The physical, environmental, political, and ethnic maps we selected for this region inspire the exploration of several themes. In the ethnic map, the large settlements of Indians and Chinese in Malaysia can be traced to 19th century labor migrations (see pages 38-39). In the political map, the straight N-S border in New Guinea points to the effects of European colonialism. A comparison of the environmental and ethnic maps shows a concentration of the original inhabitants in the vast open shrublands of Australia, which prompts us to ask questions about the dispossession of Aboriginal land.
Physical Geographic Map (pp. 138-39)
This unique map – the only double-page map in the entire Global Regions section – offers insights into the power of maps, the politics of naming places, the cultural message of names, and the scapes of Oceania.
Maps convey power and authority. What gets placed on them is made “real”. Compare the extent of this map with the others in the Global Regions series, Australia and Oceania. The physical map extends beyond Australia and the archipelagos of Indonesia, Malaysia, and New Zealand into what is arguably the most overlooked area in the world: the vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean that is populated by countless island states and nations. Stretching more than 6,000 miles from east to west it is a marine scape, shaped more by water and distances than by the land itself. Vast living reefs – see the Great Barrier Reef east of Australia and the Tuamotu Arch north of Pitcairn – offer protection from typhoons, harbor countless species, and filter water. They are essential to the survival of these countries, yet many are dying. In some areas, such as the South China Sea, ocean bottoms are raked and reefs are covered with sand and cement to enlarge the land area, strengthen territorial claims, and to support control over shipping lanes. Each populated island has rights to an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that extends 200 nm from shore. For a tiny piece of land this is about the size of the United Kingdom! Rights include fishing and resources, such as oil and gas. — Look at the enormous maritime territories of dispersed archipelago micro states. For example, the EEZ of the Cook Islands with a population of 15,000 covers 750,000 sq miles. France has largest EEZ in the world thanks to its overseas territories (almost 12 million sq miles).
Naming places is political. Given the authority of maps, place names on them carry weight, they are considered facts. But, as the saying goes, naming is claiming. Search for the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, close to Vietnam and China. Along the way, note the beautiful design of this map, the contour lines in the water, the color choice for terrain height, and the placement of lettering. The map first appeared in the Perthes World Atlas, by Klett-Perthes, one of the oldest scientific map publishers in the world. You will notice that the German cartographers added “(CHN.)” below “Paracel Is.”, which acknowledges that China has de facto control. However, it also implies that the islands are Chinese sovereign territory, which Vietnam vehemently disputes! Given this contestation, our team at Middlebury prefers that the Paracel Islands be marked as disputed, or more elegantly, without attribution. We are puzzled how our repeated proof reading missed this and we have already deleted the attribution in the e-Book. — If you are curious to learn about the Paracel Islands or other issues in the area, go to www.southchinasea.org.
Place names represent culture. Look at the Maoke Range in the island of New Guinea. The name means “snow” in the local language, though the glaciers disappeared by the 1960s. Its highest mountain, Carstensz Pyramid, is named after the Dutch explorer who discovered it in 1623 – which is customary practice in European maps – instead of the local name preferred by our team, Puncak Jaya (see page 69). — Peruse place names in the world, and you will discover many with the imprint of European “discovery.”
The scapes of Oceania. Most countries in this region are dispersed over several islands. They form bodyscapes characterized by difficult and slow travel, ideascapes challenged to create community and national identity in the face of fragmented land, and powerscapes tasked to potentially move the entire state to another location because of rising sea levels. For example, Kiribati has purchased land in Fiji as a potential new home for the nation of over 120,000 people. As we mention on page 93, Indonesia is moving its capital to Nusantara, Borneo to relieve overcrowding and flooding hazards in Jakarta, Java. — Compare the physical map to the map on page 34 (top): it is easy to conceive how the region’s islands served as stop over points in early human migrations, how traveling among them produced exceptional mariners, and how the region spurred connections as far as the Americas.
For an optimistic video essay on the Indonesian capital move, see: