Sailing Maps Australia
What determines which way ‘up’ the planet Earth is?
This doesn’t just apply to Earth, but all planets… Today in society we accept that the North Pole is at the top and the South Pole is at the bottom. How do we know which way is up? If you turn an atlas upside down, you might think “that’s wrong…” but… is it?
For argument’s sake, is Australia near the top of the world? Is it ‘above’ or ‘below’ the equator?
At a guess, I’d say the first people to sail round the world and draw a map (probably us Brits) decided that they wanted their country to be in the ‘top’ half of the world. But I can see no merit in being in the ‘top’ or the ‘bottom’.
Most of the world’s land mass as well as most of the world’s population (including most of the influential empires leading into the modern era) is in the northern hemisphere, so putting this hemisphere at the top of the map was a natural historical development.
Hey There Australia – Plain White T’s
Themocracy