Discuss the statement that “maps are never value-free images”.

... Discuss the statement that "maps are never value-free images" Maps are never value-free images except in the narrowest sense that they are not n themselves either true or false. They are selective in their content and in their styles and signs of representation. Maps are a way of articulating the human world which is affected by particular sets of social relations. Political, social and religious powers have used maps to depict the extent and strength of their power. "Mapmaking was one of the specialised intellectual weapons by which power could be gained, given legitimacy, administered and codified". Maps have been weapons of imperialism as much as guns, maps were used in colonial promotion and lands were claimed on paper even before they were occupied. Therefore maps anticipated empire, they were used to legitimise the reality of conquest and empire and helped essentially to create myths. Maps were also used throughout history by

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