Plunder

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession episode 3: In the last of a three-part series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps are snapshots of a moment in history and offer visions of distant lands, tempting explorers to plunder and conquer.     However, adventurers first had to tackle the great challenge of mapping the globe onto a flat surface. There is no perfect solution, but the father of geography, Claudius Ptolemy, had some clever ideas. Explorers like Christopher Columbus sailed into the unknown in search of riches and discovered a whole new continent that would […]

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession episode 2: In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton shows how maps can reveal the fears, obsessions and prejudices of their age.     Religious passion inspires beautiful medieval maps of the world, showing the way to heaven, the pilgrims’ route to Jerusalem and monstrous children who eat their parents. But by the Victorian era society is obsessed with race, poverty and disease. Royal cartographer James Wyld’s world map awards each country a mark from one to five, depending on how ‘civilised’ he deems each nation to be. And a

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession episode 1: Jerry Brotton shows how maps can be tools of power and snapshots of history. Henry VIII’s maps of the British coast helped him exert control over the world.     In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps aren’t simply about getting from A to B, but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion. Visiting the world’s first known map, etched into the rocks of a remote alpine hillside 3,000 years ago, Brotton explores how each culture develops