Moral and Political Chart of the Inhabited World (1837)

An atlas made for American classrooms in 1837 sorted the entire world into five stages of civilization. The chart is called the Moral and Political Chart of the Inhabited World, credited to geographer William Channing Woodbridge. Revised editions of this world map kept appearing in his geography atlases for more than two decades.

The chart grades every territory on five levels, Savage, Barbarous, Half civilized, Civilized, and Enlightened.

In 2013, Swiss researcher Martin Grandjean redrew the entire document for modern screens, keeping every data point from the original and adding one feature Woodbridge never had.

Grandjean’s redesign converts that same scale into five shades of blue, darkest for Savage and palest for Enlightened. Two more layers of small icons mark each territory’s government (Monarchical or Imperial, Republican, Limited Monarchy, Independent Chiefs or Dukes, or under the governance of another country) and religion (Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Greek, Mahometan, Pagan, and Missionary).

According to the map, the total population of our planet in 1837 was 941.6 million people. However, according to modern estimates, the world population first crossed the 1 billion mark around 1804.

Distribution of mankind with their races & regions (1826)

	TOTAL	EUROPE	ASIA	AFRICA	AMERICA	AUSTRALIA
Square Miles	50 M	3 M	16.2 M	11 М	16 М	3.6 М
Population	941.6 M	214 M	586 M	104 М	35 М	2.6 М
RACES
Caucasian	438 M	212 M	172 M	40 М	14 М	30 к
Mongolian	389 M	1.8 M	387 M	–	120 к	–
American	11 M	–	–	–	11 М	–
Malay	29 M	–	27 M	–	–	1.9 М
Africain	69 M	–	–	59 М	9 М	950 к
RELIGIONS
Christians	256 M	–	–	–	–	–
Greek	65 M	56 M	5.7 M	3 М	–	–
Catholicks	134 M	106 M	4.1 M	1.3 М	22 М	–
Lutherans	24 M	23 M	130 к	–	500 к	–
Other Protestants	33 M	22 M	250 к	175 к	10.5 М	–
Mahometans	123 M	6 M	88 M	29 М	–	–
Pagans	554 M	–	486 M	65 М	1 М	2 М

Christians ranked as the largest single group at 256 million, well ahead of Mahometans at 123 million. Pagans, the chart’s label for everyone outside those categories, made up the largest share of all at 554 million, more than the other two groups combined. Christians break down further into Greek Orthodox at 65 million, Catholic at 134 million, Lutheran at 24 million, and other Protestant denominations at 33 million.

How do you think the ‘civilized’ landscape has changed today?

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