A Nation Reimagined

Jukic’s map divides the U.S. into regions named after and proportionally modeled on the former Soviet republics, each reflecting a slice of America’s population and economy:

• Oredova (Moldova): Oregon stands in for Moldova, with 1.5% of the U.S. population and 1.3% of GDP.
• Calikraine (Ukraine): California, Nevada, and Arizona transform into “Calikraine,” representing 18% of the population and 16.2% of GDP.
• Ohiorus (Belarus): Ohio becomes “Ohiorus,” a nod to Belarus, contributing 3.6% of the population and 4% of GDP.

The map’s treatment of the southern and central states draws parallels to Central Asia:

• Arkanstan (Kyrgyzstan), Missibamastan (Uzbekistan), Georgiastan (Tajikistan), South Carolinastan (Turkmenistan), and Floridastan (Kazakhstan) collectively represent 17.2% of the population and 10% of GDP.

The rest of the U.S., labeled as the American Federation, is shaded gray and retains a population of 170 million, “less than Pakistan,” with a GDP of $14 trillion, making it second only to China.

Lessons from the Soviet Collapse

The map provokes comparisons to the dramatic geopolitical shifts of the early 1990s. When the Soviet Union disbanded, its new states faced severe economic turmoil. Ukraine, for instance, experienced a 60% economic contraction in the 1990s, despite being one of the USSR’s industrial powerhouses.

Meanwhile, the Baltic states—modeled on the map as Estmont (Estonia), Lathishire (Latvia), and Massathuania (Lithuania)—took a different path. While grappling with their own post-Soviet challenges, they quickly integrated into Western institutions like NATO and the EU.

Could the U.S. Fragment in a Similar Way?

While the U.S. differs significantly from the Soviet Union in governance and economic structure, the map raises compelling questions about national unity. Regional divisions, economic disparities, and political polarization are often cited as vulnerabilities in maintaining cohesion.

Jukic’s “American Federation” reflects the potential economic and demographic decline a fragmented U.S. might face. At 170 million people, this hypothetical entity would rank below Pakistan in population and significantly trail China’s economic might—an unthinkable scenario for a current global superpower.

Why This Map Resonates

The map’s playful but insightful design challenges viewers to consider the fragility of large, complex nations. By linking history to a contemporary context, it emphasizes how rapidly geopolitical landscapes can change.

Vladimir Putin famously described the USSR’s collapse as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. His nostalgia for Soviet-era influence has driven policies aimed at reasserting Russian dominance over former Soviet republics. However, this has come at a steep cost.

Russia’s interventionist policies, such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing war in Ukraine, have led to severe economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and immense human and material losses. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, instead of strengthening Russia, these actions have left the country grappling with stagnation and a brain drain as citizens and businesses flee uncertainty.

While Putin’s vision for a revived Soviet sphere of influence remains far from realized, his attempts have had lasting consequences for both Russia and the broader global order. This underscores how efforts to reconstruct historical empires often exacerbate, rather than resolve, national crises.

What do you think of this scenario? Could such a breakup ever happen? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post If the United States Collapsed Like the Soviet Union appeared first on Vivid Maps.

That question led me to create a series of world maps that reimagine our planet not as a collection of nations, but as a collection of river basins. Each “country” follows the natural watershed of a major river system. It’s a cartographic thought experiment, but it also shows how we might better manage our shared resources.

Understanding River Basins

Watersheds don’t care about politics. A drainage basin is an open system that constantly exchanges matter and energy with its surroundings.

This natural division of land has been crucial to human civilization since its inception. They’ve given us irrigation for crops, highways for commerce, and the water we need for everything from drinking to manufacturing. Each basin has its own personality—its own climate patterns, ecological characteristics, and responses to seasonal changes.

So what if we actually organized ourselves around these natural units? Several advantages become clear:

• Water Management: Right now, water crosses borders without asking permission. A river doesn’t recognize when it leaves one country and enters another. Managing an entire watershed as a single unit could eliminate many of the inefficiencies and inequities we see today.
• Environmental Protection: Ecosystems rarely fit neatly inside political boundaries. A basin-wide approach could make conservation efforts work as integrated systems rather than fragmented pieces.
• Disaster Response: When floods hit or droughts settle in, they affect entire watersheds. Coordinating responses across a whole basin rather than trying to patch together efforts from multiple competing jurisdictions would be more effective.
• Tailored Development: Every basin is different. Some are arid, others tropical. Some drain mountains, others meander across plains. Development strategies that recognize these differences could be more sustainable and effective.
• Water Conflicts: A lot of international disputes boil down to who gets the water. Basin-based boundaries might not eliminate these conflicts, but they could reframe them in more productive ways.

With all this in mind, I set out to see what the world might actually look like if we redrew the map along watershed lines.

Reimagining Countries as Watersheds

The first map I created shows the world divided into “nations” defined by major river basins. I used watershed data from the HydroSHEDS project—a massive undertaking by WWF that began back in 2006 to create free, high-resolution hydrological data for the entire planet.

The map looks alien. Familiar continents suddenly fragment into unfamiliar shapes. In this alternate world, countries bear the names of their dominant rivers:

• Amazonia (Amazon River)
• Congolia (Congo River)
• Mississippia (Mississippi River)
• Obistan (Ob River)
• Nilotic (Nile River)
• Paranáland (Paraná River)
• Yeniseiland (Yenisei River)
• Lenaria (Lena River)
• Amuria (Amur River)
• Nigerland (Niger River)

Looking at the world this way highlights something we often forget: the planet organizes itself through water flow, and within each basin, everything connects.

The World’s Largest Basin Countries

Curious about which “countries” would dominate this watershed world, I calculated basin areas using ArcGIS’s Calculate Geometry tool with a Miller Cylindrical projection.

According to my calculations, the ten largest countries in our river basin world would be:

This table showcases the vast territories these river systems encompass, often spanning multiple countries in our current geopolitical landscape.

Climate Characteristics of Basin Countries

To further explore the nature of these basin-defined nations, I created two additional world map posters focusing on climatic conditions.

Temperature Distribution

To add another layer to this watershed world, I pulled in climate data using WorldClim’s bioclimatic variables. Specifically, I used BIO1 (Annual Mean Temperature) and ran it through ArcGIS’s Zonal Statistics tool to find the median temperature for each basin.

The temperature map produced some interesting results. The ten warmest “countries” all share the same scorching median temperature of 31°C (87.8°F)—every one of them a tiny watershed in East Africa or the Arabian Peninsula. At the other extreme, the coldest basins huddle in Greenland with median temperatures around -26°C (-14.8°F).

One basin particularly caught my attention: Yanaland, named for the Yana River. This basin contains Verkhoyansk, often called the coldest city on Earth, yet its median annual temperature comes in at -15°C (5°F)—cold by any standard, but not quite the extreme you might expect from its reputation.

Precipitation Patterns

For precipitation, I used WorldClim’s BIO12 variable and summed all the rainfall within each basin using Zonal Statistics. The numbers are impressive. Take Amazonia—it receives 12,884 km³ (3,090 cubic miles) of rain every year. Yet the Amazon River itself only discharges about 7,280 km³ into the ocean annually (according to Wikipedia), roughly 17% of global river flow. Where does the rest go? It evaporates, gets absorbed by soil and vegetation, living organisms, or is used in human activities.

These numbers really drive home the importance of watershed management. In places like India, where roughly 70% of people depend on agriculture, effective watershed development isn’t just theoretical—it’s the difference between prosperity and crisis. Done right, watershed management reduces erosion, recharges groundwater, controls flooding, and improves water quality throughout the system.

Population Distribution in Basin Countries

Next, I wanted to see where people actually live in this watershed world. Using the same Zonal Statistics approach with population data from SEDAC (the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center), I mapped out how humanity distributes itself across these river basins.

The most densely populated basins cluster where you’d expect—in Asia, where major rivers have supported civilizations for millennia:

According to the population density map, the highest concentrations of people can be found in tiny watersheds along the coasts of Africa and Asia. This creates a real challenge for watershed management—in densely packed areas, human activity can overwhelm a basin’s natural capacity to filter and recycle water.

Economic Landscape of Basin Countries

Finally, I explored the economic potential of our basin countries using the Zonal Statistics tool and GDP raster data for 2025 (in millions of US dollars) from SEDAC.

The economic leaders aren’t always the biggest or most populous basins. Size doesn’t automatically translate to wealth.

The per capita GDP map produced some truly surprising outliers:

• The Aloh Besar River basin in Bahrain: 464 people, $2,260 million GDP ($4,866,030 per capita)
• Crystal River basin in Florida: 191 residents, $910 million GDP ($4,757,180 per capita)
• River Mite basin in the UK: 263 inhabitants, $1,000 million GDP ($3,605,710 per capita)

The Potential of Watershed-Based Management

Creating these maps wasn’t just an exercise in cartographic creativity. It got me considering what basin-wide management could actually accomplish. There are some well-established principles that could work much more effectively if we managed resources at the watershed scale:

• Utilizing land according to its capacity
• Maintaining adequate vegetation cover on the soil
• Conserving rainwater where it falls through in-situ conservation
• Managing excess water to prevent erosion and recharge groundwater
• Maximizing productivity per unit of area, time, and water
• Increasing cropping intensity through intercropping and sequence cropping
• Safely utilizing marginal lands through alternative land use systems
• Ensuring ecosystem sustainability within the watershed
• Maximizing income from the interrelated crop-livestock-tree-labor complex over time

Apply these principles across an entire watershed, and you could see real improvements in how we manage water, protect ecosystems, and develop sustainably.

Wrapping Up

Mapping the world by watersheds instead of political boundaries does more than create interesting visuals. It reminds us that water doesn’t respect the lines we draw, and that our planet functions as a series of interconnected systems that often bear little resemblance to our geopolitical divisions.

Will we actually redraw borders to match watersheds? Almost certainly not. But this exercise points to something important: as we grapple with climate change, water scarcity, and resource competition, organizing around watersheds rather than countries might help us develop solutions that actually work with natural systems instead of against them.

The maps suggest a different way of seeing our world—one where the flow of water defines the boundaries of cooperation, where ecosystem health carries as much weight as economic growth, and where we recognize that what happens upstream inevitably affects what happens downstream.

What do you see in these maps? Could watershed-based management change how we approach global challenges? Would aligning resources with natural boundaries help or create new problems? I’d love to hear your perspective in the comments below.

If you’re interested in exploring more traditional world maps, check out these highly-rated options available on Amazon:

• National Geographic World Map (Classic Style)
• Antique-Style World Map Poster
• Scratch-Off World Map

An animated version of the basin maps shown above is available on my YouTube channel.

The post River Basins as Countries: A New World Map appeared first on Vivid Maps.

In the novel, the globe is dominated by three superpowers:

• Oceania: Comprising the Americas, the British Isles, Australia, and parts of southern Africa.
• Eurasia: Spanning continental Europe and Russia.
• Eastasia: Encompassing China, Japan, Korea, and parts of Mongolia and Tibet.

These superstates are in a constant state of war, with alliances shifting periodically. The areas not directly controlled by the superpowers, including parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, form a disputed zone where the powers fight proxy wars.

Orwell’s novel explores themes of government surveillance, historical negationism, and the manipulation of truth. The world map serves as a visual representation of the power structures and ideological divisions in this dystopian society.

Analysis of “1984” and its World Map

Orwell’s depiction of a divided world reflects the geopolitical anxieties of the post-World War II era. The novel, published in 1949, came at a time when the Cold War was intensifying, and the threat of nuclear conflict loomed large.

The three superstates in “1984” can be seen as exaggerated versions of real-world powers:

• Oceania resembles an alliance between the United States and the British Empire
• Eurasia mirrors the Soviet Union
• Eastasia represents China or a pan-Asian power bloc

The constant warfare between these states serves to maintain the status quo and keep populations under control through fear and nationalism. This perpetual conflict allows the ruling parties to justify their oppressive regimes and maintain power.

Contemporary Interpretations and Influences

Orwell’s “1984” continues to resonate with readers today, often cited in discussions about government surveillance, fake news, and the manipulation of information. The novel’s impact on popular culture is profound, inspiring numerous adaptations and references in various media.

The world map of “1984” has become an iconic image, representing the dangers of totalitarianism and the fragility of truth in a world of competing ideologies. It serves as a warning about the potential consequences of unchecked power and the importance of individual freedom and critical thinking.

For those interested in exploring Orwell’s dystopian world further, here are some related products available on Amazon:

• “1984” by George Orwell
• “1984” movie adaptation
• Orwell biography

The post World Map in George Orwell’s 1984: A Dystopian Geography appeared first on Vivid Maps.

This intriguing United States map created by @StatisticUrban presents 48 hypothetical states, each centered around one of the nation’s largest urban areas. What makes this map unique is its use of a Voronoi partition–a mathematical concept that ensures every point within a new “state” is closer to its urban core than to any other major city.

The result is a United States map that looks strikingly different from the one we’re used to. Gone are the familiar shapes of Texas, California, and Florida. Instead, we see a patchwork of territories that radiate outward from major metropolitan hubs, creating a visually striking representation of urban influence.

But this isn’t just an exercise in creative cartography. The map goes a step further by predicting the political leanings and Electoral College votes for each of these hypothetical states. Surprisingly, the outcome mirrors the close margins we’ve seen in recent elections. The map projects a razor-thin 270-268 victory for the Democrats in the Electoral College. When Alaska and Hawaii are factored in, the split becomes 26 Republican-leaning states to 24 Democratic-leaning states – a nation almost evenly divided.

One interesting detail that catches the eye is the map’s squiggly borders. These irregular boundaries aren’t just for show – they’re the result of keeping existing counties intact within the new state lines.

While this reimagined United States map is purely hypothetical, it offers valuable insights into the relationship between urban centers, population distribution, and political affiliations. It challenges us to think about how our current state boundaries influence election outcomes and whether an urban-centric approach might lead to different results.

For those interested in exploring more traditional United States maps, here are some excellent options available on Amazon:

• National Geographic United States Classic Wall Map
• Rand McNally Classic United States Wall Map
• USA Scratch Off Map with US National Parks

The post A Fresh Take on the United States Map: Urban Centers Redraw Political Boundaries appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The map below, made by Reddit user Poussin_Casoar, tries to bring that older geography back into view. It’s version 1.3 of an ongoing project to trace the historical and cultural regions of Europe — not by modern political divisions, but by how people used to organize, identify, and refer to the lands they lived on.

To create the map, the author drew on historical atlases, linguistic maps, Wikipedia entries, and older administrative boundaries. It’s not meant to be precise down to every kilometer, and the creator openly acknowledges that. The idea is to offer a general, visually coherent overview that helps people locate names they might encounter in old documents or family records — places that have since vanished from official maps.

At first glance, the map might look unfamiliar, and that’s the point. Instead of France, Spain, or Germany, you’ll see regions like Languedoc, Navarre, and Franconia. In many parts of Europe, what we now call “countries” were once made up of distinct territories, often with their own languages or dialects, legal codes, and local elites.

In the Iberian Peninsula, for example, you’ll find Castile, Aragon, Andalusia, and Galicia — each with roots going back to the Reconquista and earlier. In what’s now France, regions like Brittany, Provence, and Normandy once had strong local identities, and in some cases, their own ruling dynasties.

Germany, before unification in the 19th century, was an especially fragmented landscape. You’ll see regions like Swabia, Franconia, Thuringia, and Saxony, reflecting the decentralized nature of the Holy Roman Empire.

Moving further east, the names might be less familiar unless you’ve spent time with historical documents or family records. Areas like Ruthenia, Volhynia, and Podolia speak to the shifting borders and influences of Poland, Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, and Russia over the centuries.

The Balkans, with their layered history of Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Slavic rule, show regions like Epirus, Moesia, and Herzegovina. The Caucasus is equally intricate, with names like Imereti, Kartli, and Shirvan representing territories that existed long before today’s borders between Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were drawn.

In Scandinavia and the British Isles, you’ll see Jutland, Scania, Mercia, and Strathclyde — names that hint at tribal kingdoms and early medieval divisions, many of which still echo in modern regional pride and identity.

Russia is mapped as it was before imperial expansion solidified its modern shape. Regions like Novgorod, Tver, and Ryazan reflect a time when power was distributed among competing principalities rather than concentrated in Moscow.

The purpose of this map is not to promote separatism or dispute current borders, but to offer a deeper understanding of Europe’s long-term regional diversity. It shows how many identities survived across centuries of political change — and how the memory of these regions still lingers in language, tradition, and sometimes even in local politics.

If you love historical cartography or want to decorate your space with geography, here are a few great finds available on Amazon:

• Antique Map of Europe Poster
• Modern Political Map of Europe
• Scratch Off Europe Map Poster
• Vintage Style Europe Map Wall Art

The post A Fascinating Map of Europe’s Historical Regions appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Here are some detailed shots of different areas on the world map:

According to minecraftian48, the map was created using population data from sources such as CityPopulation and various national censuses. For countries with older census data, population estimates were adjusted using United Nations growth rate estimates. The goal was to achieve an accuracy of ±10%.

Choosing names for these new regions was an interesting challenge. Whenever possible, existing administrative divisions were used. For smaller regions dominated by a single city, the city’s name was adopted. In other cases, geographic, cultural, or historical features were selected to represent the region.

I think Reddit user minecraftian48 created a sort of population density world map. Numerous small polygons on this map are characteristic of areas with high population density, while large polygons indicate low population density in those places.

It should also be noted that in almost every country, the size of administrative subdivisions is directly related to the number of people living in them.

I also found the idea of naming each new region interesting. The result is a sort of imaginary political map of the world, showing 804 countries with a population of 10 million each. There are no superpowers; all countries are equal, at least in terms of population.

For those who love maps and geography, check out these fantastic world maps available on Amazon:

• World Map Poster
• Scratch-Off World Map
• Vintage World Map

The post Exploring the World Map Divided into 804 Zones of 10 Million People Each appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Many nations still have many flourishing national websites and social networks (Russia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Iran).

Inspired by the design of historical maps and by the “Map of Online Communities” by Randall Munroe, Mapmaker from Slovakia Martin Vargic created the world map of the most popular websites throughout 2020-2021.

Compared to an earlier iteration of the World Internet Map, this new version of the world map is more comprehensive and informative. It comprises many thousand of some of the most popular websites, described as different “nations,” which are arranged with others of similar type or category, forming dozens of separate clusters, regions, and continents that extend throughout the world map, such as “search engines, “news sites,” “social networks,” “e-commerce,” “adult entertainment,” “file sharing,” “software firms” and so much more. In the middle of the map poster, Internet service providers and web browsers form the core and spine of the internet as we know it, while the far south is the area of the mysterious “dark web.”

Color designs of websites are based on the predominant colors of their user interface or logo. To add more detail and give deeper insight, many features and services provided by these websites, sections and content categories, and distinguished content creators are marked as cities and towns (which number well over 10,000). Website authors and CEOs are shown as capital cities. At the same time, hundreds of the most popular users of social networks and influencers can be found in the realms of Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. Mountains, highlands, seas, and valleys depict different aspects of the internet, culture, and computer science overall. At the same time, about a hundred of some of the most famous internet and computing pioneers are also highlighted on the map in the names of undersea ridges.

The poster also includes much supplemental information (the top most popular websites, largest internet-related companies, influential sites blocked in China, etc.). Atlas of several smaller maps shows the share of the population using the internet, speed of broadband, levels of internet restriction, and the most popular social network by nation, etc.

The main map’s relative territorial sizes on the main world map are based on their average Alexa web traffic ranking between January 2020 and January 2021.

Top 50 most popular sites

The post A Detailed Map of the Online World appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The first two maps show what does our planet looks like if sea levels were to rise by one kilometer, how much of the Earth’s surface would still be above water.

The world with 1000 meters sea-level rise

Political map of the world with 1000 meters sea-level rise

Obviously, even if all the ice on our planet melted the sea level would only increase by 70 meters or 100 meters. The maps above are just a bit of fiction.

The world maps with one-kilometer sea level drop more realistic.

If our planet’s magnetic field disappeared, the atmosphere to be blown out into space. When atmospheric pressure descends low enough, water will start to evaporate taken by the solar wind.

As a result, the surface of our planet will resemble the surface of Mars.

The world with 1000 meters sea-level drop

Political map of the world with 1000 meters sea-level drop

The map above looks like a political map of the world, including Exclusive Economic Zones, or or map of Pangaea with current International borders.

How does our planet look like if the oceans are drained, you can see here.

The post What does Earth look like with 1000 meters of sea-level rise or drop? appeared first on Vivid Maps.

You might think the world map looks pretty stable, but our planet is anything but static. In just 50 years, the Earth has already undergone significant changes, but these are mere moments compared to the incredible transformations coming in the next 50 million years (see Earth 50 Million Years Ago).

Imagine a world map so different that geographers of today would barely recognize it. Tectonic plates are slowly but powerfully reshaping our continents, oceans, and entire landscapes in ways that sound more like science fiction than geological fact (Geological Society of America).

How Continents Move: The Invisible Dance of Our Planet

Most people don’t realize that world maps are actually living documents. Continents aren’t fixed – they’re constantly moving, albeit incredibly slowly. At just a few centimeters per year (2.5 cm per year), these movements seem imperceptible, but over millions of years, they create dramatic world map transformations (National Center for Geological Research).

Northern Europe: From Landmass to Seascape

Climate models paint a shocking picture of Northern Europe’s future. Rising sea levels could submerge large portions of the current landmass under 60 meters of water (the world with a 70-meter sea-level rise you can find here). Picture Scandinavia transformed into a maritime landscape, with only the highest points remaining as scattered islands.

Mediterranean: A Lake in the Making

The ongoing collision between African and European tectonic plates will turn the Mediterranean from a sea into a landlocked basin. Volcanic islands will dot this new inland water body, creating a landscape that would be unrecognizable on today’s world maps.

Antarctica: A Continent Reborn

As ice caps continue melting, Antarctica will emerge as a complex archipelago. Thousands of islands and deep fjords will replace the current uniform ice sheet, revealing geological features hidden for millions of years.

Geographical Highlights Reshaping Our World Map

• The Arabian Peninsula encircled by massive mountain ranges
• East Africa potentially becoming a new microcontinent
• Volcanic islands emerging in the Indian Ocean
• Australia colliding with the Asian landmass

Understanding Our Dynamic Planet

These aren’t wild predictions but carefully researched geological forecasts. Scientists use sophisticated models, satellite data, and extensive research to map out these potential futures.

For those fascinated by how world maps change, we’ve found some incredible world map posters that capture our planet’s complexity:

• Vintage World Map Poster
• Swiftmaps World Premier Wall Map Poster
• Antique Style World Map Poster

What aspect of these potential world map transformations blows your mind the most? Which geographical change seems most incredible to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post The World in 50 Million Years: How Our Planet Will Dramatically Change appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The image here has the map of Neo-Tokyo up top and a Google map of real Tokyo Bay down below, done by Univero on the Akira wiki. It sets the fictional version right next to the actual 2019 one, which makes it straightforward to spot what the film caught about Tokyo’s general mood and where it branched out differently. Both show the bay pushed further with filled-in land, hooked up to the mainland via bridges and tunnels.

Let me break down some comparisons:

Plenty overlaps: the packed-in feel, stacked highways, and constant hum nail Tokyo’s spirit, especially that buildup to the Games in both. Scenes with bikes and after-dark hangs mirror actual youth hangs, just without the heavy fights. Then again, the film cranks up the mess and adds wild elements like mind-power research, while today’s Tokyo sticks to everyday advances like quick transit and automated shops.

If you’re hooked on Akira, it’s worth picking up the Blu-ray for a rewatch or the full manga collection to dive deeper – both easy finds on Amazon Akira Blu-ray | Akira Manga Set.

The post Mapping Akira’s Neo-Tokyo Against Real Tokyo Bay appeared first on Vivid Maps.