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00:00I'm going left to my favorite coffee shop which is the best coffee on the street and then I come
00:11straight back out and I'll call into the paper shop because my friend Casey runs it and we
00:16always have a joke and I come out of there go left curve down here big new build place here
00:23intrigued at what it's going to do to the house prices in the area so I'm always looking to see
00:28how that's going on and then I keep left cross a bridge which goes over the canal and I'm going
00:33right along here passing all the boats and then I'm going up right here go left and there I am
00:41I'm out into Oxford station and there in 10 minutes and then I'm on my way map making is a basic human
00:50instinct it's one of the ways we make sense of the world around us I've been studying and
00:57writing about maps for most of my working life I'm fascinated by the way they're like windows
01:02onto different times and different cultures the map that I've produced is absolutely unique to me it's
01:11totally subjective I'm not interested in what's going on over here I haven't filled any of this
01:16area out it's dead to me I've edited out what I don't want I'm doing what map makers tend to do
01:22they offer a specific perspective from their own subjective experience and the map reflects that
01:29in this series I'm going to explore how maps give an insight into the political and cultural forces
01:37that drive society I'm going to dig beneath the surface of some extraordinary maps to reveal stories of power
01:49plunder and possession in this program I'm going back to where map making began I'll find out what first
02:04drove people to create maps even before they could ride and how they then evolved not just to depict
02:10the world but also to exert power and authority over it I'll discover some of the great scientific
02:18advances that made this possible and I'll explore how the style of modern maps which we take for granted
02:24granted as objective even natural is nothing of the salt
02:28Valcamonica in northern Italy home to one of the oldest settlements in Europe
02:56for a map fanatic like me it's most famous for being the cradle of map making
03:04the map created here is considered one of the oldest in the world this is cartography's year zero
03:16and it gives us some vital clues as to why people were compelled to make maps before they even learned
03:22how to write the map is located high in the Eastern Alps near the small village of Bedellina it is survived for
03:34nearly 3,000 years and was only identified by archaeologists 80 years ago
03:52so here it is it's extraordinary and as I look at it what's really interesting is that there's
04:10clearly a structure there's a kind of code there's a system about what's being represented here you can
04:16see these rectangles with dots in them represent fields and throughout these lines which appear to
04:25represent some notion of the landscape there's timber framed houses down here there's the roof and
04:33the main body of the house there there are stick figures these warriors down here you can see a deer
04:40with four clearly marked legs and for me it's actually incredibly moving because this is where it all
04:46began this is the beginning of map making this is the origin of what I've been thinking about for all
04:53this time it's absolutely breathtaking the origins and purpose of the Bedellina map have mystified archaeologists
05:07for years this is not a geographically accurate map of the area you couldn't use it to get from A
05:16to B so what was it for after analyzing rock drawings and using comparative dating techniques
05:25archaeologists now believe it was created by an ancient tribe the community at a critical moment in
05:32their history three thousand years ago the community were pioneering a whole new way of life agriculture
05:40was replacing the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and creating a more complex social structure
05:45archaeologist Alberto Moretta thinks this is the key to unlocking the map secrets we have evidence from
05:56from rock art from the archaeology that in Valka Monica there were aristocracies here some sort of small
06:05groups of people controlling the small communities and probably controlling the land and do you think
06:13that that's important in terms of how they use the map I think that this group of people these
06:21aristocracies are symbolizing through the map the possession of the landscape that they had in this part of
06:31the valley it seems that the tribal elites were using the map to celebrate their ownership of the land
06:40they draw the map probably to represent not a real landscape but to represent an ideal landscape it was
06:53some sort of supernatural representation of the landscape as it should be after you and after your songs in
07:03time and after your your time has passed on so it's a very symbolic image yeah in some sense it is highly symbolic
07:12Alberto believes these images of well-ordered fields and plentiful crops were a vision of future prosperity
07:20the map was designed to bolster the power of the ruling elite by reassuring the community people that life would
07:27improve under their leadership the map is a fascinating window into an ancient culture and it reveals that
07:38map making was bounded with power and politics right from the start as ancient societies became more complex so
07:52in the next 1,000 years the Romans were using maps to help them build the greatest empire in the world
07:59they created maps of their towns regions and colonies
08:13many have been lost this is a copy of one of the few to have survived and it's quite spectacular
08:22this is a map of the world in Roman times it's the longest map I've ever seen in my entire life it stretches
08:36all the way from Sri Lanka and India down here in the east right along here to the furthest western point
08:47which shows the southern coast of Great Britain
08:55absolutely extraordinary map it's six and a half meters in length scholars actually believe that it was longer
09:01and that it's lost about two meters which rather tantalizing would have given us a much better picture of the British Isles
09:08here's Germany labeled Alemannia just squeezed into a few centimeters up here on the north coast of Europe
09:25there's the river Rhine running right along there
09:29and here's the Mediterranean like a long snaky river right down there
09:36and probably the most prominent landmass on the entire map not surprisingly is Italy stretching right down here there's Rome it goes all the way down you can see the boot and there's Sicily
09:46but nothing like we understand it today now what's really striking about looking at this map with the depiction of Europe North Africa and Asia in this shape there's no way that this can be an
09:53accurate representation of how the Romans saw the world
10:21the geography is obviously way out and yet there are some details of astonishing accuracy
10:28these red lines that Chris crossed the map are the famous straight Roman roads running across its surface
10:36and above them are symbols exhibiting the distance between places in terms of leagues or miles depending on where you are
10:45there's a good example of it here there's Rome on the red Roman road the Vatican a symbol just above it shows that it's just one mile
10:56but the map is covered with these kind of symbols you have another one here which shows the distance from Strasbourg which is shown there to Mainz there
11:07and what happens is that the Roman numeral tells you how far you're going from Strasbourg to the next town or village which is labelled with seven the distance here is eighteen all the way to Mainz which is seventy-four leagues altogether
11:25route markings distance is clearly annotated towns where people could stop off for the night these details led to the belief that the map was the equivalent of a modern road atlas
11:40but just look at this map it's hardly pocket size is it can you imagine strapping this to the back of your horse and then hauling it out every time you lost your way as a route finder it's completely impractical
11:52To understand the purpose of this map we need to look back to the time when it was created around 300 AD
12:03By then the Empire had already been under attack from invading barbarians
12:09To meet the threat Rome's armies had expanded and citizens lived in the grip of authoritarian rule
12:15But the map shows only peace and harmony
12:22Spa and bath towns are clearly marked all over the map
12:28So where are the fortifications and garrisons?
12:33And where are the divisions between regions?
12:36This seems to be a land without borders
12:39In reality the Empire was divided and ruled by four competing leaders
12:45It's been suggested that this map of the Roman world may have hung behind one of their thrones
12:51With its remarkable details of roads and distances this map was designed to give the impression of order and control
12:59So while the Bedellina map in the Alps promised the people a better world to come
13:06This map is trying to hide the fact that the power and riches of Empire are under threat
13:18This map glosses over the messy complex reality of internal tensions and external threats
13:24Its main message is one of unity and that made it an incredibly powerful political tool
13:30By the 12th century sophisticated map making was an essential tool of imperial power
13:45And Chinese maps were among the most sophisticated on earth
13:49I'm going to Pembroke College in Oxford to have a look at one
13:53It's called the UG2 and it was carved onto a metre wide stone that was erected in a Chinese schoolyard in 1136
14:07Remarkably it has all the hallmarks of a modern map
14:10It shows the whole empire from an aerial perspective and the grid lines suggest it's drawn to scale
14:16But just how accurate is it?
14:20Historian Hilde de Viet is using a special technique to compare it with a 21st century map
14:32So we start out by picking a few points on the historical map to map onto the modern map
14:41So in effect you're going to overlay an early 12th century map onto the modern map?
14:47That's correct
14:48Okay
14:49We'll pick some places along the coast to start out with
14:52And typically we want to pick a place that we know hasn't changed too much
14:58The first point we'll pick is a prefecture called Taijo
15:01We see it here on the historical map
15:04One by one Hilde picks out some of the towns and locations that are marked on the historical map
15:18She then enters their modern coordinates allowing the map to be positioned against a satellite image
15:26First of all it allows you to place a historical map very accurately
15:30The similarity between the maps is immediately obvious
15:39You can tell the coastline, the modern coastline correlates to the coastline as it is depicted on the historical map
15:48But the really astonishing thing is that the 37 locations chosen by Hilde are remarkably close to their position on the modern map
15:55Wow, that's extraordinary, so that's an incredibly close fit between the contemporary modern coordinates and the 12th century coordinates
16:07It is indeed quite striking and we wouldn't be able to do that for a lot of other historical maps
16:12That's amazing
16:30We have no record of the surveying techniques used to make this astonishingly accurate map
16:33And there's a mystery here
16:36For all its accuracy, the UG2 contains a number of glaring geographical errors
16:44The source of the Yellow River is marked hundreds of kilometres away from its real location
16:50And here's a river which doesn't even exist
16:54So, what's really going on here?
16:57What's really going on here?
17:00The answer to this map making mystery can be found in the pages of this historical text
17:06It's called the Yu Gong
17:08It's a description of the landscape of China during the lifetime of King Yu
17:13A legendary leader from the 21st century BC
17:17The great Yu was said to have possessed comprehensive knowledge of all of China
17:22And it was this book that formed the basis of all Chinese geography
17:28These writings were greatly revered by the Chinese
17:31It was almost a sacred text
17:45The name of the 12th century map, Yu Ji Tu, translates as The Map of the Tracks of Yu
17:50This reveals its connection with the text of the Yu Gong
17:55The positioning of the source of the Yellow River isn't the result of a 12th century survey
18:01It's been mapped according to the words of the Yu Gong
18:04That's why it's in the wrong place
18:06And that extra river over here, the Hei Shui, or Black River, is referred to in the Yu Gong
18:17So it was drawn on the map, even though it didn't exist
18:21The map seems to be an attempt to portray an up-to-date image of China
18:26Without undermining Yu's ancient vision of the empire
18:2812th century map makers must have known that this information was inaccurate
18:39But the important thing was fidelity to you, not geographical realism or accuracy
18:44Creating maps with this level of detail required huge resources
18:59And it would be another 400 years before the means were available to fund a national mapping project
19:04In England
19:10In 1539, Henry VIII commissioned a survey of the entire English coastline
19:17But Henry didn't just want an impressive image of his kingdom
19:21He wanted to defend it
19:27Local artists were ordered to make sketch maps of the coast
19:30Their drawings were sent to London, where they were compiled into master maps for the king
19:48This is one of Henry's maps
19:50It's a giant bird's eye view of the coast all the way from Exeter
19:54Right down to Land's End and Cornwall
19:56It's a beautiful map and it's a really, really important step in the move towards geographical representation
20:06You see places in a level of realism that the English had never seen before
20:13You've got Exeter in bird's eye view, which is quite clear
20:17You have Plymouth represented here in a way that was completely new
20:23It was completely new
20:26It's absolutely extraordinary, the colouring, the whole detail
20:30But this isn't just a beautiful map
20:33It's also an extremely strategic map with a very specific end in mind
20:38It's about coastal defence and it's about repelling invasions
20:43And we can tell that by looking at the description of the forts
20:46That pepper the entire coastline
20:49Saying made
20:52Not made
20:54Not made
20:56Or half made
20:58So for instance here we can see a fort which is labelled not made
21:04But it's quite clearly being drawn over the coastal location
21:09At a later point
21:10So probably over several years Henry looks at the entire scene and he says this is where I need my coastal fortifications
21:21Divorced from his Spanish wife Catherine of Aragon had led Henry to fear a Spanish invasion
21:28He wanted to build new forts like this to defend his realm
21:32To help identify where these defences were needed the map makers prioritised the most vulnerable places
21:42Certain areas, particularly inlets and sandy bays where invading forces could land are mapped in absolutely minute detail
21:56Other areas on the map, for instance rocky outlets or cliff tops where you can't really land a ship
22:08Are not really mapped very accurately at all
22:13It didn't matter to Henry that this map was not exactly to scale
22:17What mattered to Henry was that he could now sit in London and he could survey this entire coastline
22:22And he could decide exactly what he wanted to do with it, where he wanted to put his fortifications
22:33But the techniques used by Henry's surveyors were evolving rapidly
22:37In 1544 Henry's forces laid siege to the French town of Boulogne and occupied it
22:56Two years later he commissioned a map that would be accurate enough for him to define the limits of his newly conquered territory
23:02It's a forerunner to the Ordnance Survey maps and we can see that because of the way in which it uses an aerial perspective
23:09It looks right down onto the land and it also has a detailed scale which we see down here
23:17One inch to a thousand feet
23:19This was one of the first times that Henry's surveyors attempted an accurate representation of scale on a strategic map
23:38It's thought they measured distances by pacing them out
23:41They also used lengths of rope and compasses to check their findings
23:45It was one of the most accurate maps ever presented to the king
23:52Henry himself is believed to have marked out in a red line the territory that he wanted for the English
24:00And it's one of the first times that an English ruler has used a map to draw a political frontier
24:06Henry had exploited his great power and resources to improve the technical precision and geographical accuracy of his maps
24:23But there was still a huge obstacle to the accurate measurement and mapping of large areas
24:27The earth isn't flat like a map, it's a sphere
24:38Just over a hundred years later, King Louis XIV of France was looking for a way to overcome this problem
24:44In 1663 he commissioned a map of the whole of France to help consolidate his power
24:58This building, the Royal Observatory in Paris, was at the heart of his ambitious plans
25:03When we think of a modern map, we tend to imagine an entirely accurate representation of the world on paper
25:14The reason I've come here is because this is where that idea was born
25:21And it happened here because of an extraordinary collision of power, politics and scientific progress
25:28The Enlightenment
25:29The leading astronomer at the observatory was Giovanni Domenico Cassini
25:36He found the solution to the problem of accurately measuring distances across the globe in the science of astronomy
25:47Map makers already knew how to measure latitude, the distance north or south of the equator, by observing the height of the sun
25:53But a way to measure longitude, the distance east or west of a point, had still to be found
26:04Thanks to a dramatic increase in the power of telescopic lenses, Cassini found the answer by observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons
26:11He timed the eclipses in Paris, and then compared this with the time the same eclipses were seen in Brest, 600km to the west of the city
26:29The apparent time difference between the two observations was then used to help calculate longitude
26:36Cassini sent out teams of astronomers to record the timing of the eclipses as they occurred along the French coastline
26:43This is just a sample of the voluminous correspondence that came back to Cassini here at the observatory by his surveyors spread right over France
27:02Every location that they went to, they took detailed measurements, feeding those measurements back to Cassini to start to put together an accurate measurement of longitude right across France
27:14This is a letter from Brest with one of his surveyors assessing the eclipses, giving an exact time at which they took place
27:22And this kind of precision had never been applied to map making ever before
27:26Finally, in May 1682, the King's surveyors were able to present him with the first true outline of France
27:39The coastline was revealed to be astonishingly different from the way it appeared on earlier maps
27:46France was shown to be 20% smaller than all previous estimates
27:51Louis was horrified
27:52Science, said Louis, had cost him more territory than any invading enemy
28:11The shape of the coastline was now established
28:14There was an even greater task ahead
28:17To map out the whole of the interior of France
28:20In the mid-18th century, surveyors arrived here at Chateau de Champs-sur-Marne, just outside Paris
28:29They'd come to calculate the smaller distances between a series of fixed points in the grounds
28:35To do this, they used another scientific technique called triangulation
28:39France was about to be divided into hundreds of carefully measured triangles
28:44Historian of map making, Daniel Schellstrater, is about to show me how it was done
28:59In order to create a triangle, first of all they had to measure the distance of a straight line
29:06The problem back then was that measuring it was very hard and took a long time
29:12So they had to find ground that was totally flat
29:17Or work for several days stopping and levelling it
29:21Which was very difficult
29:23And the rulers that were used were only 4 metres long
29:26Despite these difficulties, a straight line would have to be measured between the two fixed points
29:35It was called a baseline, and it formed the first side of a triangle
29:40Standing at one end of the baseline, Daniel is demonstrating how they worked out the rest of the dimensions of the triangle
29:47So, we want to look over there at the statue, which you can see is at the other end of the line
30:01And if you look through the lens, you can see that the image is upside down
30:05And then we look over to the pigeon house through the other lens
30:09The pigeon house marks the third point of the triangle
30:13And then the instrument shows you the angle of the corner of the triangle
30:2075 degrees
30:23Now the task is repeated at the other end of the baseline
30:28And a second angle is measured
30:31From this information, the lengths of the other two sides of the triangle
30:35Can be worked out using the laws of trigonometry
30:38The operator would take the measurements and then write them down in a notebook
30:46We're lucky to have an original notebook from these times
30:50With the name of the operator and observations made on the plane of Paris and Meaux
30:57So these are the measurements for this exact spot?
31:01Exactly, yes
31:03So, here is the description
31:07You have a chimney, here is a reference to the pediment
31:10And everything that was located would be written down
31:14And when it was necessary, there are even a few sketches
31:18Obviously, the secret, the impressiveness of creating these maps
31:23Lies in integrating all this information across a whole territory
31:28It's all thanks to the principle of triangulation
31:32The dimensions of one triangle were used to create another
31:38Slowly, a network of triangles was used to calculate accurate distances between places all over France
31:44This ambitious enterprise would transform the nation
31:53At that time, France was a collection of diverse regions
31:58Each with its own identity
32:00There were hundreds of French dialects
32:02But now the whole country was slowly being brought together in one map
32:06The Carte de Cassini was finally completed in 1789
32:21By which time Louis XVI was on the throne
32:24Over 120 years, four generations of the Cassini family had devoted their lives to mapping France
32:31This is the Carte de Cassini
32:35It's the first time I've actually seen it
32:37And what strikes me, of course, as I open it
32:39Is this isn't just a map
32:41It's a book of maps
32:43And this is the map of France
32:46Down the left-hand side, table of longitude and latitude
32:50You look at the map itself
32:55And it's a series of squares
32:57Created from the triangulation process
33:01Here it is, the whole French nation
33:04Mapped in exact scientific detail
33:08And if we turn to the map of Paris
33:14We can see all the regions of Paris mapped
33:19You can see the centre here
33:23And that's where we are
33:25Down here on the observatory
33:26Just there
33:28And it goes right through
33:30The entire country
33:33Page after page
33:35Of different areas of France
33:38But the way in which they're being portrayed
33:41Is exactly the same
33:45All the symbols, all the signs
33:48Are standardised
33:49The symbols for forests
33:51The symbols for forests
33:57The symbols for rivers
33:59The symbols for towns
34:04The symbols for towns
34:10And what's also significant here
34:13Is the fact that the language is also being standardised
34:15This is Parisian French
34:18Page after page is using the same kind of language
34:21Standardising the language
34:23Standardising the map
34:25The scale is also exactly the same
34:31Down here, the scale bar
34:34Which tells you exactly the scale that's being used on this map
34:36It's actually 1 to 86,400
34:38It is that precise
34:40And it's staggering
34:42To look at this is absolutely amazing
34:44This is standardisation
34:45But it's beautiful standardisation
34:47These are maps for the king
34:49It wants to look beautiful as well as being precise
34:50But the map made to serve the king
34:51But the map made to serve the king was about to become a tool of revolution
34:53On the 14th of July, just as the finishing touches were being made to the map
34:55The revolutionary mob was storming the Bastille
34:56On the 14th of July, just as the finishing touches were being made to the map
34:57The revolutionary mob was storming the Bastille
34:58Two days later, they invaded the palace
34:59Two days later, they invaded the palace
35:01And it was the first place to look beautiful as well as being precise
35:03But the map made to serve the king was about to become a tool of revolution
35:17On the 14th of July, just as the finishing touches were being made to the map
35:21The revolutionary mob was storming the Bastille
35:23Two days later, they invaded the Paris Observatory
35:33The new regime claimed the Carte de Cassini as national property
35:40They used it to help carry out their sweeping administrative reforms
35:45This was the map on which the boundaries of the new departments were drawn
35:49The regional administrative units still used today
35:53The Carte de Cassini would have an even greater legacy
35:59It would help forge a powerful new national identity
36:03For the very first time in history, here was a map which centralised and standardised an image of the nation, of France
36:04It allowed all kinds of regional variations to be subsumed into one nation-state image
36:05This was a map which centralised and standardised an image of the nation, of France
36:06It allowed all kinds of regional variations to be subsumed into one nation-state image
36:07The map of Cassini
36:08The map of Cassini
36:10The map of Cassini
36:11People could identify, despite their regional variations, right across this map
36:12The map of Cassini
36:13The map of Cassini
36:14The map of Cassini
36:15The map of Cassini
36:16The map of Cassini
36:17It was an image of a unified nation-state
36:18That built a powerful new national identity
36:19It was a powerful new national identity
36:21For the very first time in history, here was a map which centralised and standardised an image of the nation, of France
36:23It allowed all kinds of regional variations to be subsumed into one nation-state image, the map of Cassini
36:30to be subsumed into one nation-state image, the map of Cassini.
36:36People could identify, despite their regional variations, right across this map,
36:41even with people that they'd never even meet.
36:44It was an image of a unified nation-state,
36:47even at the time that the country was being torn apart by the revolutionary terror.
36:51This triumph of science and enlightenment had become a potent political tool.
37:04This was France as these revolutionary nation-builders wanted it to be.
37:10One language, one nation, one map.
37:21While the French were uniting around their new national map,
37:32the British, with their expanding overseas empire, were charting the oceans.
37:39Captain James Cook was one of Britain's pioneering explorers and navigators.
37:44In August 1768, he embarked on an epic voyage bound for the Pacific.
37:51The latest scientific inventions gave Cook's maps a new kind of authority
38:01and the power to lay claim to the territory they depicted.
38:07Cook's mastery of science and navigation confirmed him
38:11as a great hero and genius of the Age of Enlightenment.
38:14But on the island of Tahiti, Cook met his match in a local navigator called Topaya,
38:24who'd never even drawn a map in his life.
38:35Topaya could sail across the Pacific, a third of the Earth's surface,
38:38without the use of paper maps.
38:42This went against all Cook's training and experience.
38:46He was so intrigued that he asked Topaya to draw a chart of the ocean,
38:50showing the location of all the islands that he knew.
38:54This is a copy of the map Cook encouraged Topaya to create.
38:57The sheer scale of Topaya's knowledge shown on this map is absolutely astonishing.
39:0674 islands, half of which weren't actually even mapped by the Westerners,
39:11but here they are being shown by Topaya.
39:15Cook wrote in his journal that Topaya knew more of the geography of the islands
39:20situated in these seas than anyone he'd ever met.
39:23He said that any ship would be better off with Topaya aboard.
39:30Tahihari Pariente is one of Topaya's descendants.
39:33A Polynesian navigator himself,
39:35he studied the techniques used by his ancestors.
39:40The navigator had knowledge of the stars,
39:43he had knowledge about climate,
39:44he had knowledge about how the time would go by in a year,
39:49so the difference between seasons.
39:50I mean, there is no Polynesian culture without navigation.
39:54We're islanders, so we hop from islands to islands.
39:59For 3,000 years, the Polynesians had been exploring
40:03and colonizing the islands of the Pacific.
40:06They'd even reached America at least a century before Columbus.
40:10Topaya was drawing on ancestral knowledge
40:12passed down through countless generations.
40:15When you get out from an island until it disappears behind the horizon,
40:22you use the island as a bearing.
40:24So then you start using the stars.
40:26But then, you don't have stars all the time.
40:29You have clouds, you have rain.
40:30Then you use the wave patterns in the ocean.
40:34Then you pull out the certain fish.
40:36They know this fish only comes that far away from the islands,
40:40or that kind of birds.
40:42They know how far away they can fly.
40:45So you have to understand what's around you.
40:49When Topaya drew his map,
40:51he was encouraged to place his knowledge within a Western framework.
40:55But on closer inspection, it reveals a Polynesian perspective.
40:59Even the way of indicating direction is different.
41:01All the Western maps here are North-South.
41:09The one thing you see on every map is North.
41:11We didn't really care about the North.
41:14We only cared about the West,
41:16because that's where everything goes.
41:17That's where the sun goes down.
41:19That's where the stars go down.
41:21That's where the wind blows.
41:24This map is the result of a clash, isn't it,
41:26between two different ways of navigating.
41:29There's a Polynesian way of navigating,
41:30and there's the Western method that Cook uses,
41:33and they're, in a sense, colliding with each other.
41:36They both work,
41:37but you can't really put them together, can you?
41:40No.
41:41The Polynesian set of mine is totally opposite to the Western one.
41:45We don't go anywhere.
41:47We stay where we are,
41:48and the island comes to you,
41:50or your destination comes to you.
41:52So in Western navigation,
41:54we go to the island,
41:55but in Polynesian traditions,
41:57the island comes to you.
41:58You don't move.
41:59The canoe don't move.
42:01It's your center.
42:02It's where you are.
42:03And if we look at this map,
42:05what's particularly significant about it?
42:07The scale, for example, on the map
42:09is not related maybe to the distance
42:12on the real scale of the geographic place,
42:15but maybe related to the importance of the place.
42:19Like Rotuma is drawn really big,
42:22but it does echo in a lot of legends and myths and stories.
42:27So it is big in history,
42:30not in width or height.
42:33It's like a code.
42:34If you don't have the key,
42:36you won't understand the message.
42:40Topiah's map is an extraordinary document,
42:42and not only for what it shows
42:43about Topiah's deeply ingrained knowledge
42:45of the Pacific Islands.
42:49Despite the great scientific leaps forward in the West,
42:53Topiah's map shows us
42:54that other cultures had different
42:56but equally effective ways
42:58of navigating their way
43:00across the Earth's surface.
43:18Back in England,
43:19the drive to make maps
43:20with greater scientific accuracy
43:21was proceeding with military efficiency.
43:26In 1784,
43:29here on Hounslow Heath,
43:30the army was taking up the challenge
43:32of mapping Britain
43:33under the leadership
43:34of Major General William Roy.
43:39Roy would use the same technique
43:41of triangulation as the French,
43:43so the accuracy of his map
43:44depended on the accurate measurement
43:46of a baseline.
43:53General Roy was on Hounslow Heath here
43:56taking a measurement,
43:58a very precise measurement,
43:59which would be the basis
44:00of the survey that they would do
44:02to cover the whole of the country.
44:04So they only need the one line
44:05to begin with?
44:07Critically, yes.
44:08The distances which were calculated
44:10across the country
44:11were based on this one measurement
44:13at the start.
44:15To reduce the risk of error,
44:18Roy had to measure a straight line
44:19at least eight kilometres long.
44:22The line was actually roughly measured
44:25with a chain similar to this.
44:27This one is only a 20 metre chain.
44:30The one that Roy had
44:31was a 100 foot chain.
44:33It weighed about 18 pounds
44:35and you had five men
44:37to actually use it.
44:39So five people
44:40would be dragging this out
44:41rather than just the two of us?
44:42Yes, pulling this 27,000 feet.
44:45Okay.
44:46Let's see if we can unravel it
44:48without getting some kinks in it.
44:50Okay.
44:51What do we do with kinks?
44:52We have to get rid of them.
44:54Oh dear.
44:55So we'll have to...
44:56That's better.
44:57It's looking better.
44:57Okay.
45:02That's right.
45:03Set your end of the chain
45:05against the marker point.
45:07Yeah.
45:08And then you would come to this point
45:10and we would proceed along the baseline.
45:13Okay.
45:15Okay, Jerry.
45:16With the real chain,
45:17soldiers would have repeated the process
45:18nearly 300 times
45:20to establish the path of the baseline.
45:23Okay, that's about right.
45:25I can see my point behind you.
45:27You are on line.
45:29So if you could mark the spot, please.
45:31Okay.
45:32Roy then used 20-foot wooden poles
45:34to make a more accurate measurement.
45:36But in the British climate,
45:38wood proved to be an unreliable tool.
45:40On wet days, it expanded.
45:42On dry days, it shrank.
45:46Roy came up with a new solution.
45:49A set of glass rods mounted on tripods.
45:52To advance across the base,
45:55they would have then set up
45:56another tripod
45:57and they would have inserted
45:59another piece of glass
46:00and butted it to the end of this one here.
46:03And then they would have just
46:04kicked moving across the base.
46:06So it's the same principle
46:07as with the chains,
46:07but it's just more accurate.
46:09That is correct, yes.
46:10The glass was much more stable
46:13than the wooden rods were.
46:15They didn't go out of true in the same way
46:18and they could have confidence
46:20that their measurement across this base
46:22was much better
46:23and the precision that they were looking for.
46:26The measurement of the all-important base line
46:31took over four months to complete.
46:39The same line formed the basis
46:41of the first British Ordnance survey map,
46:43which covered the area
46:44all the way from London
46:46to the south coast in Kent.
46:48A memorial to William Roy's work
47:00can still be found
47:01at the end of his historic line.
47:03It's rather weird to find this strange monument
47:12to our nation's mapping heritage
47:14here at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac
47:16on the outskirts of London.
47:19The upended canon reminds us
47:20of the Ordnance Survey's origins in the military.
47:24And here is a plaque commemorating
47:26the achievements of Major General William Roy.
47:30And it describes the fact
47:31that he conceived the idea
47:34of carrying out the triangulation
47:35of this country
47:36and of constructing a complete and accurate map
47:40and therefore laid the foundation
47:42of the Ordnance Survey.
47:45And it also describes the measurement
47:47of the base line
47:48between Kings Arbour and Hampton Poor House.
47:51As measured by Roy,
47:5327,404.01 feet,
47:58which is just over eight kilometres.
48:00We now know that that's only about
48:01three inches out.
48:02Not bad going, really.
48:10Thanks to William Roy's vision
48:12and determination,
48:13the whole of Britain would be mapped
48:14using some of the most accurate measurements
48:16on Earth.
48:33By the early 20th century,
48:35the surveying of the rest of the world
48:36was underway.
48:37And just like Britain and France,
48:39each nation took a different approach
48:41to the task.
48:48As a result,
48:49there was a bewildering range
48:50of map-making styles
48:52using different scales,
48:54symbols,
48:55and languages.
48:58But a bold new initiative
49:00set out to create a map
49:01that could be understood
49:02by everyone.
49:03It was called the International Map of the World.
49:10International because each country
49:11would create a map
49:13of its individual territory
49:14according to agreed standards.
49:16There would be two and a half thousand maps
49:18and when they were all put together,
49:20they would depict the entire world.
49:24At a conference in Paris in 1913,
49:2634 nations agreed to create
49:28a comprehensive series
49:30of regional maps
49:31on a universal scale
49:33of one to a million.
49:35They would be known
49:35as the millionth maps.
49:41This is the millionth map
49:42of the south coast of England.
49:45This one shows northwestern America
49:48around San Francisco.
49:52Both these maps look rather different
49:54and that's mainly because
49:55of the varying terrain
49:57that they both show.
49:58But there are also many similarities.
50:01Greenwich is the prime meridian
50:02and relief is marked
50:04by contour lines
50:05whose height is all measured in metres.
50:08The colours are also
50:09completely standardised here.
50:11So the roads are all in red,
50:14the railways are in black.
50:16And of course,
50:17the scale on this map
50:19is one to a million.
50:23Each country would adopt
50:24the same set of standards
50:25in the spirit of international co-operation.
50:30The combined result
50:32would be a standardised map of the world
50:34that was intended
50:35to transcend national differences.
50:38But not every nation
50:40had the power and resources
50:41needed to send surveyors
50:43into the unmapped territories
50:44of the world.
50:45This shows the areas
50:49mapped according to the principles
50:51and the standards
50:52of the international map of the world
50:54by the mid-1920s.
50:56It's a fascinating snapshot
50:57of the world at that time
50:58and not only because it shows
51:00where had been mapped
51:01but also by whom.
51:04All these areas in Africa
51:05which at the time
51:06are under French colonial rule,
51:08Morocco,
51:09Algeria,
51:10Niger,
51:11Chad,
51:11are all mapped
51:13by the French.
51:14Over in Indonesia,
51:16Dutch dominions here
51:18are mapped
51:19by the Dutch.
51:21The British Empire
51:22marked on the map here
51:23as GB
51:24is also mapping
51:26its own imperial territories.
51:28Most of India here
51:29is mapped
51:30mapped by GB
51:31whole parts
51:32of East Africa,
51:34Southern Africa
51:35and also parts
51:36of the Middle East.
51:41Despite the project's
51:42best intentions,
51:44the millionth maps
51:45were being used
51:45to further the imperial interests
51:47of the West.
51:50By the outbreak
51:51of World War I,
51:52the project's
51:53original spirit
51:53of international cooperation
51:55was fading away.
51:56Far from transcending
52:01national differences,
52:02the international map
52:03of the world
52:04became an extension
52:05of them.
52:19Up to 40%
52:20of all the developing
52:22world's national borders
52:23were defined
52:24and mapped
52:24by the British
52:25or the French.
52:29Flushed with victory
52:30after the First World War,
52:31they would use maps
52:32to consolidate
52:33their power
52:34in the Middle East.
52:37For centuries,
52:39the region between
52:40Mesopotamia
52:40and Saudi Arabia
52:41had been a land
52:42without fixed frontiers,
52:44as this British Army map
52:45from 1907 illustrates.
52:49This is a map
52:50without divisions
52:51and boundaries.
52:52What it shows
52:54is the movement
52:55of nomadic
52:56Arab tribespeople
52:57across this whole region.
52:59So if you look down here
53:00in the bottom left-hand corner,
53:01you have the Shemar.
53:03This is generally
53:03their region.
53:04But they're also described
53:06as wintering up here.
53:08So this is the movement
53:09of peoples
53:10being shown
53:10in a very fluid way
53:12without any linear boundaries
53:14imposing restrictions
53:15upon them.
53:16I belong to the Shemar tribe
53:24and the region
53:26of North Arabia
53:26was predominantly populated
53:29by nomadic tribes
53:30with their own territories.
53:35But these territories,
53:37we cannot describe them
53:38as rigid or fixed.
53:40They had fluctuating boundaries.
53:42These tribal groups
53:43would travel
53:44all the way up to the north
53:46in search of pasture
53:47and water.
53:49But in the very,
53:50very hot months,
53:51they would actually retreat
53:52either near Oasis
53:53or go even further
53:55to a cooler climate.
53:58So migration
54:00in that part of the world
54:02was a common feature of life.
54:06Following the collapse
54:07of the Ottoman Empire
54:08after the First World War,
54:10the victorious European powers
54:11decreed
54:12that a new nation state
54:13was to be carved
54:14out of Mesopotamia.
54:16It would be called
54:17Iraq.
54:23The border between Iraq
54:25and Saudi Arabia
54:26was decided by two men
54:28at a conference
54:29in 1922.
54:33Sir Percy Cox
54:34of the British Colonial Office
54:35had an uncompromising approach.
54:38He wanted to draw a line
54:39and straight through the desert.
54:43For Ibn Saud,
54:44the king of Saudi Arabia,
54:46this was an alien concept.
54:49Ibn Saud argued
54:51that to impose linear boundaries
54:52upon his tribe's people
54:54was completely unsuitable
54:56because it didn't work
54:57for the way in which
54:58they moved
54:59and they transmigrated
55:00across this whole space.
55:02What he suggested instead
55:04was to keep the boundaries fluid
55:06and to keep them open.
55:10This idea of making a map
55:11to reflect fluidity
55:12and openness
55:13was mocked by the British.
55:17This is an eyewitness account
55:18written about the conference
55:20by one of the translators.
55:22At a private meeting
55:23at which only Sir Percy,
55:25Ibn Saud and I
55:27were present,
55:28he lost all patience
55:29over what he called
55:30the childish attitude
55:31of Ibn Saud
55:33in his tribal boundary idea.
55:36It was astonishing
55:36to see Ibn Saud
55:38being reprimanded
55:39like a naughty schoolboy
55:40by His Majesty's
55:41High Commissioner
55:42and being told sharply
55:43that he,
55:45Sir Percy Cox,
55:46would himself decide
55:47on the type
55:48and general line
55:50of the frontier.
55:52Sir Percy took a red pencil
55:54and very carefully
55:55drew in on the map of Arabia
55:57a boundary line.
56:03So from that moment,
56:07this local tribal population,
56:09brothers, lineages
56:11or clans
56:12would find themselves divided.
56:14Some of them
56:14would be part of Saudi Arabia,
56:16others would have become Iraqis
56:17and yet another branch
56:19would have become Kuwaitis
56:21and they could not continue
56:22as animal herders
56:23and therefore
56:24the animal economy collapsed
56:26because nomadism
56:27was definitely based
56:29on the seasonal migration.
56:31so economically,
56:32yes,
56:33the region was affected
56:34but in addition,
56:35networks of hospitality,
56:37of trust
56:38and solidarity,
56:40all that had to vanish.
56:47The precision
56:48of Enlightenment science
56:49had combined
56:50with the rule of empire
56:51to make a map
56:52with the power
56:53to destroy
56:54an ancient way of life.
56:55mapmakers throughout history
57:02have created
57:02wonderful windows
57:03on the world
57:04and Western science
57:06has provided the tools
57:07to make modern maps
57:08more accurate
57:09than ever before.
57:11But the mapping of Iraq
57:13is a stark reminder
57:14that maps can also be
57:15devastating tools
57:16of political power
57:17and we are still living
57:20with the consequences
57:21to this day.
57:25In the next programme,
57:29maps show the way
57:30to heaven,
57:32provoke prejudice
57:33and bend the world
57:35out of shape.
57:41Maps, power, plunder
57:43and possession
57:43continues next week
57:45at the later time
57:45of 11 o'clock
57:47and we're examining
57:47the beauty of maps
57:48here on BBC HD
57:49this week
57:50starting at half past
57:51eight tomorrow.
57:53Next tonight,
57:54off around the world
57:54with Simon Reeve
57:55and Tropic of Cancer.
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