It reminds me of the German "Drag nach Osten" policy. German eastern border on the map overlaps with the current Polish eastern border. Moreover, Germany moved South at the cost of Hungary as well as Czech Republic & Slovakia, which (like Poland) are pushed far to the East. However, Germany has lost some of their western territory to France. The shape of Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland is slightly distorted. Italy has lost Triest to Slovenia. These are the major changes I have noticed at first glance.
Equally, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have been moved far too far northeast into Germany, because France seems to have taken over the land of those countries.
Many Eastern European countries have been distorted and pushed towards and into Russia, primarily due to the eastward movement and expansion of Germany. Britain has also been moved slightly southwest, away from Calais but closer to Normandy. Ireland appears to have moved south relative to Britain.
"Berlin" se trouve à la place de Varsovie, qui elle-même est devenue capitale de la pseudo-Allemagne (en fait une grosse Pologne augmentée de la RDA et de la Tchécoslovaquie). La Biélorussie est devenue la "Pologne". Cette translation générale vers l'est s'accompagne d'une sorte de fixité relative des régions : la "Bavière" est en Pologne mais bien au sud de la pseudo-Allemagne ; idem pour le Brandenbourg mais au nord. L'Ukraine occidentale a comme été phagocytée par la "Pologne", la Républiqe "tchèque" et la "Slovaquie". La France nous fait une crise d'obséité heureusement limitée à la partie supérieure de l'hémicorps droit : le Bade-Wurtemberg paraît englouti par une Alsace gloutonne. Et j'ai l'impression que notre bonne vieille Paname divague du côté du pays de Clearstream (Luxembourg)... Détails : la "Provence" est en Languedoc et la "Riviera" s'exhibe sur les plages du Glofe du Lion. Et je vois que nos amis italiens ont chopé la Corse au passage. Pas glop ! Pas glop !
suppose it reflects the perception of France and Germany being the most 'important' countries in Europe.
most of you have noticed the "expension" of both "France" and "Germany", which are quite obvious. In fact the purpouse of this map was to represent some misconceptions of European geography that some people may have inconciently.
As Ben said, the overexageration of France and Germany may probably be the result of a perception that those countries might be the most "important" in continental Europe, due to the franco-german partnerchip inside the EU.
But this perception is false for France on the economic and demographic point of view (It is not more "important" than say, Italy or the UK, and not much ahead of Spain). In the case of Germany this is quite true on the economic and demographic point of view but that doesn't mean that Germany is geographically big (about the same size than UK or Italy, but much smaller than France, Spain Ukraine (and of course Russia if we count it in Europe).
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German eastern border on the map overlaps with the current Polish eastern border. Moreover, Germany moved South at the cost of Hungary as well as Czech Republic & Slovakia, which (like Poland) are pushed far to the East.
This is the most obvious change for "Germany", is that is is now really in the center of Europe. It may be not surprising since Germans like to think themselves their country to be in central Europe. So, while Germany tend to have in reality a sort of north-western position, it moved quite away towards to east and the south ("Bavaria" is situated in what is in reality Hungary, while "northern Germany" is about in actual poland). A lot of "Germany" is in fact Czech republic Hungary, Austria and Poland. "Austria" and "Hungary" are puched much more down south than they really are.
in this map it occupies the real center of Europe. (a strange Germany actually that would have borders with Romania, Slovenia and Hungary and whose capital has been moved to warsaw.
The majority of the actual territory of Germany is in fact in "France" on the map. France superficy has almost doubled, towards north and east. It covers now the main part of western continental Europe, situated almost completly only west of "Germany", at same latitudes, while much more southern in reality. Paris has moved to Somewhere in Belgium - at about same latitudes than London or Berlin, some regions such as "normandy" are now in northern netherlands (association of "normandy" with the famous "north men" made it move so much north...)
Alsace has move really far to the east, where is actually Bavaria.
another funny thing is the fact that the whole UK has moved very close to French borders, especially Ireland became close to Britanny (the idea that "celtic lands" are very near together)
In the south the border with Spain has moved towards the north, corsica has moved in the direction of Sicily (and left France for Italy), while the mediterranean border has been reduced to a little part of the languedocian coast and being renamed "rivera" - as if it was a region that would include all the french mediterranean coast as some people think. The same way the whole south is named "Provence", even in the the languedocian or midi-pyerénées region. the actual region of Provence has been in big part included in Italy.
On its part Italy has lost almost all Padania to Switzerland and Austria. Turin and Milan are now in the heart of "switzerland". Italy seem to be reduced to its peninsular part. This may be due to the fact that it is often though as being only the "boot", and thought to be a sort of peripherical country of Europe, While in fact the economic (and demographic also) core of it is precisely outside of the peninsula.
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However, Germany has lost some of their western territory to France.
well, almost all of the former western German republic has been included to France.
I notice than a lot of "spontaneous" representations (witouth looking at a real map) often show kinds of deformations
In those draws we can notice the same kind of deformations concerning France and Germany: both seem to be more or less at similar latitudes (Germany+benelux being strongly pushed towards south to correspond more or less to the level of northern France) - Berlin being placed at about the level of Paris. On its side the British isles have been pushed far away in the north - While England should be lined with northern Germany.
On its side, northwestern Spain tend to having
been displaced in direction of the british isles (maybe once again the idea that the "celtic" Galicia must have been much northern than the rest of Spain to be closer to the British isles had some impact - we notice it also for Britanny). This might also being cause by the fact that usual projection we often see tend to deform the latitudes towards the east and west of the map - and we probably tend to be influenced byt those representations.
In the second exemple, it is more historic, as it represent the main powers of the pre-world war period. It is still interesting to notice that "Prussia" is once again place on a very central European position, the whole north of it being more or less at same level than northern France, while it should be lined with the British isles.
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Now I see the names of the European regions are placed incorrectly too. The font size is apparently too small.
