Definition of political map – What is, Meaning and Concept

If we decompose this term into two parts, describing each of the words that make it up, we can arrive at an accurate definition of it.

The term Map has its origin in the Latin word mappa and refers to graphic scheme that represents a territorial region. In general, the maps are flat, although there are also spherical ones (world maps).
For its part, the concept of politician, is an adjective that refers to the politics (The exercise of power or the process that a community develops to make ideological decisions that allow achieving common objectives).

By unifying both meanings we can understand that the qualification of political map is applied to those maps that show the various political entities into which a territory is divided. These entities, fixed by the human being, allow dividing and organizing the land, constituting itself as localities, cities, provinces, etc. In some cases, political maps include other elements created by people, such as train tracks, roads (roads) or artificial territorial limits.

A political map differs from a physical map because the seconds are those that represent the accidents of the nature (rivers, plateaus, mountains, etc), without giving importance to the sovereignty that each State has over the territory. In other words, a political map shows the territorial borders, while a physical one presents the geographical characteristics of said territory.

There are in turn some maps that combine these two types of design, they are known as physical-political maps and they exhibit, simultaneously, natural phenomena and political components.

As in any map, the metric properties present in political maps help to be able to draw measurements and establish calculations of geographical distances or areas with good precision.

So that all this information is accessible from the same map, the cartographers (The experts in charge of its development) resort to various techniques to simplify the data, using differentiated scales, symbols and colors. In the case of political maps, the same sheet can show how a country is divided into provinces, which are the capitals of each province and how they are linked by roads.

Elements of a political map

The distribution of the elements on a political map allows the different points of interest For the observer, capitals of countries or provinces, most prominent cities, geographic areas that are important to understand the political organization of the area, most important rivers and details of absolute interest for each country or province.

Regarding the borders that separate each country, it is important to note that those that appear there are those that have been accepted internationally as valid, and not those that each country believes to be the limits of its territory. For example, in the case of those countries that dispute a piece of territory that is between the immediate vicinity of both, on the maps it will appear on the side of that State that the rest of the countries of the world accept as sovereign of said territory, although not necessarily be understood in this way by all citizens.

The kind of political organization that appears on a map of this type can be the division of territory into parties or municipalities, States or countries, Provinces, Counties, Fiefdoms, Emirates, Cities and Neighborhoods. Its usefulness lies not only in helping students to understand the political structure of a certain place, but also so that States know in detail the area of ​​their domains and know how to take measures to preserve them.

exist many types of maps, some that we can mention are:

The world maps, for example, they show the political distribution across the globe. They are spherical and usually have a rotating axis that allows you to move it to see each country up close.

The geological maps They are those that allow us to observe the characteristics of the rocks and geological sediments of a place; Fault lines, possible erosions or geological accidents can be seen in them and the internal structure of the land of a place can be studied. They are represented by universal symbols so that any connoisseur of the matter can understand them with the naked eye (for example, mountains are represented by a triangle).

There are also multipurpose maps, which contain a variety of essential information for specialists in certain areas. In them, the aspects related to hydrography, the road network, orography, populations and any information that is considered pertinent to analyze a certain region are usually represented.

There are also weather maps (they present in colors the different climatic groups of a territory), urban maps (shows the urban areas of a region and the various communication routes between them), topographic maps (they contain all the information related to natural and artificial accidents of a certain place ).