Why is Korea an Island on Old Maps?
Vložit
- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- Korea…is obviously a peninsula, but it wasn’t always depicted as one on maps…but instead as an island. Let’s go to RareMap.com and take a look. We’ll type in Korea Island and as you can see multiple European maps depicting Korea as an island pop up though the shape varies. The years range from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. There is always a story behind these mistakes.
Social Media
------------------------
Map Shop - thegeographygee...
Instagram - / thegeographygeek
Patreon - / geographygeek
Email Newsletter - eepurl.com/hSeKpj
Book Sources
---
“The Phantom Atlas” - Edward Brooke-Hitching
RareMaps.com Sources
---
Jodicus Hondius 1610 (1606 First Published) - tinyurl.com/3r...
Abraham Ortelius 1595 - tinyurl.com/3a...
John Speed 1676 (1626 First Published) - tinyurl.com/ys...
Jan Huygen Van Linschoten 1596 - tinyurl.com/pu...
Thank you RareMaps.com for supporting another video! Their maps and descriptions are a huge part of the research and visuals that go in these videos. You can purchase your own map with the Island of Korea from their website. - RareMaps.com/
I think about how California was depicted as an island on some old maps...
arab cartographer muhammad al idrisi made a map named Tabula Rogeriana in 12th century, which described silla(ancient korean dynasty) as an island. I think this map might be the reason why later european carthographers described korea as an island but not sure.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Idrisi
Also knowing that the sources of the Yalu and Yumen rivers are super close to each other, near Mount Peaktu and in difficult terrain, it's not too surprising that this misconception developed in the first place. With the limited information available to foreign cartographers (anywhere in the world) there was water running along the entire known northern 'border' so the entire peninsula might as well have been cut off from the mainland.
Considering the northern border of North Korea with China has both the Tumen and Yalu Rivers whose sources are around the Mount Paektu area and head in the direction of a sea, I assume they misinterpreted their written sources and thought "Oh that area is all water, must be an island!" without of course double checking.
I've been waiting for this one
I love your content, just wish the videos were longer because I can’t get enough lol. I know it takes time and effort though and thank you for providing these videos!
I wouldn't say that the title is clickbaity. It's perfectly fine to make a video speculating why, without claiming to know exactly why. I'd rather have that than an incorrect statement, or to have no video at all. Great video, I've subscribed!
Great job!!
Thank you!
Map is NOT made by Jan Huygen van Linschoten.
It is made and clearly signed by:
Henricus Florisz van Langren and Arnoldus Florisz van Langren.
Both sons of Jacob Florisz van Langren. (From the Globes! An interesting story by itself!)
The map is based on a collection of Portuguese maps, reports and journals, brought to Amsterdam. Partly voluntary by the owners who fled for their lives, and started the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community. Partly involuntary because the Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal at that time and snooped away a lot of their ships. Information about your enemies knowledge was very valuable, and still is. They tried to puzzle all the pieces together and created maps like this one.
Trade and communication between Korea and China was done by sea, so the map makers thought Korea had to be an island. Nobody told them both countries were connected by mountains and rugged terrain, and that ships were used because it's much easier.
Strange thing on the map is the 'Beach' south of Java, because there is nothing except Australia, which would be outside this map.
Two blobs of unknown territory, Korea and Australia, with only an indication of where they should be. Very interesting!
All texts are in Portuguese, Latin, and a little bit of Dutch, why does a single English word appear?
Thanks again for an interesting video about a map from 1595!
Good catch. That map was published in a book by Jan Huygen van Linschoten and he had written that Korea was an Island but I may have misunderstood who had the original sources, the employment situation of the brothers, and who actually gets the credit. I believed was a similar situation as John Smith and his map designer & engraver. John Smith is given way more credit than William Hole, though Smith did do the exploring himself. I just found a research paper in English on the family that I'm about to dive into. Thanks!
well, for SOuth Koreans, their situation right now is like their nation is an island state for the reason that they cannot travel/cross through North Korea going to china/russia or mainland Asia...
as a korean, i can give somewhat of an explanation. Chinese dynasties never directly bordered with Korean kingdoms in order to prevent any border conflicts(tho Korea was mostly a tributary state, but still independent). So most Chinese states did not establish any concrete frontier near Korea and neither did Korea themseleves, as a result, both Korea and China, after some timelapse, had little knowledge of the land between them which the Europeons mistaked as a 'sea' between the two states
Ther has been a land border ever since the spring and autumn period, which was like two thousand years ago.
I was wondering if it may have been possible to sail around Korea by partly using rivers in ancient times, From the Yellow Sea you can sail up the Yalu river, all to the Changbai region, a highly active vulcanic region that is very young on a geological time scale and has known enormous eruptions as recent as 1000 years ago. There are also many referenses in mythology about this place, many about floods and at least two of them mentioning the water coming from the ''Northern'' or the ''Eastern'' ocean. I think in both cases the Japanse Sea (East Sea) applies. There is also another myth that states that the whole Chanbai region flows on water. While this clearly isn't the case, the believe has to come from somewhere!
That's very interesting. I am also very interested in this topic. I think there are two rivers on the border between the Korean Peninsula and China, so until the end of the 16th century, Westerners recognized the Korean Peninsula as an island.
One could say that South Korea is an island today as it's cut off from the mainland due to North Korea's presence blocking transit.
No
@@k.l6122 Tell that to my Korean friend I visited in Seoul who explained this to me. lol
fool!
@@hazelnut3794 My Korean friend who shared this perspective with me is a city planner who was hired to help design the Toyota cities in Japan that envelop their factories.
Yeah, he's anything but a "fool!".
@@snoozeyoulose9416 Maybe he wanted to say Japan instead of South Korea
Amazing video :) soooo many mapsss 😂
So what crude method which was advanced in those tymes were used to see the land by high altitude device or person
Cartographers Were Bored Of Just One Japan And Tried To Make Japan 2.
Can you make one in El Salvador? They only have shitty volcanoes and the country is really small, especially compared to its neighbors, and they only have one coastline.
There could have been more water several hundred years ago. Like California being depicted as an island.
Hopefully not foreshadowing...
#SwellMaps
Not a cartographer or geologist, but I’m curious I’d an earthquake or seismic activity could explain the change? I think the simple answers are most likely, but I wonder if the seismic ideas have been ruled out ✌️
Probably not because a 1402 map made in Korea show it as the correct shape. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnido
Volcano
If you want to now look at shout Amerika at the same time ..💪🇺🇸👍🇳🇱👍
California used by in island too... and it should have stayed disconnected. xD
It would be interesting to see what maps look like a few centuries from now. Will they be asking why Korea is not an island on our maps? Or will they not know what our maps look like because our digital technology has been replaced?
the weird thing is that some of them are so detailed with all the small islands etc. Maybe there was a big landslide that connected the island to the mainland
A landslide of that magnitude would have sent huge tsunamis towards Japan and southeast Asia.
@@Adiscretefirm could also be one of these volcano things that make islands over some time. there's a new island somewhere around Africa i think that is only a few years old
I would think that would mean people were copying maps, and not being critical about the actual landmass there.
@@aidan8473 not being critical is one thing but having reoccurring islands on different maps is kinda suspicious. I mean, they couldn't just sail over the land and thought it was water
Slow moving fill will not cause a tsunami
Volcano activities in that area
huge glacier melt off
Caribbean: They thought we were India!
Korea: They thought I was an island!
Atlantis: *You were discovered?*
Technically only the DPRK is a peninsula, as regular DPRK citizens can't visit the ROK and vice versa. For those who live under the ROK government, the ROK is an island. We hope to end their misery and bring peaceful reunification. "Cape of Thieves" in the south perfectly sums up the fact that the US stole the ROK from us
The reason is, because that's where it's going to end up.
I see australia there
Perth Beach Club...
Korea is the true "far east". And last to modernise because of that.
never heard from this country
In their defence Korea is only 50 km away from being a island*
S.Korea is technically an island right now. I hope land travel to Vladivostok or Mt.Baekdu becomes possible in the near future.
I am pretty sure that going to North Korea is easy for South Korean, just not easy to get out😉
Who gave you HisStory ?
*I S W A N I S L A N D*
May be the maps were correct and the land was changed by a catastrophe of some kind.
probably not, what kind of catastrophe would connect Korea to China? maybe plate technotics but these changes take much more time than just 500 years or so
All maps are wrong, they're never tell exactly where we are
I think you might be having problems reading them...
Seriously. Always room for technical error.
You are here ⬇ I can see your keyboard...
Let me guess: it goes with the word peninsula = almost an island. It happened to Korea, it happened to California, it happened even to old good Atlantis, you know.
korea was an island. plate tectonics happened. like isthmus of panama
Plate tectonics is an incredibly slow process. Your suggestion is silly.
Did you even bother looking at the Japanese or Chinese sources?
Chinese maps of Korea?
Bro i enjoy your videos, but you OFTEN do not explain anything other than providing progressing examples of peoples depictions, which is great, but does not really answer any questions
Yeah…because there is no clear answer or I would have shared it. Sorry.