Misc

Map: All of the World’s Borders by Age

Published

3 years ago

January 12, 2018

Nick Routley

View the full resolution version of this map.

All of the World’s Borders by Age

To view the full resolution version of this massive map, click here.

Defined borders are a relatively new concept in many parts of the world. In fact, until the latter half of the 20th century, most of the world was still wide open territory with loosely or completely undefined borders.

On the European continent, however, jurisdiction over territory has been a fact of life for thousands of years. In some cases, they’ve left a paper trail. In other cases, there are more concrete remnants. For example, over 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of simple frontier fortifications – known as limes – marked the edges of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century.

Over time, as territorial jurisdiction changed hands through war, marriage, and other arrangements, the map has been redrawn countless times. The video below demonstrates just how dramatically many of Europe’s dividing lines have shifted (even as recently as the 1990s).

Even today, borders are far from set in stone. Belgium and the Netherlands recently swapped land in order to simplify an overly complex piece of their border along a river. Also, India and Bangladesh worked together to solve a notoriously complicated situation involving enclaves within enclaves.

The Difficulty in Date Stamping Dividing Lines

Creating a map that shows the age of all the world’s borders seems like an impossible feat, but Reddit user, PisseGuri82, was up to the challenge. PisseGuri82, acknowledging the extreme complexity of the undertaking, outlined some caveats to consider:

– The map looks at the date a border was officially set to its current form (excluding minute changes).
– The dates are derived from publicly available border treaties and documents.
– Exact dates are difficult to pin down as ratification, surveying, and physical marking can take place over a number of years.

These issues aside, the final product is a fascinating look at how we’ve divided the world up into nations. Here are some highlights from the map:

Static Spain
In contrast to the patchwork of territories left in the wake of the Holy Roman Empire, the southwest part of Europe has remained remarkably static. The border dividing Spain and Andorra, weaving its way through the rocky Pyrenees mountain range, has remained unchanged since 1278, when a feudal charter solidified Andorra’s geography. The Portugal–Spain border has been in place since 1297.

War and Pieces
Many of the oldest borders in the world were established by treaties following a war. One particularly noteworthy example is the border between Iraq and Turkey, which was established by the Treaty of Zuhab (1639) following the sack of Baghdad by the Ottoman Empire.

The Legacy of the “Scramble for Africa”
It’s remarkable to note that a full third of the world’s borders are less than 100 years old. This is especially apparent in Africa, where many existing borders still resemble those haphazardly set by colonial powers around the turn of the 20th century. The average border on the continent is only 111 years old.

We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never knew exactly where the mountains and rivers and lakes were.

-Lord Salisbury, British PM in 1890

In 1964, independent African states chose to maintain colonial borders, primarily to prevent widespread conflict over territory. Though colonial divisions were maintained in theory, only about one third of Africa’s 51,000 miles (83,000 km) of land borders are demarcated – an issue that continues to cause headaches today. For example, South Sudan has numerous border conflicts with neighbors; a situation that is complicated by the presence of natural resources.

A recent study pointed out that the likelihood of conflict in Africa is approximately 40% higher in areas where “partitioned ethnicities reside, as compared to homelands of ethnicities that have not been separated by national borders”.

Ice Slices
There are seven sovereign states with pie-slice-shaped territorial claims in Antarctica. It’s worth noting that the claims have been recognized only between the countries making claims. There is currently a treaty in place that preserves freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on the continent.

Saudi Arabia’s Lines in the Sand
Saudi Arabia’s oldest border section – shared with Kuwait – is a remnant of the Uqair Convention circa 1922, but most of its international borders were established in the latter part of the 20th century. The Yemen–Saudi border was only officially demarcated in the year 2000, and a 1,100 miles (1,800 km) border fence soon followed.

Where will lines Shift next?

Where there is a war and upheaval, border changes often follow. Syria’s descent into chaos and the annexation of Crimea are two situations which could result in new international borders. Breakaway states – an independent Catalan state, for example – are always a possibility as well.

For now, the most likely changes to borders will continue be minor adjustments to fix lawless gaps between nations. These corrections are rarely easy to negotiate, but irregularities, like the one that led to founding of Liberland, can cause even bigger headaches for governments and local officials.

Maps

A Map of the Online World in Incredible Detail

This unique map provides an in-depth snapshot of the state of the world wide web, highlighting the most popular websites on the internet.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 4, 2021

Carmen Ang

A Map of the Online World in Incredible Detail

The internet is intangible, and because you can’t see it, it can be hard to comprehend its sheer vastness. As well, it’s difficult to gauge the relative size of different web properties. However, this map of the internet by Halcyon Maps offers a unique solution to these problems.

Inspired by the look and design of historical maps, this graphic provides a snapshot of the current state of the World Wide Web, as of April 2021. Let’s take a closer look!

But First, Methodology

Before diving into an analysis, it’s worth touching on the methodology behind this graphic’s design.

This map highlights thousands of the world’s most popular websites by visualizing them as “countries.” These “countries” are organized into clusters that are grouped by their content type (whether it’s a news website, search engine, e-commerce platform, etc).

Visual Capitalist on the map Editor’s fun fact: Can you spot Visual Capitalist? We’re right in between TechCrunch and The Guardian above.

The colored borders represent a website’s logo or user interface. In terms of scale, each website’s territory size is based on its average Alexa web traffic ranking. The data is a yearly average, measured from January 2020 to January 2021.

Along the borders of the map, you can find additional information, from ranked lists of social media consumption to a mini-map of average download speeds across the globe.

According to the designer Martin Vargic, this map took about a year to complete.

Top 50 Most Popular Websites

Google and YouTube take up a lot of space, which is unsurprising—they’re the two highest-ranked websites on the list:

Rank	Website	Country
1	Google.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
2	Youtube.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
3	Tmall.com	🇨🇳 China
4	Baidu.com	🇨🇳 China
5	QQ.com	🇨🇳 China
6	Sohu.com	🇨🇳 China
7	Facebook.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
8	Taobao.com	🇨🇳 China
9	Amazon.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
10	360.cn	🇨🇳 China
11	Yahoo.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
12	Jd.com	🇨🇳 China
13	Zoom.us	🇺🇲 U.S.
14	Wikipedia.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
15	Weibo.com	🇨🇳 China
16	Sina.com.cn	🇨🇳 China
17	Live.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
18	Xinhuanet.com	🇨🇳 China
19	Microsoft.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
20	Reddit.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
21	Office.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
22	Netflix.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
23	Microsoftonline.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
24	Panda.tv	🇨🇳 China
25	Zhanqi.tv	🇨🇳 China
26	Instagram.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
27	Force.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
28	Google.com.hk	🇭🇰 Hong Kong
29	VK.com	🇷🇺 Russia
30	Alipay.com	🇨🇳 China
31	Csdn.net	🇨🇳 China
32	Myshopify.com	🇨🇦 Canada
33	Okezone.com	🇮🇩 Indonesia
34	Bing.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
35	Yahoo.co.jp	🇯🇵 Japan
36	Naver.com	🇰🇷 South Korea
37	Adobe.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
38	Salesforce.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
39	Ebay.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
40	Twitch.tv	🇺🇲 U.S.
41	Bongacams.com	🇳🇱 Netherlands
42	Twitter.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
43	Apple.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
44	Amazon.in	🇮🇳 India
45	Amazon.co.jp	🇯🇵 Japan
46	Aliexpress.com	🇨🇳 China
47	Aparat.com	🇮🇷 Iran
48	Linkedin.com	🇺🇲 U.S.
49	Huanqiu.com	🇨🇳 China
50	YY.com	🇨🇳 China

Google has held the title as the internet’s most popular website since 2010. While Google’s popularity is well understood, the company’s dominance might be even more widespread than you’d think—across all Google-owned platforms (including YouTube) the company accounts for 90% of all internet searches.

The third highest ranked website is Tmall. For those who don’t know, Tmall is a Chinese e-commerce platform, owned by Alibaba Group. It focuses on Business-to-Consumer (B2C) transactions, and has established itself as the most popular e-commerce website in China—in Q1 2021, Tmall accounted for more than 50% of China’s B2C online transactions.

A High Level Look

When it comes to the top 50 websites overall, a majority are either social networking platforms, search engines, or online marketplaces—while this may not come as a surprise, it’s still powerful to see visualized. For instance, even a huge, well-known website like the New York Times is just a tiny country on this map.

And of course, a map of the internet isn’t complete without mention of the dark web.

While it’s challenging to determine its true size, research indicates that the dark web accounts for a large portion of the internet’s true size. And apparently, it’s growing steadily, with the help of anonymous cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

For the most part, it’s believed that the dark web is used for unsavory reasons—however, it’s not all bad. Because of its anonymous nature, it can be used as a safe space for whistleblowing or activism.

Overall, this map, and the internet as a whole, has many places for us to explore. When you dive in, what “countries” catch your eye?

Misc

Timeline: The World’s Biggest Passenger Ships from 1831-Present

This giant infographic explores the biggest passenger ships on the open seas, over a period of almost 200 years.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 28, 2021

Carmen Ang

Breaking Records: The Biggest Passenger Ships since 1831

The Titanic lives large in our minds, but it’s probably not surprising that the world record for biggest passenger ship has been broken many times since its era. In fact, today’s largest passenger ship can now hold over 6,000 people—more than double the Titanic’s capacity.

This graphic by HMY Yachts looks at which vessels held the title of the world’s largest passenger ship over time, and how these vessels have evolved since the early 19th century.

Different Types of Passenger Ships

Before diving into the ranking, it’s worth explaining what constitutes a passenger ship.

Passenger ships are vessels whose main purpose is to transport people rather than goods. In modern times, there are three types of passenger ships:

Cruise ships: Used for vacationing, with a priority on amenities and luxury
Ferries: Typically used for shorter day trips, or overnight transport
Ocean liners: The traditional mode of maritime transport, with a priority on speed

Traditional ocean liners are becoming obsolete, largely because of advancements in other modes of transportation such as rail, automobile, and air travel. In other words, the main priority for passenger ships has changed over the years, shifting from transportation to recreation.

Now, luxury is the central focus, meaning extravagance is part of the whole cruise ship experience. For example, the Navigator of the Seas (which was the largest passenger ship from 2002-2003) has $8.5 million worth of artwork displayed throughout the ship.

A Full Breakdown: Biggest Passenger Ships By Tonnage

Now that we’ve touched on the definition of a passenger ship and how they’ve evolved over the years, let’s take a look at some of the largest passenger ships in history.

The first vessel on the list is the SS Royal William. Built in Eastern Canada in the early 1800s, this ship was originally built for domestic travel within Canada.

In addition to being the largest passenger ship of its time, it’s often credited as being the first ship to travel across the Atlantic Ocean almost fully by steam engine. However, some sources claim the Dutch-owned vessel Curaçao completed a steam-powered journey in 1827—six years before the SS Royal William.

In 1837, The SS Royal William was dethroned by the SS Great Western, only to change hands dozens of times before 1912, when the Titanic entered the scene.

Ship	Title held	Tonnage	Capacity
SS Royal William	1831 – 1837	1,370 GRT	155 passengers
SS Great Western	1837 – 1839	1,340 GRT	128 passengers, 20 servants, 60 crew
SS British Queen	1839 – 1840	1,850 GRT	207 passengers
SS President	1840 – 1841	2,366 GRT	110 passengers, 44 servants
SS British Queen	1841 – 1843	1,850 GRT	207 passengers
SS Great Britain	1843 – 1853	3,270 GRT	360 passengers, 120 crew
SS Atrato	1853 – 1858	3,466 GRT	762+ passengers
SS Great Eastern	1858 – 1888	18,915 GRT	4,000 passengers, 418 crew
SS City of New York	1888 – 1893	10,499 GRT	1,740 passengers, 362 crew
RMS Campania and RMS Lucania	1893 – 1897	12,950 GRT	2,000 passengers, 424 crew
SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse	1897 – 1899	14,349 GRT	1,506 passengers, 488 crew
RMS Oceanic	1899 – 1901	17,272 GRT	1,710 passengers, 349 crew
RMS Celtic	1901 – 1903	20,904 GRT	2,857 passengers
RMS Cedric	1903 – 1904	21,035 GRT	1,223 passengers, 486 crew
RMS Baltic	1904 – 1906	23,876 GRT	2,875 passengers
SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria	1906 – 1907	24,581 GRT	2,466 passengers
RMS Lusitania	1907	31,550 GRT	2,198 passengers, 850 crew
RMS Mauretania	1907 – 1911	31,938 GRT	2,165 passengers, 802 crew
RMS Olympic	1911 – 1912	45,324 GRT	2,435 passengers, 950 crew
RMS Titanic	1912	46,328 GRT	2,435 passengers, 892 crew
SS Imperator	1913 – 1914	52,117 GRT	4,234 passengers, 1,180 crew
SS Vaterland	1914 – 1922	54,282 GRT	1,165 passengers
RMS Majestic	1922 – 1935	56,551 GRT	2,145 passengers
SS Normandie	1935 – 1936	79,280 GRT	1,972 passengers, 1,345 crew
RMS Queen Mary	1936	80,774 GRT	2,139 passengers, 1,101 crew
SS Normandie	1936 – 1946	83,404 GRT	1,972 passengers, 1,345 crew
RMS Queen Elizabeth	1946 – 1972	83,673 GRT	2,283 passengers, 1000+ crew
SS France and SS Norway (1962-1980)	1972 – 1987	66,343 GRT	2,044 passengers, 1,253 crew
MS Sovereign of the Seas	1987 – 1990	73,529 GT	2,850 passengers
SS Norway	1990 – 1995	76,049 GT	2,565 passengers, 875 crew
Sun Princess	1995 – 1996	77,499 GT	2,010 passengers, 924 crew
Carnival Destiny	1996 – 1998	101,353 GT	2,642 passengers, 1,150 crew
Grand Princess	1998 – 1999	109,000 GT	2,590 passengers, 1,110 crew
Voyager of the Seas	1999 – 2000	137,276 GT	3,138 passengers, 1,181 crew
Explorer of the Seas	2000 – 2002	137,308 GT	3,114 passengers, 1,180 crew
Navigator of the Seas	2002 – 2003	139,999 GT	4,000 passengers, 1,200 crew
RMS Queen Mary 2	2003 – 2006	148,528 GT	2,640 passengers, 1,256 crew
MS Freedom of the Seas	2006 – 2007	154,407 GT	4,515 passengers, 1,300 crew
Liberty of the Seas	2007 – 2009	155,889 GT	4,960 passengers, 1,300 crew
Oasis of the Seas	2009 – 2016	225,282 GT	6,780 passengers, 2,165 crew
Harmony of the Seas	2016 – 2018	226,963 GT	6,780 passengers, 2,300 crew
Symphony of the Seas	2018 – present	228,081 GT	6,680 passengers, 2,200 crew

The Titanic was one of three ships in the Olympic-class line. Of the three, two of them sank—the Titanic in 1912, and the HMHS Britannic in 1916, during World War I. Some historians believe these ships sank as a result of their faulty bulkhead design.

Fast forward to today, and the Symphony of the Seas is now the world’s largest passenger ship. While it boasts 228,081 in gross tonnage, it uses 25% less fuel than its sister ships (which are slightly smaller).

COVID-19’s Impact on Cruise Ships

2020 was a tough year for the cruise ship industry, as travel restrictions and onboard outbreaks halted the $150 billion industry. As a result, some operations were forced to downsize—for instance, the notable cruise operation Carnival removed 13 ships from its fleet in July 2020.

That being said, restrictions are slowly beginning to loosen, and industry experts remain hopeful that things will look different in 2021 as more people begin to come back on board.

“[There] is quite a bit of pent-up demand and we’re already seeing strong interest in 2021 and 2022 across the board, with Europe, the Mediterranean, and Alaska all seeing significant interest next year.”
-Josh Leibowitz, president of luxury cruise line Seabourn