Throughout the last couple of hundred years, cartoonists have produced satirical and humorous maps. Please post your favourites.

Start with this one from 2009 of a view of the Great War

and from 1914

Shamelessly stolen from historum, the Texan map of the USA

An American view of Europe;

I was going to upload that one too Trike, as a modern version of satirical maps. The are lots of different versions of that one too, according to who is doing the viewing.

But here is one from circa 1870.

That's a good one ID.
I couldn't find one of the Channel Islands to welcome A-N.

Trike

There are lots of interesting historical maps at this site too, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and various European satyrical examples

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2009/06/satirical-maps.html

I love this, it's very recent, by Grayson Perry, but in the style of the Mappa Mundi



There was a great series on BBC, Maps:Power,Plunder and Possession. It's no longer on iplayer but there's some info and clips here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s2wvh

Some varying views of Europe;

http://www.andrewcusack.com/2010/09/21/stereotype-map/

Gillray's cartoon of Napoleon and Pitt carving up the globe.

One of a number of "Leo Belgicus" maps, showing the Netherlands as a lion

Asia depicted as Pegasus;

The world of Orwell's 1984;

A map of the United States with each state represented by the flag of the nation which is nearest to it in population. Thus Ohio/Greece, Kansas/Jamaica and Texas/North Korea.

The Kaiser eats up the world.

Somewhat different from the previous postings, the "real" names for places;

http://www.kalimedia.com/Atlas_of_True_Names.html

Map showing proposed US States;



though there are at least two missing, the State of Transylvania, between Kentucky and Ohio and the State of Sequoyah in eastern Oklahoma

What Europe will look like in 2035, according to Russian tabloids;

http://io9.com/what-europe-will-look-like-in-2035-if-russian-tabloids-1587988556

The "Tabula Rogeriana".

Arab geographer Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti (who thankfully is referred to more often simply as "El Idrisi"), produced a map of the known world in 1134 which survives to this day in the form of the above copy from 1300. Working for Roger, Count of Sicily, his atlas was to remain the authoritative Euro-centric depiction of the lands then within reasonable navigable distance from the Mediterranean for over 300 years.

If it looks strange to you then bear in mind that "north" and "south" are artificial constructs. We have simply got used in the meantime to seeing the world the other way up.

Louis Bezenet's 1918 map of Europe drawn along ethnic lines;

Map from 2006, by Ralph Peters, showing the Middle East divided along religious and ethnic boundaries;

Interesting map that by Ralph Peters. The problem with his various pronouncements on Iraq and Yugoslavia etc is that he invariably appears to be wise after the event. And this characteristic is all too evident in far too many of the NATO establishment.

Here's a variation of the many 'upside down' maps popular with Antipodeans:



The reason why Claudius Ptolemy chose to position his maps facing north is not clear. One theory is that living in Alexandria and being of Greek heritage would have given him 3 factors prompting this Boreal 'orientation'. The fact that the river Nile flows south to north and that Alexandria is on the north coast of Egypt, with Greece itself being further north again across the sea could explain this decision.