1957 - Atlas clarificador de la influencia mundial de las superpotencias

Potencias mundiales en 1957

Fuente: MESH

The most striking feature of this map is its unusual viewpoint (or projection). Devised in 1948 by John Bartholomew of the famous cartographic dynasty, the Atlantis Projection abandons the common atlas convention of depicting maps that show the Arctic at the top and the Antarctic at the bottom, with the Atlantic in between. Here the projection is tilted and centred at 30°W 45°N to allow a focus on the world’s oceans, in particular the Atlantic.

The use of the Atlantis Projection in this instance is particularly effective in conveying the combative nature of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers which emerged to dominate the new world order following the Second World War. Like giant beasts poised to grapple, the major landmasses of the capitalist West and the communist East face each other across the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans: this was an accurate reflection of the state of international politics at this time.

With the defeat of Fascism in 1945, any sense of unity and common purpose between the Soviet Union and the other Allied powers swiftly evaporated. This was soon replaced by a growing mutual distrust and outright hostility that was underpinned by the polarising effects of their respective political ideologies. Both power blocs possessed nuclear arsenals but were reluctant to confront each other in either nuclear or conventional warfare. The uneasy armed truce that emerged became known as the Cold War.

In spite of these geopolitical tensions, the United Nations Organization had been founded in 1947 as a vehicle for maintaining international peace and security and developing international economic and social cooperation. Ten years later, the UN had over eighty member nations, although their division into hostile armed camps did little to further the aims of the organization.

Both the USA and the Soviets sought to build economic, military and diplomatic alliances to support their particular strategic ambitions. In 1949, the USA established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formally allying itself to Western Europe in order to contain the spread of Communism there. Elsewhere in the world, in 1954–55, two similar alliances were formed to counter communist expansion – the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) in the Philippines and Indo-China, and the Baghdad Pact in the Middle East. The USSR and Communist China retaliated by providing military and economic support to anti-colonial or nationalist struggles in Africa, Asia and Latin America, while in 1955, the Soviets established the Warsaw Pact, their own military alliance among the communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Within a few short years of this particular map being drawn, significant colour changes would be required for a number of countries: Alaska would become a full member state of the USA (1959); Fidel Castro would establish a Marxist government on America’s doorstep in Cuba (1959), and the process by which many African nations would shake off the last remnants of European colonialism would begin in earnest.

This map was originally from The Times Atlas of the World, Mid-Century Edition 1958, cartography by John Bartholomew, M.C. LL.D. This text is from The Times Universal Atlas of the World, Historical Mapping section.

Mapa original

Fuente: MESH

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