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Since the last time we wrote about Terrible Maps, a project that is dedicated to sharing maps no one asked for or needs, they've kept themselves rather busy. So it's only natural we created a follow-up article about the cartographers who are so bad, they're actually good. After all, what is the Internet for if not to poke fun at politics and our geographical illiteracy?

From hilarious guides on how to find the state of Kentucky to showing how many Switzerlands fit in Brazil, continue scrolling and check out these gems and tell us which one would you hang on your office wall!

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konstantin_2 avatar
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Ami Temi
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Indeed. It's very informative and shows, approximately, the spread of Native tribes before they were mostly destroyed and killed by Europeans. It's good to see that they're not forgotten.

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Marcellus the Third
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Which part of terrible does this represent? It seems relatively factual.

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Ellen Frank
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The idea is wonderful, but no, it's not factual. The Apache tribe never lived in any part of California. There were many, many tribes in Northern California in addition to the Pomo, although the only one I remember is the Coast Miwok, who lived where I grew up.

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bryguy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why is this map on here? It is not "terrible at all", unless you don't believe in the fact that people actually lived on this land before us

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Milan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

oh no, you are the only and the only only on this whole planet, dear ;)

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Martha Meyer
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everyone needs this one printed to show to racist Trumpsters whenever needed.

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Loki’s Lil Butter Knife
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a little confused how this map is terrible. Perhaps it is terrible to racist and classist Karens and Chads who refuse to believe that these people and empires/kingdoms were here long before they were.

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Dave P
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

except its not accurate such as the Powhattan Confederation goes further south and nowhwere as far north, Iroquois goes further east and south east (and Mahicans were part of the Iroquois), Algonquin are missing, Cherokee were never that large, missing dozens of others in that area. Chickasaw only went that far out west after 1825 when they were forced, ,look at Georgia-Florida border region, Apache were only a smart part of modern AZ at the time, Souix only had a small region in the midwest before Europeans Brought horses and they started conquering other Native tribes and took over a large territory. etc, etc. This map is horrible and super inaccurate for Native American Tribes

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D.G. Laderoute
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This map isn't even remotely correct. I live on the north shore of Lake Superior. Our regional indigenous people are mainly Ojibway, but they're not even represented on the map. The traditional territory of the Cree did not extend down to Lake Superior. And so on...

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Bill Newsome
Community Member
3 years ago

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It is not supposed to be here for accuracy, silly. It is here to make liberal whites feel guilty.

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Lynda Momalo
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/america-colonization-map/ t’s true that the above-displayed map was never taught in American schools, for the plain reason that the map displays an imaginary version of present-day America created for a work of speculative fiction set in an alternate timeline (as indicated by the “Approx. 2015 A.D.” legend in the bottom right-hand portion of the image), not a version of America that actually existed in the historical past. In July 2015, Redditer liminalsoup uploaded the above-displayed chart to the “Imaginary Maps” subreddit under the title “Rough Draft (seeking advice on map for a story i’m writing where Europe never discovered America).” Rather than showing the state of America prior to European colonization, this image is one author’s idea of what America might look like today if Europeans had never colonized it.

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Lois Arrowood
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really like this map. Many times I have asked which Indian nations were where. Thanks.

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Al Jones
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The one for Australia is equally eye-opening. More than 250 nations. Each with their own customs, many with unique languages.

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Rosanna Jackson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The map is accurate in that the land belonged to Indigenous people's, but the territories are not accurate for all linguistic groups. Great concept though

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Bonnie North
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a real eye-opener! I didn't know Indians populated the entire country - somehow, I thought it was little groups here and there. This is shocking and school children should see this. The scope of it is never suspected when you read American history books.

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Vicki Perizzolo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

yup- there we are complaining about other illegal aliens when we started the whole thing!!

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Daniel Losinger
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

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lara
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you consider any "immigration" without "permission" then the above map is nothing but a map of illegal immigrants.

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Anet Arteacher
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well that’s quite an ignorant comment because they were here before any peoples were here. None of them are illegal because their native Americans. The only illegal people would be the Europeans. Back to school for you!

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Tabitha L
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is there a continent that Europeans didn't invade and f**k over?

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Randy Klefbeck
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would love to know in what year this was rendered. At the time these tribes existed, (they also moved around a lot, and some did not survive long after colonization) I would not of thought that continental depictions of North America were this accurate. Some tribes are missing also.

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Catherine Brady
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Definitely a necessary map that should be taught in US History classes. We need to acknowledge these facts.

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Jane Alexander
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So many tribes not represented here. The map would have to be so much bigger to include them all.

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SaraFromHell
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is Awesome. We are all immigrants except these folk...who's really illegal!?

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Ellen Frank
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is great except for being totally inaccurate. We had to draw maps of Indian California in the third grade, and believe me, there were a LOT more than three tribes. The Apaches were not among them.

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Amanda Goodreau
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Ojibwe nation isn't on here. The area surrounding Lake Superior (aka Gitchigumi) was where they lived, not the Iroquois.

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Mariana Tenanty
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Such a poignant reminder... This stark map helped me better understand why there may be anger with statues honoring Columbus. He didn't "discover" America -- he simply claimed it for Spain. As immigrants to this land, we need to study and better appreciate our true history -- the good and the bad. It is us...

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Mumof1
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This shouldn't be included in this category - this is a great map and should be displayed in every school AND the Oval Office!

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Thomas Es Thomas
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, most of the western tribe names are in the wrong place. Anasazi were in modern-day Utah, and died out 800 years before Europeans. The Utes lived in Utah after that. The Cheyenne were south of where they labeled them.

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Thomas Es Thomas
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Go back fifteen to twenty years from there and it's totally different. The first people were just as warring and brutal as Europeans.

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Anet Arteacher
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That isn’t the point. School children are taught as if to believe that this country was unoccupied at the time. As if there was room for everyone and the Europeans were just colonizing an empty land with a few ‘Indians’ here and there. The fact was there was already a civilization there who had their own names for things and places and their lands. Europeans didn’t discover America because they were already people living there who knew what it was!

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Moose Face
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Haida Gwaii and Salish are absolutely in the wrong place. Here's a better map: https://native-land.ca

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Chris DiFonso
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

@Wendy Swee We WILL make America great again...in November, when we vote Trump out of office and most of the Republican Senators out of office as well.

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Jerry Stambaugh
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've been looking every where for a map like this, to understand more on what tribes were where.

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Jo Johannsen
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The only thing terrible about this map is its tragic accuracy.

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Kisses4Katie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

THANKS! I was literally searching for this a few days ago but all I could find was US, not all of North America. Thank yo!

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Lynn Morello
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is terrible because it shows how much the American Indian has lost in land, Heritage and people.

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OK. We can clearly see these are bad maps. But how to know you're looking at a good one? Brant Scheidecker, a sales engineer at Cartegraph, highlighted some of the main essentials for accurate and easily interpretable map use.

"Every map should have a title. It allows the user to assess the purpose of the map quickly; allowing them to determine if it meets their needs," Scheidecker wrote.

Next, origin. A fancy name for a compass or the North arrow. "This allows the user to determine the maps reference to the earth. While most maps these days have North being straight up, occasionally you will encounter a map that has a skewed orientation, perhaps to better fit it on the physical medium it's presented on (i.e. paper), or simply because it’s easier to interact with the map in that orientation."

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Aaron W
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dammit, I'm going to see this every time I look at a US map now. Thanks, Bored Panda.

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When it comes to the source, it's a two-fold element. "It allows the map maker to provide the map viewer an idea where the data the map is representing is from; a necessity in determining the accuracy of a map. It also allows the map maker a way to cite the source of their data, avoiding all those pesky cries of plagiarism and the ensuing lawsuits," Scheidecker explained. "You have better uses for your time, like ensuring the rest of the T.O.S.S.L.A.D. elements are on your maps."

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Let's not forget the legend (the area where a user can determine what a particular color or symbol represents on the map). "Without a legend, a user cannot successfully interpret what your map is trying to represent, 'Does the red skull and crossbones over my favorite restaurant mean what I think it means?'"

You should also know when was the map that you're analyzing made. If it was created in 1962 and shows commuter levels in Chicago—it might not be such a valid source for the traffic data you are looking for today, unless you are feeling nostalgic, Scheidecker joked.

There you have it. You may now have become a cartographic genius, but you should be able to tell if you're looking at a terrible map or not!

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Kesam
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm an immigrant in "aesthetically tasteless" country and I totally agree! :D

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Kesam
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I always knew Brazilians are brainy. (But wait, what does that make northwestern Canada??)

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Shelp
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Belgium imports a lot of electricity from France. I wouldn't be surprised if this particular power plant mainly produced electricity for the Belgian market

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karla Meixnerová
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No surprise, if the person with this opinion is a believer, that the Earth is flat...

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Rabbit Carrot
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nah. We see a giant a*s bible for most of those middle states. Oh and guns. Lots and lots of guns.

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Sadie Shapiro
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i don't even want to try saying that one. you know which one I'm talking about.

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Jayne Kyra
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

According to my dots in MS Paint over each: 132. Might be wrong, but I am not doing it again. EDIT: Did it again and Beto River is right, I missed 10 at some point. Thank you Beto!

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Oathbraker
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I understand mistaking it with Iraq or Afghanistan, but how the f**k did they go to Africa and the Balkans? A couple are even in the UK, for crying out loud.

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Note: this post originally had 150 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.