{"id":3488,"date":"2023-11-22T10:37:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T15:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/?p=3488"},"modified":"2023-11-22T10:37:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T15:37:46","slug":"map-of-the-week-voici-les-bases-americaines-dans-le-monde-que-est-lagresseur-qui-menace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/2023\/11\/22\/map-of-the-week-voici-les-bases-americaines-dans-le-monde-que-est-lagresseur-qui-menace\/","title":{"rendered":"Map of the Week: Voici les Bases Am\u00e9ricaines dans le Monde: Que est l’agresseur? Qui Menace?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PJM_xxx, 7\/30\/14, 5:43 PM, 8C, 5456×7844 (360+75), 100%, Repro 2.2 v2, 1\/12 s, R56.2, G31.3, B49.8<\/p><\/div>\n

When you first look at this map, what do you think? As an American, you\u2019d think it was another anti-soviet, anti-communist map. The gigantic arrows pointing to the U.S.S.R. and China make you think so, especially if you can’t read French. However, once you dissect the map, the motive for the creation of the map becomes clear – it is quite the opposite of what you think.<\/span><\/p>\n

The projection of the map is unusual, with the U.S.S.R at the center and China right underneath in bold. This, and the huge arrows pointing to these countries bring your attention to them. The map replicates a round globe, allowing practically every country on the planet to be linked to arrows pointing toward the Soviet Union and China. The map is called (in big letters at the top): \u201cHere Are the American Bases Throughout the World: Who is the Aggressor? Who is the Threat?\u201d The paragraph at the top left says \u201cTwo million American soldiers are preparing for war outside of America in all countries of the world, with their general staffs, their fleets, their tanks, their planes.\u201d The top right says \u201cSince the crushing of Hitler, not a soldier of the USSR or the popular democracies had fired a single shot outside the borders of his country.\u201d The bottom quotes are quotes from President Truman and General MacArthur about the strategies of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who made this map? In 1951, The French Communist Party created this map. Why? To expose American military imperialism and double standards from America. During the Cold War era, most of the maps circulating America and the whole world were anti-communist propaganda, so this map was a form of counter-mapping because it was anti-American imperialism propaganda. At the time, American imperialism seemed necessary to stop the spread of communism, but there were numerous dissenters opposing American authority during the era, which should be recognized historically.<\/span><\/p>\n

The map asks you \u201cWho is the aggressor?\u201d, \u201cWho is the menace?\u201d. Those names were originally assigned to the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War era, so with the pieces of text on the sides and the map, they make you rethink who the actual aggressors of the world are. America has bases all over the world that could attack the U.S.S.R. and China at any moment, which paints America as the menace instead. The map also includes China, which represents the belief that the U.S.S.R. is spreading its communist influence into neighboring countries, but China also seems to be very close to U.S. military bases as well, which further proves America\u2019s imperialist agenda. Since China had just gone through a communist revolution in 1949, America was concerned about China at the time because it meant that a significant part of Asia was under communist control.<\/span><\/p>\n

I chose this map because it is something different from the maps we\u2019ve seen in this course so far. We are used to seeing propaganda, but not on the other side. The fact that it was created by the French Communist Party and not the Soviets themselves tells you the influence that the Soviets had, especially since the French Communist party was in a country that supported the U.S. Those who saw the map can think about world events from a different point of view, probably resulting in a change of opinion – which was the purpose of the map. Even if most of the world was not on their side, the communist parties around the world were able to use cartography to influence the masses. This is why cartography is very powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blog link: https:\/\/bigthink.com\/strange-maps\/<\/p>\n

Atlas of the Week: https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/mss85943.003102\/?sp=5&st=image<\/p>\n

The Library of Congress has such a vast amount of atlases that you could just check out. I found this cool one while digging and the book was owned by Rosa Parks!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you first look at this map, what do you think? As an American, you\u2019d think it was another anti-soviet, anti-communist map. The gigantic arrows pointing to the U.S.S.R. and China make you think so, especially if you can’t read … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3499,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions\/3499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}