Does a world map look different for people from different countries?
I have two versions of the world map, one an actual 3 dimensional globe on a stand and the other a large paper map with 2 dimensional hemispheric views. Not surprisingly, the flat version has the western hemisphere on the left and the eastern on the right. Even though I am in the western half, I see no bias in this map layout. But, your question does, in fact, raise a far more perplexing question. Who decided that my land is ‘western’ and yours ‘eastern’?? Clearly, laying a 2 dimensional map out, North, South, East & West are logical, but, since the Earth is round and not flat, at what point does ‘west’ become ‘west’ or vice-versa? If I am looking at this map from a point centered in the Pacific Ocean, then North America is now the “eastern hemisphere”. My own conclusion is that this was all based upon ‘geo-political’ boundaries as one can see in the establishment of the starting point of the 24 hour clock. (Greenwich Mean Time or GMT). Greenwich, England was selected as the base point
