Because the size of the Earth is so large that it is impossible to view it as a whole, cartography is the science that allows us to get as close as possible.

Cartography consists of two branches: general cartography and thematic cartography.

General cartography. These are representations of worlds of a broad nature, that is, for all audiences and for introductory purposes. Maps of the world, maps of countries are all the work of this very division.
Thematic cartography. On the other hand, this branch focuses its geographical representation on certain aspects, themes or specific rules, such as economic, agricultural, military elements, etc. For example, this branch of cartography includes a map of the world of sorghum development.

Cartography has a great function: to describe our planet in detail with varying degrees of accuracy, scale, and in different ways. It also involves examining, comparing, and critiquing these maps and representations in order to discuss their strengths, weaknesses, objections, and possible improvements.

After all, there is nothing natural about a map: it is an object of technological and cultural clarification, an abstraction of human development that stems in part from the way we imagine our planet.

Generally speaking, cartography bases its representational work on a set of elements and concepts that allow us to accurately organize the various contents of a map according to a particular perspective and scale. These cartographic elements are:

Scale: Since the world is very large in order to represent it visually, we need to scale down in the usual way to maintain proportions. Depending on the scale used, distances normally measured in kilometers will be measured in centimeters or millimeters, setting an equivalent standard.
Parallels: The Earth is mapped with two sets of lines, the first of which are parallel lines. If the Earth is divided into two hemispheres, starting from the equator, a parallel is a line parallel to that imaginary horizontal axis that divides the Earth into climatic belts, starting with two other lines called the tropics (Cancer and Capricorn).
Meridians: The second set of lines conventionally dividing the globe, the meridians perpendicular to the parallels, is the “axis” or central meridian passing through the Royal Greenwich Observatory (known as the “zero meridian” or “Greenwich Meridian”). London theoretically coincides with the Earth’s axis of rotation. Since then, the world has been divided into two halves, separated every 30° by a meridian dividing the Earth’s sphere into a series of segments.
Coordinates: Connecting latitudes and meridians gives you a grid and coordinate system that allows you to assign a latitude (defined by latitudes) and a longitude (defined by meridians) to any point on the earth.

The application of this theory is how GPS works.
cartographic symbols: These maps have their own language and can identify objects of interest according to certain conventions. For example, some symbols are assigned to cities, others to capitals, others to ports and airports, etc.

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Digital cartography cannot be called a separate discipline or section. Rather, it is an effective tool that allows you to conveniently and quickly process cartographic data using a PC. However, the impact of digital cartography on science is really strong, and this way of mapping the terrain has fundamentally changed the principle of visualizing the territory.

Let’s compare digital cartography with the old way of creating maps. In the old days, cartographers would spend days and nights at a map, drawing each element in ink. Such work was very tedious and the work was simply unreasonable. Nowadays, technology of map creation has changed considerably, and now a computer does all the routine work, and much faster. During the processing of cartographic information on the PC, special automated systems are used, which have a large functionality, consisting of the tools needed to create maps. Due to their flexibility, automated mapping systems give a lot of possibilities to modern cartographers, which really simplify and improve the process of illustrating the terrain.

Digital cartography has the following advantages over traditional cartography:

• The possibility of error is virtually eliminated. In the old days, cartographers had to do their best to describe a map as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, more often than not, cartographers failed to depict space, its dimensions and specifics correctly. In modern cartography such mistake is excluded, because a lot of complicated calculations are made by computer. This simplifies the cartographer’s work, makes it faster and more efficient;
• saving labor resources. If in the modern world cartographers did not use automation as they do now, one map would cost a fortune, because it would require an inconceivable amount of labor. Now, thanks to specially developed systems, creating a map is relatively easy, which affects their price;
• possibility of editing. If you have drawn a map, but the terrain has changed (the forest has been cut down, the river has dried up, etc.), your creation can be considered unusable, because it contains unreliable information. However, digital cartography supports the possibility of editing maps, which allows you to return them to their former relevance. What’s more, it again brings significant labor savings.

Digital cartography is a real breakthrough in geographical science because it allows us to depict the world as it really is.

The advantages of computer technologies are not only perfect quality of graphic works, but also high accuracy, significant increase in labor productivity, improvement of polygraphic quality of cartographic products.

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The first map of the world, that is, the first map of the whole world, known to Western society since the second century AD.

On the other hand, in the Middle Ages Arabic cartography was the most developed in the world, and China, too, began with the XNUMX century AD. It is estimated that about 1,100 maps of the world have survived since the Middle Ages.

The real explosion of Western cartography came with the expansion of the first European empires between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. At first, European cartographers copied old maps and used them as the basis for their own, until the invention of the compass, the telescope, and geodesy forced them to strive for greater accuracy.

Thus the oldest globe, the oldest surviving three-dimensional visual representation of the modern world, dating from 1492, is the work of Martin Beheim. The United States (by that name) was incorporated into the United States in 1507, and the first map with a graduated equator appeared in 1527.

Along the way, the type of map file changed a great deal in nature. The maps on the first floor were hand-drawn for star navigation as a guide.

But they were quickly overtaken by the advent of new graphic technologies such as printing and lithography. More recently, the advent of electronics and computing technology has forever changed the way maps are made… Satellite and global positioning systems now provide more accurate images of the Earth than ever before.

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