From Denali and the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Ontario, President Donald Trump has made changing geographic place names a hallmark of his second term. Most recently, he suggested renaming New Mexico “New America,” after calling for the Strait of Hormuz to be renamed after himself.
Christine Leuenberger, senior lecturer in science and technology studies, and Raymond Craib, professor of history, are Cornell University experts on the politics of maps and geographic names, or toponyms.
Leuenberger says: “Maps and cartographic names have political power. While we think of maps as objective unbiased representations of the world out there, they are always selective. What is included and what is excluded from maps is inevitably political.
“Historically, naming territories and bodies of water has been used by governments to advance nationalist goals and indicate territorial claims and aspirations.
“President Trump’s proposal to rename various bodies of water, ranging from the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario to the Strait of Hormuz, is in line with his ‘America First’ agenda and expansionist territorial aspirations.
“Such unilateral proclamations that rename or threaten to rename shared cross-border natural resources diminishes U.S. standing in the international community and impedes transnational cooperation over managing vital natural resources.”
Craib says: “Naming is always, at some level, a political and cultural act. Like novels, art, and music, toponyms and maps perform hard cultural work of representing pasts, elevating cultures, and constructing collective identities.
“They can just as frequently serve as the low-hanging fruit for insecure rulers to pick in their desperation to boost their egos and distract from their failures. Unable to impose their will, they instead impose [a toponym of their choosing.].
“As is often the case when it comes to maps, the renaming substitutes an expression of fantasy for a representation of accepted geographic reality.”
More News from A&S
Trump's triumphal arch revives a symbol of empire rule, says Cornell expert
Classics
