Ok, so in my flat there is a map hanging on my wall, which judging by Germany's borders (Polish corridor present but East Prussia still part of Germany) is inter-war. I'm thinking it was produced between 1923-1935 (ie between the Treaty of Lausanne and the Gran Chaco War). I was just wondering if anyone could date it more precisely than that? I'm aware the pictures (see bottom) are really bad quality, so I will describe some features here:
Europe
-Germany and Poland's borders reflect those post-Versailles
-Bessarabia part of Romania
-Karelia part of Finland
-Yugoslavia is one country
-The Baltic states are all independent
-All the SSRs that would later become independent of Russia are presented
-Turkey's borders are roughly its modern-day borders (ie post-Lausanne)
Asia/Pacific
-Saudi Arabia's borders are quite weird; South Yemen (but not North Yemen) is part of Saudi Arabia, as is much of Oman and the Southern UAE (although the UAE is known as 'Trucial Oman'). Aden is also marked as separate.
-The Wakhan corridor is absent
-Western Nepal seems to be part of British India
-There is an internal border between India and Burma
-Arunachal Pradesh is part of China
-China, Mongolia and Tannu Tuva are all in the same colour, although (internal?) borders are drawn between them.
-Tibet is split into two provinces, with the eastern province known as 'Sikang'
-Beijing is known as 'Peiping'
-Korea is known as 'Chosen and is marked in the same colour as Japan.
-Southern Sakhalin is Japanese
-The Philippines are still American and Indonesia is known as the 'Netherlands East Indies'
-Many of the Pacific islands have two names given, for instance Tonga is marked 'Tonga or Friendly Isles' and Hawaii is marked 'Hawaii or Sandwich Isles'
-The Pacific in general is a clusterfuck of mandates, among which there are Australian and Japanese mandates
-NZ is a dominion, as is Canada
Americas
-Newfoundland is not marked as a dominion
-The Dominican Republic is marked as 'Santo Domingo'
-The Maynas basin is part of Ecuador
-The Gran Chaco still belongs to Bolivia
Africa
-Egypt is independent
-Ghana is split into three. The North is known as the North Territory (I think that's what 'N. Ter.' means), the Centre is known as 'Ashanti', and the South 'Gold Coast'.
-The borders within French West Africa are a bit weird. The northern bit of Algeria is hived off from the rest of Algeria. SE Mauritania is part of Mali, which is called 'French Sudan'. NW Chad is part of Niger. Burkina Faso is part of the Ivory Coast. The CAR is known as 'Ubang-Shari'.
-All of Cameroon, as well as Northern Gabon, Western CAR and parts of Northern Congo-Brazzaville, are cross-hatched between France and the UK.
-There are internal borders between Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal and the Cape of Good Hope in the Union of South Africa.
Let me know if there's any other bit of information you might want...
Edit: As some people have requested (courtesy /u/brigantus, /u/yodatsracist and /u/keylian), I have now uploaded some images onto imgur. The close-ups are deliberately close-up as I have taken these on a very poor phone camera, and even then the resulting images may as well have been taken by a potato (I blame the cameraman as well as the camera though).
Southern Africa (I'll try and retake this picture later)
Close-up of the Levant (as /u/yodatsracist requested)
Edit number 2: According to the source website as found by /u/yodatsracist, the map is from 'around' 1920, but this is clearly bullshit.
If you'd like to show us a picture, you can upload it to imgur (you don't need an account), then add a link to your post like this:
[Here's a picture](http://imgur.com/abcdef)
(Replacing http://imgur.com/abcdef with the URL they give you after you've uploaded your image.)
Wait, all the SSRs are there? Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were all part of the "Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic" 1923-1936.
Also, does Turkey have that little bit that extends down along the Med coast that Syria still claims? That's Hatay, and Turkey only got that province in 1939. What are the internal boundaries of French Syria? Those changed a lot in this period, and could help establish when everything is--assuming the map is up-to-date.
But like /u/keyilan, I'm leaning towards a later date.
Also, I agree, see if you can load it to imgur (completely anonymous, no account required, and the site strips all the metadata that can identify where and when a picture was scanned/taken).
Peiping is so named from 1928 to 1949.
Xikang is a province under the Nationalists from 1939 to 1950.
Arunachal Pradesh is unfortunately not much help since it's still contested territory and China has publically claimed it as recently as 2006.
The Japanese left Sakhalin in 1949.
Your Burma description sounds like some time from 1937 to 1948.
New Zealand gets you to 1947.
Korea as Japanese controlled and called Joseon narrows the end-date down to 1945.
Tanu Tuva was only recognised by Mongolia and the USSR as independent, and in 1944 that stopped. So then I think you're at 1937 to 1944, at least based on Asia so far.
Is Indonesia the same colour as Japan? From 1942 to 1945 it was occupied, so that'll help narrow it down a little more. If Indonesia is the same colour, then I'd say youre between 1942 and 1944. If not, then 1937 to 1942. The Maynas Basin might settle that though, since I think Ecuador lost it officially in 1942. Then still on the topic of South America which I admit no expertise on, Grand Chaco was lost in 1938.
I think you're possibly at 1937 or 1938, but that brings up more questions. What does Shantung look like in China, just across from Korea? Is any of it under Japanese control?
(edit: I realised Burma is all I'm basing the start date on and that's rocky. So let's say I'm only offering thoughts on end dates.)
(edit2: wait no I'm not. Xikang. 1939).
There's also a lot of stuff that would be dependent on the cartographer's interpretation, so I'm just assuming they were more or less in agreement with the view of the Anglosphere at the time, and that they were up on current events.
Would you be able to put some photos of the map on here? Dying to see it. I'd love to see how the names in China are transliterated beyond Peiping.
Is Manchuria part of China or does it make any reference to Japanese occupation? That may determine whether the map is pre or post 1931.
In addition, does Arabia control the Hedjaz (the portion of Arabia bordering the Red Sea)?
"Newfoundland is not marked as a dominion"
They gave up Dominion status in 1933-1934.