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Serious question, did 1907 mapmakers just guess where the borders went in Africa?
So I was at this used book shop in Portland and grabbed a 1907 atlas for 8 bucks. Flipping through it, I hit a map of Africa and half the borders I know are just not there. Instead there's a giant blob labeled "French Sudan" and a ton of blank space with notes like "unexplored." Then I look closer and Germany is all over East Africa, which I knew, but seeing it colored in pink on paper hits different. I sat there for like an hour comparing it to my phone screen and counted at least 5 countries that straight up did not exist yet. The Congo Free State is labeled like it's a normal country and not a literal king's personal yard. Can anyone else tell me which year these borders actually settled down, because my 1914 map looks totally different?
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reese_bell16d ago
Berlin Conference 1884 actually drew most of those lines, mapmakers just hadn't surveyed the ground yet.
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