Map Shows America’s Original Post WW2 Plans

Jun 09 2008

Posted by: 阿偉 in History

Today’s entry presents an interesting map containing one version of the American post-war plan for the world.

According to information found by Google Search, the map was discovered by Helen Somers, a Philadeplhia native during World War II. It lists Maurice Gomberg as an author, but was supposedly completed in concept in October of 1941, three months before the entry of the United States into World War II, and presumably presents the American take on how the world should be re-ordered once the fighting had stopped. At least a few original copies are still in existence, including one in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

There is little information on Maurice Gomberg, or the map itself. According to the same google.com source, Gomberg is merely the publisher. However according to an examination of numerous documents of the period relating to the “new world order” indicate that the source must have been individuals related to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and/or the U.S. State Department.

Of particular note is the size of the United States, occupying all of North America, Greenland, the Carribean, and most of the Pacific. The Soviet Union occupies territory as far West as “Quarantined Germany,” and perhaps even more oddly, the nation of Iran. A large slice of land comprising what was then Palestine and Transjordan would be carved out of the Middle East to creat “Hebrewland” (a Jewish homeland). All of former British India is one nation indpendent from England, as is Ireland, but the Commonwealth still rules in Australia. In East Asia, the “United Republics of China” comprise all of China, including the outerlying provinces of Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, and includes Siam, Indochina and peninsular Malaya. Not included as part of China are Taiwan (occupied by America) and Manchuria (Manchukuo at the time; occupied by the USSR in the map) and Outer Mongolia (though claimed by the KMT at the time, it is shown as a dependency of the USSR in the map). Details further printed at the bottom of the map reveal that America planned to implement socialism in their own nation, as well as enact genocide on Germans, Italians, and Japanese while keeping them occupied “indefinitely” as punishment for the war. Other regions include various unions of Europeans, Asians, and Africans.

From a historical perspective, this map is not terribly different from the political world that the United States is trying to achieve. Yet, at the same time, the US consolidates its power through a “divide and conquer” strategy. It is interesting to compare this plan to the politics which the United States enacts today. Some have pointed out that the plan is almost “proto-neoconservative” and shows the failed American pipe dream of enforcing world democracy.

The map is available for download here: 1942world4000.jpg (1.24MB)

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