Altered Maps XVIII: Continuing Curious Cartography

[Miniskirt]

Many people are not aware of the massive amount of Ocean Territory claimed by the USA:

I have another great map of this but this one more clearly shows the relative sizes of this 'territory'. A lot of this is thanks to the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Guano Island Claims. This area is a bit larger than the onshore territorial are of the USA.

As to the interior, fun fact: The USA has the largest inland waterway system in the world, of huge economic importance.

 

[warpus]

Is that the St. Lawrence seaway you are referring to? I think we own more than half of that eh (but I could be wrong eh)

 

[Miniskirt]

Is that the St. Lawrence seaway you are referring to? I think we own more than half of that eh (but I could be wrong eh)

Is this at me? I don't know much about that seaway system, sorry. But it does connect up to the US system around the Great Lakes.

In the USA the 'inland waterways' largely consists of the Mississippi River System (kind of just east of the center of the country) and the eastern Intracoastal Waterway (running along the coast from Texas up to Massachusetts at least). The Illinois System is often considered part of the Mississippi System, making that system rum from Illinois down to Mississippi. There is a smaller system in the upper northwest. I used to have an actual captain's license to run on all of these but it has long since lapsed. Man-made canals connect the waterways here and there. A google search now reveals this to be... 40K+ km of navigable in land waters.

 

[Arakhor]

It seems a bit presumptuous to term the Great Lakes as "of the United States", as only one is actually in the United States and the other four lie along the US/Canadian border.

 

[amadeus]

Dark blue: ours
Light blue: soon

 

[danjuno]

Dark blue: ours
Light blue: soon

Just need a semi-plausible story about Canadian WMDs and their free healthcare will be ours!

 

[warpus]

Is this at me? I don't know much about that seaway system, sorry. But it does connect up to the US system around the Great Lakes.

In the USA the 'inland waterways' largely consists of the Mississippi River System (kind of just east of the center of the country) and the eastern Intracoastal Waterway (running along the coast from Texas up to Massachusetts at least). The Illinois System is often considered part of the Mississippi System, making that system rum from Illinois down to Mississippi. There is a smaller system in the upper northwest. I used to have an actual captain's license to run on all of these but it has long since lapsed. Man-made canals connect the waterways here and there. A google search now reveals this to be... 40K+ km of navigable in land waters.

Yeah, when I googled what the largest inland waterway system in the world is, the answer that came back seems to be the St. Lawrence. I did not do much more digging than that, is that not correct?

 

[Kyriakos]

The accent is misplaced in the Greek translation of Bretagne. It should have been on the penultimate syllable.

 

[r16]

bretanya or Bretonya in Wikipedia , somehow pretty sure it was Bretönya sometime in the past . The larger one is always Britanya .

 

[really]

An Bhreatain Mhór is a literal translation but it wouldn't be widely used in Irish.

An Bhreatain - Vicipéid

ga.m.wikipedia.org

If referred to in the news say I would expect it to be called An Bhreatain (Britain).
Wales is known as An Bhreatain Bheag or Little Britain

 

[Kyriakos]

An Bhreatain Mhór is a literal translation but it wouldn't be widely used in Irish.

An Bhreatain - Vicipéid

ga.m.wikipedia.org

If referred to in the news say I would expect it to be called An Bhreatain (Britain).
Wales is known as An Bhreatain Bheag or Little Britain

But wasn't Ireland (maybe from Roman or even Greek times) known as little Britain? (not that I can't see why this wouldn't be popular at all in Ireland).
Great Britain is supposed to be that entire island.

 

[really]

No not particularly - we would have been known as Hibernia to the Romans - land of winter.
Not sure what the Greeks thought of us.

Hibernia - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Edit: The Greeks seemed to have had a name approximate to/ sharing a root with Éire, but it's meaning moved in Latin.
Ireland comes from the French speaking Normans struggling with the Éi combination so they dropped the É and added a land at some point.

 

[Kyriakos]

No not particularly - we would have been known as Hibernia to the Romans - land of winter.
Not sure what the Greeks thought of us.

Pytheas (a merchant from the Greek city state of Massalia) did navigate the area long before the time of Rome. But I am not sure what names he suggested.

It's where the name "Thule" originates from (used in popular Hellenistic romances; even being in the title of one; 'the Wonders beyond Thule')

 

[Miniskirt]

It seems a bit presumptuous to term the Great Lakes as "of the United States", as only one is actually in the United States and the other four lie along the US/Canadian border.

No one but you presumed to say, "of the United States", dear. That was all you!

Yeah, when I googled what the largest inland waterway system in the world is, the answer that came back seems to be the St. Lawrence. I did not do much more digging than that, is that not correct?

That makes sense. But the USA has the largest overall inland waterways in total counting multiple inland waterway systems.

 

[Arakhor]

No one but you presumed to say, "of the United States", dear. That was all you!

That was definitely your map, 'dear'.

 

[amadeus]

On closer inspection the map appears to show, I assume, those parts of the lakes that fall under American jurisdiction, so I’m not sure what the issue is.

 

[r16]

great Lakes system might carry the largest amount of tonnage . That should reach the ocean from Canadian territory . While America might have the highest number of miles in total canal length . Both sides correct or something .

 

[Miniskirt]

That was definitely your map, 'dear'.

View attachment 705080

Like I said, I have a map I prefer, but this one shows the relative sizes better. Pardon me for not studying the map better. It looked like you were quoting someone, thanks for showing what you mean. It's okay, I was married to a pedantic Brit for 25 years. Maps are fun, glad you looked closely at this one!

I wasn't actually interested in the interior when I posted. My original point was to note the massive amount of oceanic 'territory' that the US contains, like I said in my post.

But if you look at the original map, notice the Great Lakes EEZ of the USA here as the darker blue. Presume that the other parts of the Great Lakes are considered to be Canada's EEZ. Both countries share the lakes.

 

[bene_legionary]

My original point was to note the massive amount of oceanic 'territory' that the US contains, like I said in my post.

In my law course in NZ, there’s a large degree of focus on indigenous Māori custom (as that is one of the sources of law in NZ). As part of the topic on custom and law, we had a Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) now teaching in one of the northern states come over to do a lecture of US colonialism in Hawaii, and how native Hawaiians could draw inspiration from the developments in NZ to try and regain the representation and determination they lost when the US took over in 1899. One of his points was that Hawaii represents a huge part of America’s strategic position in the Pacific, especially with the amount of seabed it can control through the state; and as you say, the total seabed claimed is greater than the land area of the US.

Additionally he talked about how American Samoans, Puerto Ricans are also in similar positions except they aren’t states and get no effective representation in Congress but still pay taxes and follow the same laws. Something something taxation without representation….

 

[warpus]

Maybe they can dump some miller lite into the ocean and throw a beer party

I really liked the way New Zealand integrated various aspects of Maori history and culture into the very essence of NZ. We don't really do that here in Canada. Government buildings in NZ had all sorts of Maori cultural artefacts/highlights, the Maori language was used beside English, etc. Government buildings here in Canada are just.. European. The only thing we do these days is acknowledge that we stole the land before every meeting or speech or whatever, but that just feels like paying lip service, which accomplishes nothing.