A London-based graphic designer has created a series of maps depicting Europe according to the national stereotypes in the minds of various peoples. Yanko Tsvetkov, a Bulgarian living in Great Britain, created the first one in 2009 in the midst of the energy dispute between Russia and the Ukraine. Russia was labelled “Paranoid Oil Empire”, the Ukraine “Gas Stealers”, and the E.U. as “Union of Subsidized Farmers”. Switzerland was simply “Bank”.
“I created the first one in 2009 because at that time there was an energy crisis in Europe,” Mr. Tsvetkov said. “I just created it to amuse my friends but when I put it up on my website so many people liked it that I decided to really focus on the project of mapping the stereotypes based on different places in Europe. I was surprised by the reaction because I never really expected it to take off like this.”
Europe according to the French.
Europe according to the Germans.
Europe according to the Italians.
Europe according to the British.
Europe according to the Americans.
Hahah…these are awesome.
Could you provide link to larger size of these map? It’s hard to read the smaller text
I simply love these maps. Soooooo accurate and amusing.
Yea,bigger maps required…
Click the link at the beginning of the article.
Great maps! Click to expand possible? Makes European History plausible! Do more!
Funny….
….and close to the truth too.
This was probably made by a British person, Americans would never refer to Britain as ‘Mummy’, we’d label it as ‘Minion’ probably XP.
@Noah – The text before the images explains who and why; saves having to assume.
Noah
Not minion, we would say “Pudle”
Wolf Pack
Briliant. when are you doing the America´s?
Thanks for the feature!
Absolutely hilarious! :D
Great maps!unbelievable
These are incredibly funny! He’s managed to put his finger on the different perspectives and stereotypes so cleverly.
excellent!
This is pretty epic, especially the American one
Wow, that’s priceless.
Great job! As an American, I love the accuracy with America’s map. Well done.
:))…great ideea!
It’s really funny. It would be great to see a map from russian’s point of view, and I could help a bit with it :)
How do the Swedish see the European map?
ha ha – stolen from: ‘the spiting image book’
great work. I agree it would be great if map was bigger and changle Britian to “bad teeth”.
We have no comment because our glorious Republiek van Limburg is not even listed on any of these maps!
Harrumph!
Dave
Rumunj
One map was missing – Europe according to Estonians. A bit more humorous, but also accurate :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgqXGu_gTQ
For some reason, I’m imagining the Ethiopian prime minster waving the “How Italy sees Europe” map in front of the UN and claiming Naples.
Positively hilarious, but are there bigger versions?
Too close to the bone, people. Too close. On most of those maps that=which-used-to-be-Yugoslavia is counted as “uncharted”. NONE of the people “credited” with those maps know anything about the region at all, not even enough to make a joke about it – and yet they all united to destroy it. The joke in the American map is that it was retro-fitted to rationalise to themselves the reasons behind their having led the destruction. This HURTS, people. I didn’t think it was possible for it still to hurt but it hurts.
It’s only funny when you haven’t lost it all.
Ahahah! Sad but true!
An italian
Very good, although you’re giving us too much credit thinking that Americans will associate Brazil with Portugal. If anything most would probably think its colonial history originates in Spain.
It would be great if you did one for Russia. The UK could be ‘Berezhovsky Hiding Here Somewhere’ and Bulgaria could be ’16th Soviet Republic’.
I would refer to the Balkans as more of a war zone in the eyes of Europeans than as uncharted. There are a lot of European military, EU, OSCE, NGO etc personnel still there.
Simply amazing!
Europe according to Turkey
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35480912@N07/5058625212/
hey! And where are “Europe according to the Spaniards”.
It’d be the funniest one, believe me.
Hello world, we exist.
And, of curse… We aren’t mexicans! ;P
Cool maps!!!
I’m surprised Romania is actually marked on most of the maps, unlike most of the Balkans…
This is fantastic… Perfect for describing to my mates why we are NOT part of Europe lol… Made me laugh :)
I love being uncharted =)
The American map is great… but shouldn’t much of France be a nude beach?
I like how Danes are vikings in all of the maps.
i am surprised, that according to US, the whole Europe is not marked as – Not America
Nice work-very detailed about Europe. Would be nice to see detailed maps of Asian attitudes- like how the Koreans view Japan or Taiwanese view China…or Indians view Pakistan or Australia/Britain/Americans…
Very entertaining. Hope there’s more to look forward to in future
OMG…These is too funny …Thank you…You made my day and night…hahaha…
Couldnt they think of anything better for the netherlands?