10.6.1 A map of the countries between Constantinople and Calcutta : including Turkey in Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkestan
Map shows international boundaries, railways, steamship routes, submarine telegraph lines, and British and Russian spheres of influence in Persia.
English cartographers drew this map in 1912 for a world atlas. It shows the borders of states at that time. Some of those borders, such as the borders of Persia (today called Iran) and Afghanistan, are very similar to modern borders. Find the Ottoman Empire, colored in light blue. The Ottoman sultan ruled over a multiethnic empire that had existed for more than 500 years. What large bodies of water are next to certain parts of the Ottoman Empire? Notice that only the western side of the Arabian Peninsula is colored light blue, and the rest is left white. What do you think that means about political control of the white area?
Students should recognize that this map shows the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, even though the cartographer rotated that region in a sideways orientation to simulate the curvature of the Earth. The seas that border the Ottoman Empire are the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Aegean Sea (although that may be too difficult to read), Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf. The white area of the Arabian Peninsula was sparsely populated and unincorporated into a state from the European perspective, although there were local systems of rule. If time permits, you might review which European imperialists controlled the states surrounding the Ottoman Empire. The British controlled India and Egypt and the French, Algeria. The Russian Empire was to the north. Persia and Afghanistan were independent at that time, but both were subject to British and Russian competition for influence.
This is a map showing the eastern Mediterranean, southwest and south Asia. The 1912 borders of the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Afghanistan, the British colony of India, Nepal and Bhutan are shown.
