Why Colonial American Maps Were Insane

Depending on which European country you asked, what North America "legally" looked like during colonial times was drastically different. There was a LOT of overlap.

Music used:
"Americana" by Kevin MacLeod

[EmperorTigerstar]

I wanted to expand this topic further to misconceptions of African and Asian colonial maps, but my living room had a water leak so I cut this video short. Perhaps in a future video!

[renatocpribeiro]

Tordesillas wasn't that bad for Portugal initially, though. They were much more interested in the Indian Ocean trade at the time. They would only start serious colonial efforts in Brazil in the 1530s

[ChessedGamon]

Colonial maps are like when kids say “is too plus infinity!” applied to geopolitics

[WanukeX]

1:05 - The main problem with De-Facto Maps is the classic “to be true a true de facto map you have to show military frontlines that will be outdated instantly”

[mariodangelo]

"England was slightly more humble than Spain and didn't claim an entire continent" I can't tell if it's an accidental or intentional dis against Australians

[mfaizsyahmi]

the virginia company of london when getting a second charter in 1609
the virginia company of london when getting their second charter in 1609

[WasatchWind]

My ancestors in early Utah come to mind, seriously thinking they could claim a gigantic swath of the western United States as Deseret - it quickly in just a few years proved quite impossible. Unfortunately it would then prove to be an obsession for the history community despite it never really existing or having much chance of existing.

[StuffandThings_]

There's a great map called the "Apolitical world map" which is essentially an interactive word map according to de facto borders. Definitely worth a look at least (and hey, maybe even worth a video topic!). It does a pretty good job illustrating the geopolitical situation around the world as far as I can tell.

[clouds-rbxt]

Sidenote for any map nerds:
The Library of Congress online collection of maps is VERY extensive, you'll find stuff going back a millenia from various countries. Plenty of colonial era stuff as well.
If you're into old photography they pretty much have something for every notable town in the world too.

[ErichZornerzfun]

Once while working on a ww1 mod for a game I went down the rabbithole of Colonial Africa borders. All those nice clean map with straight lines everywhere are very much De Jure. There were dozens of regional kingdoms, emirates, and majors tribes that were still nominally, functionally, or even official independent well into the 20th century.

[breadsandwich]

3:28 - 3:30 Am I crazy or has anyone else been noticing a lot of YouTubers repeating one line in their videos. I feel like I've encountered this a lot more frequently within the last few months. 🤔

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Connecticut: Look at all this mighty land we still have, nothing can stop us now-
US gov: Would you like to cede these lands in exchange for assumption of your debt?
Connecticut: *I am smort*

We are very familiar with straight lines...since a straight line was our southern border between 1948 and 1950. Thanks for that, America

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Portugal at the Berlin Conference: According to the Treaty of Tordesillas, everything east of this line belongs to us, so whether you like it or not we are the rightful owners of the continent
The other colonizers: Oh no!
Proceeding to divide the continent their way: *ANYWAY*

[chemputer]

I've always heard "de jure" pronounced with the "jure" like Juror or Juries. I mean it's the same root, meaning by law.

I double checked and apparently both are acceptable pronunciations and that's neat but I've honestly never heard it pronounced that way. Given it's a Latin phrase it's possible that's a more common pronunciation in romance languages?

In any case, I learned something extra from this video! Neat.

[rimfire]

So the American Civil War could be seen in one of two ways.
De Facto--The Confederate States of America (1860-1864)
De Jure--The United States with a Southern Region in revolt (1860-1864)

[JamesJansson]

2:58 "England was slightly more humble than Spain and didn't claim an entire continent"
Australia: Am I a joke to you?

[isaac_aren]

I thought Tordesillas wasn't really am exclusive claim to the area, but a map to show where both Spain and Portugal were allowed to claim and not claim. Didn't necessarily ban anyone else from making claims, it just meant Portugal couldn't make claims in the Spanish half and vice versa

[Ellyerre]

You forgot that during 1580-1640 the Kingdom of Portugal and Spain were united under the Iberian Union so de _jure_ all the Americas belonged to the Castilian Crown. Of course in reality the colonial empire was still separated between the kingdoms and there were overlaps, not only in the Americas but also in Southeast Asia, which were settled after Portugal became independent again.

[Tsuruchi_]

2:44 it's cool to see the places where these claims overlapped on the ground, i live in southern Brazil and there's old Spanish island-fortresses offshore in my state, and both the Portuguese and Brazilian state claimed all of Uruguay for some time, to the point where what is essentially the Uruguayan war of independence was against us, not the Spanish

[compatriot]

Basically any old colonial maps are guaranteed to have goofy borders as a large portion are unexplored/uncontrolled with it merely being claimed