What is Happening Inside the Republic of Gilead? (A Map Analysis)

Yeah we are talking about Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale again, but this time its not a fan made map. This was something created presumably by professionals...so does it hold up?

Email: ahwupdate at gmail dot com
Twitter: @alt_historian, @mattmitrovich

[KVIA]

Florida is red because disney wouldnt abide having another totalitarian competitor. Blessed be the Mouse.

[kvoltti]

Actually the misspelling of produced may be intentional. Often map makers will misspell words to help prove that a map was produced by them. So if someone just photocopies the map and prints it out they can point to the error and say that it’s their work.

[benjamingrist]

When the book was written, the Southern Baptist were much more liberal than they are today. Not to mention that the Southern Baptist were never fans of legalistic views of the Bible (like Gilead’s twisted interpretation of it) even after the denomination became the ultra-conservative block it is today. That’s why the Baptists in the South were in open rebellion against Gilead instead of supporting them.

[CarolinaRodriguez-mnsx]

You can't wear those Gilead clothes in Florida (or south or southwest for that matter) or you'll die of heat stroke. Fashion is stopping them from taking over the whole country lol

[LeahWalentosky]

In season 4 it is revealed Texas became its own country, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

[caseyspaos]

I'm interested in this 'No Man's Land" where Canadians, Handmaids, Gilead military and rebels can all sneak into and back out so easily (according to S01E10)

[creatoruser]

The Atomic Wastelands have to be from a nuclear power plant meltdown if they're still wastelands. People don't seem to understand that when a nuclear bomb is detonated its radioactive fallout degrades to safe levels within a couple weeks. Power plants have a lot more nuclear fuel and can leak continuously, which is why Nagasaki is safe today while Pripyat is still considered hazardous. Either that or the creators misunderstand that as well and thought nuclear bombs would create radioactive wastelands forever.

[EzioIlMentore]

I now kinda want an open-world game based on The Handmaid's Tale

[manochu]

Living in Puerto Rico myself, the island is mostly catholic and hispanic, therefore I believe we wouldn’t support Gilead, and we had support from latin america and europe to get independence, Gilead will be too involved in civil war to care about the island.

[reginald]

Los Angeles wasn't nuked. That radioactive symbol is right on-top of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, southeast of Los Angeles. That plant was decommissioned in 2012, however, so that portion of Southern California being an atomic wasteland becomes very unlikely (take into account that the book was written in 1985, while the San Onofre plant was still active). I live about 30 miles away from San Onofre so in the show's universe, I'm apparently dead anyway. :D

[soniacattley]

For those of us who do not live in America - I would appreciate you point out (arrow etc) the places you are talking about - I have no idea where in the map you are referring to.

[rosemarycat]

7:50 In the show, and i think the book as well, they mention that "the fighting in Florida must be going well" in reference to the presence of oranges at Loaves And Fishes

[tomsmith]

In the show, there is an active insurgency in Chicago, and they are talking about a "troop surge" there early in season three.
I would submit Gilead is in a weak position here. They don't control the Gulf Coast with the oil reserves and refineries there. Further, rebels effectively control the Great Lakes with Canada controlling the Saint Lawrence River and the Welland Canal, and the rebels controlling Huron, Michigan, which cuts off the upper Great Lakes. If the rebels can hold Chicago, a surge south to Saint Louis with a corresponding surge north along the Mississippi River to Memphis would effectively cut Gilead in half separating the resource rich west from the population centers in the east.

[davidpietarila]

My whole problem with the concept of a Gilead take over, is the US Navy. Since Hawaii is still part of the US, there is still US control over the Pacific. Additionally, as things start to go bad on the continental US, the Navy would almost certainly put its west coast fleets, and ESPECIALLY carriers and subs to sea and out of reach of Gilead.
On the east coast, while some of the major bases might be taken by surprise, again the majority of the fleet will be spread out across the Atlantic, the Med and the IO.
Plus the US Navy is HIGHLY technical. Unlike ground forces where you can fill your ranks with just about anybody, it takes some considerable knowledge to operate a modern ship of war, and I just don’t see a Theocracy like The Sons of Jacob being able crew enough ships with scientific minded officers to creat an effective navy. So east and west coast get blockaded and Gilead can ONLY look to Mexico and Canada as trading partners. If you then reduce your socio-economic workforce by literally half... the math for Gilead to be successful just doesn’t work out.

[BriarwoodJulie]

This map was also displayed in High Commander MacKenzie's office, shown in the Season 2 episode "Holly". I think the radioactive sites are actually of incidents/accidents at nuclear reactors rather than the result of nuclear weapon exchanges.

[TheDutchRabbitMafia]

Florida man is too powerful of an adversary

[ChristyHD]

Update: In season 4, a Burlington, VT library is mentioned as a location a group of Handmaid's are "hiding out" in.

[BillyReichard]

Thank you for not doing many spoilers in this video. I'm just now watching the show and was curious about Gilead. So I appreciate that you didn't go into much details on the story itself.

[SoulShinesU]

The fact that Detroit isn't red on this map makes no sense whatsoever. Detroit's extreme proximity to Windsor, Ontario Canada (the cities currently share two border crossings with billions of dollars in trade passing through annually) it makes much more geographical & political sense for that city to be a larger threat/problem than Chicago. During Prohibition Detroit was a hot bed for smuggling alcohol in from Ontario, Canada. It was also one of the primary routes for slaves to escape into Canada via the Underground Railroad. One would think that for Gilead the city of Detroit would represent a huge problem in terms of uprisings and defectors illegally escaping to Canada. 🤷‍♀️

[Jhonmz]

I keep hearing “counties” when he says colonies