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Post by johnwarrendailey on Jun 20, 2017 15:12:19 GMT
In the event mapmaking requests are allowed in this forum, I am in search of an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions for an alternate Earth I've been working on, and here is why: I use Photoshop, so the political and subpolitical boundaries are the perfect template for me to turn certain areas into islands or plateaus using Paint and move others using Magic Wand to create a more believable aesthetic result. But for now, let's focus on the two changes that are both biggest and simplest: - Widen the Atlantic by 1350 miles, putting the Prime Meridian in Lisbon instead of Greenwich. Which creates a landbridge that connects Asia to North America, erasing the Bering Strait off the map and shrinking the Bering Sea. To that extent, it would be like turning the Russian urban locality of Egvekinot (66.3205 degrees North and 179.1184 degrees West) into the next-door neighbor of Teller, Alaska.
- Drag Australia so far down southward that the distance between it and Antarctica is cut by half.
The question is not to determine what environmental effects these two changes will have on the world, but what an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions looks like with the two changes listed above.
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Post by steve59 on Jun 20, 2017 20:14:45 GMT
John
Are you assuming a butterfly net that prevents the environmental changes affecting the political divsions and world history? If not then the environmental impacts of those changes are going to make a huge impact on human development and especially the history of the last ~2000 years or so. For instance: a) A wider Atlantic will probably expose the western coasts of Europe to more extreme storms and depending on how Iceland and Greenland are affected could butterfly the Viking discovery of those areas. [Or just possibly the wilder waters might prompt greater maritime invention to overcome such waters. Which might mean earlier discovery of either the Americas or a route around Africa.
b) I think I remember reading that a requirement for the northern polar icecap is that you have a shallow sea almost totally enclosed by land. With a wider Atlantic it might mean that the northern ice-cap could be greatly reduced or even non-existant. As such even through the area is still likely to be cold and dark much of the year you could see a northern route for trade and exploration, although the barreness of much of the ocean coastline and the fact there is no passage into the Pacific could reduce its economic importance.
c) With a permanent land link between NE Asia and N America there is likely to be more regular contact between the two, with a continual trickle of trade/raid and other communications which could reduce significantly the isolation of the Americas. Although even if no northern icecap a mountainous and possibly earthquake prone area in the Siberia/Alaska region could restrict this.
d) Similarly I believe the size of the Antarctic icecap is dependent on strong ocean currents circulating around the continent. In earlier ages, before Australia broke away from it, despite it still being on the southern polar it may have been markedly less cold and ice-clad. A smaller ocean between the two continents may reduce the cilamtic extremity of Antarctica, whatever impact it may have on Australia. The latter is likely to be colder and probably wetter although possibly not greatly more so as the continent suffers from being in the land-shadow of its western mountains.
Overall Europe is likely to be less prosperous and influential in the world, while eastern Asia could have a continual trade and communication link with the Americas. Which could make China and related areas more outgoing and the Americas massively more developed in terms of contact with the old world hemisphere and technology, along with possibly importantion of plants and domestic animals. Not sure what the impact would be on the western coast of Africa or the southern hemisphere as a whole.
Anyway a few ideas that come to mind.
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Post by johnwarrendailey on Jun 20, 2017 20:56:53 GMT
I'm assuming nothing. I'm just after an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions looks like with the two changes listed above and was wondering if there's anyone who could help me with that. I asked nothing about changes to the environment or human culture. In fact, that is EXACTLY what I'd said: "The question is not to determine what environmental effects these two changes will have on the world, but what an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions looks like with the two changes listed above."
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Post by johnwarrendailey on Jun 20, 2017 20:58:04 GMT
I'm assuming nothing. I'm just after an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions looks like with the two changes listed above and was wondering if there's anyone who could help me with that. I asked nothing about changes to the environment or human culture. In fact, that is EXACTLY what I'd said: "The question is not to determine what environmental effects these two changes will have on the world, but what an equirectangular world map with political borders, primary and secondary subdivisions looks like with the two changes listed above."
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Post by steve59 on Jun 21, 2017 19:19:35 GMT
Ah I misread it as you asking what political boundaries might be like in such a world, rather than how to draw such boundaries. Apologies.
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