13 replies to this topic

[Kartograph]

Hi there!

I quickly made a small map-like graphic for a homework I have to do. It´s quick and dirty, but it shows how powerful the natEarth Dataset is. It makes even my crappy graphic look nice!

Greetings,

Andreas

[Hans van der Maarel]

Andreas,

That looks pretty neat, although it seems the bottom half is cut off for some reason...

By the way, Hamburg interesting? Since when?

[Kartograph]

Dear Hans!

You are fast! Pic should be correct now. I am just kidding around with the map titles, because we are supposed to make maps like they are in the daily newspaper. But don´t let any of those Nordlichter/Fischkoepfe hear you, they might get angry...Of course Berlin is the best and most interesting city of Germany...

Thanks,
Andreas

[Hans van der Maarel]

Andreas,

I have some friends living in the vincinity of Hamburg, any excuse to make fun of them is a good one I have to admit I've only been in the city itself twice and didn't really have a chance to explore it.

One little comment about your map... I'd try to separate the city names from the bars. E.g. Nürnberg partially covers the bar for München (let me guess... Oktoberfeste?). Same thing with Düsseldorf and Köln, although in that case it's probabely not possible to fix it without extending the map westwards.

[Kartograph]

Dear Hans!

Greetings to your friends! AFAIK Hamburg has quite a lot of sightseeing activities worthwhile of doing, non the least the famous harbour and so called storage/warehouse city. But as a Dutchman you might find this not so spectacular. Speaking of the Netherlands, I love to listen to an AudioBook of Schillers not so well known historic work "Abfall der Niederlande von der spanischen Regierung (it´s a History of the Dutch Struggle for Independence)" while doing digitizing work. Boy, respect for what they accomplished in those days!

@map: As thou wishest, mylord Found no solution for the Cologne/Dusseldorf problem

Greetings,
Andreas

[Hans van der Maarel]

Andreas,

If I want to see a big port, I don't have to go to Hamburg... I live in between Rotterdam and Antwerp, so I'm more than covered. Well, the times that I was in Hamburg, it was for some very specific goals (parties), so that's why I only had a grand total of about 6 hours for sightseeing.

Funny that you mention the '80-year war' (1568-1648), it's probabely the most interesting period in our history. But then again, I'm a total history nut...

[Kartograph]

Speaking of Ports:
Been to Singapore last year. One word: Impressive.
AFAIK Rotterdam is supposed to have even as much Oil-handling capacity as Singapore, so I see your point, which is what I anticipated.

@80-years War:
I think this period a very inspiring and exiting one, at least for the armchair historian. A shame you guys left the holy roman empire after the Peace of 1648...But having a Catholic Habsburg Kaiser isn´t exactly what your ancestors cherished at that time

For that matter:

Hooray for 60 years of peace in western europe (pacific anniversary will follow )!

[Hans van der Maarel]

Andreas,

Singapore only recently surpassed Rotterdam in terms of capacity. It's huge and there's plans for more expansion.

As for the history... well, the whole reason why the war was started was to get away from Catholic Spain... Staying in the HRE wouldn't have made much sense. Plus, it was only a few decades later, in 1672, that 2 German nations (Köln and Münster) allied with the English and French in an attempt to invade Holland.

[Kartograph]

@history:

Oh those despicable german Catholics!
To the defense of my homeland Prussia, I must state, that the Elector of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm moved against the much superior Turenne (at that time already a catholic) to save the Netherlands in 1673. Although beaten, it took pressure from the Dutch Front and was done as a solidary move for a protestant ally.

Yours sincerely,

Andreas

[Kartograph]

Dear Hans!

@history:

Interesting that you say Holland. Here, we are taught that it is insulting to use the name "Holland" because it only refers to one Province, in school we must only say "Niederlande" which is often ignored after leaving school, especially by football fans. Is that true?

Best regards,

Andreas

[Hans van der Maarel]

Maybe we should have a separate history forum here...

Yes, Prussia has often had ties with The Netherlands.

As for Holland vs Netherlands... It's a common error and even one that I make myself.

The Netherlands was founded (created) in 1573. Prior to that the area now known as The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg was a mix of 17 separate semi-independent nations. Some had loyalties to the French kings, others to the German emperors. In the early 1500s they all came under control of Charles V of Spain. When the protestant movements took hold, the 7 northern nations allied under the Prince of Orange and started their struggle against Spain. Of those 7 nations, "Holland" was the largest and most powerful. Even though it was the "Republic of 7 United Netherlands", Holland was calling the shots most of the time. During the French occupation (1792-1813) it was split in 2 separate departments and this split has since then remained. The northwestern part of the country, with cities such as Rotterdam, Dordrecht, The Hague, Delft, Amsterdam and Leiden was all Holland. Including my little village, even though it's now part of Noord Brabant, which was one of the conquered territories (i.e. not one of the 7 original nations, but taken from the Spanish later).

Phew...

So anyway, saying "Holland" when you mean The Netherlands is in fact wrong. Like saying America when you mean the US or saying England when you mean the UK. However, most people will know what you mean.

Finally... I don't think it's an insult...

[Nick Springer]

If you are interested in european history around the late 1600's and early 1700's, there is a great series of historical fiction called the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I created the maps for these books and in the process read them and they became 3 of my all time favorite books.

Quicksilver

The Confusion

System of the World

[Martin Gamache]

All three are great books, I agree as I devoured them over the winter months and Nick´s maps are beautifulm just wish there had been more of them. The Cryptonomicon, his previous novel is also excellent and sort of a extension (same characters) to the Baroque cycle.

mg

[Claude]

Nick,
Great work on the maps-I also devoured those books and since I slept through all my history classes in high school, feel like i learned a ton as well. Cool to meet (virtually anyway) the cartographer involved.
Claude