mission: Kosovo” was a February 2000 rendition of the designated regions of responsibility for U.N. peace-keeping forces within Kosovo. The clear message of the map was that the region of Kosovo was now an unstable region that was to be kept under control by western powers. With the split of Kosovo from Albania the map does carry evidence of the conflict but generally lessens the importance of the ideological conflict in favor of emphasizing the U.N.’s mission.

The second map depicted the 1998 international borders in the region around Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and a smaller depiction of the Yugoslavia region. Green symbols represented villages and settlements that identified or in part identified themselves as Russian. The map juxtaposed the bold 1998 borders with this massive amount of Russian settlements in the beginning of the 19th and 20th centuries, showing that despite these borders a large part of these regions had identified themselves as Russian only 100-200 years ago.

Posted in Maps, Pin | No Comments »

Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

My group studied three different maps. The first one we studied showed Carpatho-Rusyn Settlement records for the early part of the 20th century. The map displayed the location of Carpatho-Rusyn villages and when they were founded. It clearly shows that beginning the early 1900’s, there was a great influx in Carpatho-Rusyn settlements, springing up primarily east and north of Slovakia.

The second map my group studied was the map of Kosovo. The map clearly illustrates the international commitment to resolving the conflict there. 5 major NATO countries (France, Germany, Italy, England and the United States) all have a zone that they are responsible for. Each zone is relatively equal in size. This demonstrates that each nation is doing their part and are taking responsibility in resolving the conflict in their specific zone.

The final map my group studied came from the book on the War Front in Yugoslavia during World War 2. The particular map we looked at showed at enemy offensive during May and June of 1943. Clearly at this point in the war, much of Yugoslavia was under Axis control and the enemy offensive was designed to wipe out the main pocket of Yugoslav resistance. It shows how badly overwhelmed Yugoslavia was at that point in the war.

Posted in JustinCz, Maps | No Comments »

Map of Croatia & Europe

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The map we looked at was pretty interesting.  It was published by a Croatian firm of the Republics of Croatia, Bosnia, and Hercegovina.  Croatia is the only republic depicted on the cover and the word Croatia itself is much larger in text than the other republics.  This seems a little pursuasive to me.  The map itself centers Bosnia and Hercegovina and it is a struggle to find Croatia easily.  However, all other maps only depict Croatia in population, land, industry and so forth. 

The second map, of Europe, is published by a company in Prague.  The cover centers on Europe, but when I opened the map, I was overwhelmed by Russia.  I felt as though Russia was taking over the map.  I don’t know if this means anything, but it was difficult to find Prague and many other notable European towns.  The rest of the map is too dwarfed compared to Russia.  

Posted in Maps, Mara | No Comments »

Maps

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

The first map that we examined was published in the Czech Republic right after they split from Slovakia.  That seemed to be the most interesting feature of the map, other than the fact that it included the major roads throughout Europe  You know, in case the mood struck you to drive from Portugal to Moscow one evening.

 The second set of maps were of Croatia.  The interesting thing about this book was that it was printed in Croatia, but had been translated into English.  The second thing that I noticed was that in some cases data from 1989 was used, a fact that throws the reliability of the map into doubt since so many changes were made in that year and afterwards.

Posted in Brian, Maps, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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