Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
A NEW NATION: Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States of America in
1783. The following year, Abel Buell produced the first published map of the new country to be cre-
ated wholly on American soil.
The content of this chapter is not, however, sharply distinct from earlier portions of this
topic. We have already explored a broad spectrum of noteworthy events, from the birth of
the city of Adelaide (see
A city fit for a queen
)
to the partition of India upon its independ-
ence from British rule (
East of Aden
)
, and from the natural eruption of Vesuvius ('
Where ye
Fire & Smoake cometh out
') to the human-wrought devastation of the London Blitz (
Bombed
out
). Just as those maps looked forward to the theme of this chapter, here we also look back
at earlier themes. Our 400-year journey takes us from a hand-drawn, pictorial 16th-century
map (
A murder mystery
)
to the published work of the British Admiralty in the 1950s (
The
last place on Earth
)
. On the way, we pass through urban and rural landscapes, confront scenes
of conflict and the horrors of war, and witness the rise and fall of empires. In fact, since the
contents of the archives are by definition survivors of the ravages of time - whether inten-
