The executive orders of US President Donald Trump have snuck into digital cartography. Google announced on Monday that users in the US will now call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on its online mapping service, Google Maps.
Additionally, Google Maps will change the name of North America’s tallest peak, Mount Denali, to Mount McKinley. Once the US government has approved these modifications, they will appear on the platform.
How Google handled places with disputable names in the past and how the new change will operate:
What exactly will Google Maps change?
- Users who reside within the US will now call the Gulf of Mexico.
- Users in Mexico will continue to use it as Gulf of Mexico.
- Users who are neither citizens of the US nor Mexico will see both the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of America displayed on Google Maps.
- For Google Maps users all over the world, Mount Denali will now be called Mount McKinley.
How did we get here?
Trump ratified 26 executive orders on the day of his inauguration, which took place on January 20. The Gulf of Mexico is changed to the Gulf of America, and Mount Denali is changed to Mount McKinley in one of these orders.
The Gulf of Mexico is a water body, bound by Cuba, eastern states in Mexico: Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, and states on the Gulf Coast of the United States: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The snow-capped Mount Denali in Alaska is the highest mountain in North America at an elevation of 6, 190 metres (20, 308 feet).
For about 400 years, the Gulf of Mexico was known. In his book, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, published in 1589, English geographer Richard Hakluyt calls the water body “Gulfe of Mexico”. In Mexico, the gulf is also called by its Spanish name, El Golfo de Mexico.
There are no international laws that dictate what a common maritime space or a disputed territory is referred to as in the name of the world, so Trump can rename the Gulf of Mexico for his own domestic audience.
Since Mount Denali is located on US soil, its renaming is simpler. Trump has no intention of visiting Alaska, but he does want to rename the mountain Mount McKinley after former Republican president William McKinley from 1897 to 1901.
“Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial”, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican US senator from Alaska, posted on X as a response.
The mountain’s name was officially changed to Mount McKinley in 1917. Former Democratic Party President Barack Obama renamed the organization Denali in 2015.
Denali, in the Kuyokan Athabascan language, means “the tall one” or “the high one”. The Indigenous people of Alaska, as well as other residents of the state, prefer the name Denali.
When will Google Maps make the change?
We’re not yet certain the precise date. When the US government makes the change, Google will update the name of the map application.
Google stated on X on Monday that “we have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government.”
The changes will be made when the names are updated in the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) official database, which contains the names of more than one million US geographic sites, and when the names are updated in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which contains the names of the USGS.
When Trump signed the executive order on January 20 and requested the name change within 30 days, which would be February 19, the names were not yet known.
Why did Google Maps make the change?
“When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. The rest of the world recognizes both names. That applies here too”, Google said in a post on X on Monday.
A 2008 Google Public Policy Blog post explains further: “For each difficult case, we gather a cross-functional group of Googlers including software engineers, product managers, GIS specialists, policy analysts, and geopolitical researchers. The local knowledge and expertise of Googlers all over the world help with this process.
Experts believe that companies like Google have strong economic justifications that influence decisions.
According to Sterling Quinn, an associate professor in the Central Washington University department of geography, “corporates make maps to support their business missions of search and advertising,” the decisions they make ultimately affect the decisions that support those goals.
According to him, Google’s strategy is to “try to make as few customers as possible” by adding regions-specific customisations, introducing ambiguity, or by removing names from lists or adding multiple names.
Political parties’ economic and political standing can affect the outcome of corporate mapping decisions. I view Google’s ‘ Gulf of America ‘ change as more of a sign that they want to maintain uninterrupted business, rather than a sign that they agree with Trump’s change”, Quinn added.
Has this happened before?
Yes, Google Maps displays different names for certain places, depending on who’s looking.
Kashmir
Both India and Pakistan hold the entire mountainous region’s territory, which includes parts of Kashmir. In 2019, India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir, cleaving it into two regions – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east.
If you are in India, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh appear to be a part of India on Google Maps, with a solid black line around Kashmir. If you are in another country, including Pakistan, Google Maps outlines Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh, with a black dashed line.
Arabian Gulf or Persian Gulf?
Arab countries refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf. The water body is bound by Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Persian Gulf is the water body’s name in Iran, according to Google Maps. Google Maps will refer to the Arabian Gulf if you are in an Arab nation with a coast on the Gulf, like Qatar. Google Maps refers to the water body as “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” if you are located in another nation that does not have a coast off the gulf.
East Sea or Japan Sea
The Sea of Japan is referred to by Japan as the Sea of Japan, while North and South Korea refer to it as the East Sea.
If you are in Japan, Google Maps labels it the Sea of Japan. In South Korea, it appears as the East Sea. Outside of Japan and South Korea, it appears as “Sea of Japan (East Sea)”.
How have people reacted to the recent Google Maps announcement?
A mixed bag of responses were received online when Google Maps revealed the upcoming changes to the Gulf of Mexico. While many on X expressed support for the move, others also expressed concern about moving to other mapping platforms, such as Apple Maps.
When it does, I’ll switch to DuckDuckGo and Apple Maps instead of Google.
However, the Russian parliament’s lower house announced in November that when viewed from Russia, Apple Maps would show Crimea as a part of Russia. In a move that was widely criticized, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
On Apple Maps, Crimea is clearly marked as Ukrainian territory outside of Russia.
Currently, on Google Maps, there is a black dashed line between Ukraine and Crimea, as well as between Ukraine and Russia, whether the map is viewed from Ukraine, Russia or another country.
Al Jazeera contacted Apple to inquire about changing the names of Mount Denali and the Gulf of Mexico, but they were not contacted.
Are maps objective?
Not really.
“Many people want to treat maps like objective documents, but maps are a product of the culture and values of the people that produce them”, Quinn, the geography professor, said.
He explained that names of places have always been “fluid, contested, and political”.
In the end, “people who use the names will be the ones who decide what they are,” he said, noting that names of geographical locations that aren’t always reflected on maps produced by institutions.
Source: Aljazeera
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