A Map of the British Empire in American
Looking for a map to analyze wasn’t a simple task for me. I have a difficult time understanding anything dealing with history, but this map stood out to me for quite a few reasons. The first reason I chose this map was because of the distinct separation of states that were formed during this time period. Although these states look much different on this map compared to something we would look at today. Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Caroline, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York take on almost the exact form of our maps today. The few states that were different were Georgia, New England, and Nova Scotia. Both New England and Nova Scotia aren’t on our map anymore. Nova Scotia is what Maine is today. One other feature of this map is the fact that none of the Mid-Western states have been formed yet, but a few lakes were founded. They had named Lake Superiour, Lake Illinois, and Lake Nurone in the mid-west region. The two other lakes that we still have today are Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
There are many reasons to why this map looked the way it did. During the time that the United States was being colonized, people came in from where Maine is today and started to create a home or claim land for themselves. The reason that the coastal states on the east side were founded first is because they are closest to the other countries. The colonists had no idea what would lie ahead of them once they reached the land, they had some idea that there was more land that was about it. Therefore the easiest thing for them to do was colonize along the coast, which would leave easy access to the ocean and their boats. It colonized south rather than west because once people realized that a certain area was occupied, they wanted to find their own land and the only way to do this was to follow the land along the ocean, in their boats. Once they found a piece of land that looked to be unoccupied, they would anchor the boat and head to shore. If they left their ships, they left their only transportation.
The other interesting part about this map is some of the names located on the map. In Babb’s text he claims that, “The names on the map are mostly English, detailing various “discoveries.” This can be held true with one of the lakes in particular, Lake Superiour. The British spelling uses the “our” ending, which shows that the colonists named this lake. Another few names that stood out as an English discovery are New England and New York. “New” could be because of the land that was just founded and the words proceeding could be from their own homeland. The reason that some of the names changed could be because they were originally named by other colonists or natives and once a superior group came in, they claimed the land and changed the name.
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