What is Happening Inside the Republic of Gilead? (A Map Analysis)

hello everyone I'm Matt Michos the ultra historian today's map analysis we take another look at a map based on the infamous dystopia The Handmaid's Tale for those who don't know The Handmaid's Tale is in 1985 dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood and is set in the near future America we're plummeting birth rates among white Americans has led to the federal government being overthrown by an extreme Christian sect known as the sons of Jacob who transformed America into authoritarian theocracy called the Republic of Gilead back in April 2018 I reviewed this map of Gilead created by ultra calm user metabee based on the novel rather than the Hulu adaptation many B took many creative liberties with the original story but stayed relatively faithful to Atwoods original nightmare world and for the longest time it was the best made map of Gilead you could find on the Internet that is until the finale of season 2 of whose adaptation of The Handmaid's two reviewers got to see this map of Gilead now at the time the map premiere the audience was viewing it upside down and even with the position right-side up it was still hard to read luckily some twitter users shared this version of the map which was displayed at the Wil Shire elbow Theatre in LA where the Handmaid's Tale season 2 finale was being screened as you can see not only is it a lot easy to read but it includes a lot more details including roads and Gilead military bases plus it looks great and is easy on the eyes which is good for me in all honesty reminds me a lot of what maps of the Syrian civil war would look like only in this case the so-called Islamic state one giving this version of Gilead a level of realism I appreciate although produced is spelled wrong seriously how did someone managed to design produce and pay for this prop and not notice this glaring typo typos aside what can we learn of Gilead based on our analysis of this map well let's begin with the blue districts also known as the new Gilead district the eastern district the Atlantic district at the Midwest district and the east central district which are located around New England the mid-atlantic and the Midwestern states I think would be safe to assume that these areas are considered pacified by Gilead authorities and are seen as loyal subjects of the Republic according to show creator Bruce Miller the Gilead movement was strong in Boston and thus we can assume the state's closest to the center of Gilead would most likely follow the lead of the new regime or else were the first to be brought to heel after the coup still I've seen many people question why a region of America known for being liberal would back such a conservative Christian movement well I have a number of theories for one thing in the hulu adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale all of humanity not just why people are suffering from the infertility crisis thus faced with the prospect of human extinction many centrist moderate independents could swing right if they thought it would save humanity alternatively we know so little of Gilead sounding from either the book or the TV show that we may have seen a demographic ship happened before the coup as refugees for what would become the colony sought a new home in the Midwestern and eastern states bolstering the already large conservative voter base in the world parts of these states which are often overshadowed by the political power of the large cities within their borders angry and desperate they backed whatever group problems to help them return home and the sons of jacob were happy to oblige we also can't forget that Hulu's Handmaid's Tale is based on a book that was published in 1985 and many of these states voted for more conservative presidential candidates at the time and to be frank given how the 2016 election turned out it's not like the midwest is a basin of liberalism that some people think it is in like 1980 force the theory and practice of oligarchical collectivism this map might not be telling the whole truth it's not a stretch to think that in universe this map was created by gilja so perhaps the blue districts aren't as pacify as people think they are maybe there are neighborhoods in Chicago or Gilead only goes enforced and the more rustic areas of the blue districts Gilly I Petros often disappear without a trace thus we should remember that just because gilja plates these places are nice pleasing blue doesn't mean there are areas where the guardians of the faithful are afraid to tread next there are the light red areas which are the northwest district the northern district the southern district the golf district in the southeast district these are centered around the south and northwest of America unfortunately I wasn't able to find too many details on them I saw one theory suggests they're controlled by a different faction of Gilead but personally I think these areas lack to self-governance that the blue districts probably have because are either more rebel activity and/or they are closer to active war zones thus necessitating military rule they may even be former counties transitioning to full autonomy within Gilead nevertheless I won't stick with them for too long because there are more interesting parts of Yale yet to get to like the counties or as the map calls them the eastern colonies district the western counties district and the southwest district which isn't actually called a car but has the same color scheme as the other county so I assume it's a County until told otherwise the counties whose locations have always been a source of speculation for fans of both the book and the television show a mostly centered along to Great Plains and the Southwest from what we know from both the book and the show life in the colonies is terrible it's full disease and Gilead agents usually don't go outside without wearing a mask to breathe for the unwomanly to clean up the land they don't even get that and if they get sick who cares there are more enemies of Gilead defeated to this pointless project to make the colonies habitable again and if you need more examples of how bad life is in the counties show creator Bruce Miller said the counties were based on the concentration camps of the Holocaust the gulags of Stalin's Russia and the prison later Canton China so if you know anything about those places you could probably assume that life for many people especially women is brutal in short exactly why the counties are like this is unclear they appeared to have been devastated by some sort of ecological disaster likely nuclear in nature but it could be any number of things like industrial pollution or chemical accidents still the nuclear theory is perhaps the best option especially when you look at the county's relationship with the green atomic wastelands on the map these are marked with nuke signs which could mean a nuclear weapon was used or there was some sort of Chernobyl like accident with a nuclear power plant I generally support the accident hypothesis since three of the wastelands correspond with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's map of commercial nuclear power plants the only exception being the wasteland in Southern California which appears to be smack dab and what was once Los Angeles exactly what happened here is unclear but my working theory is that a nuclear weapon was used in this area considering the level of rebel activity nearby it's possible that gilead or the US government resorted to using nuclear weapons since the characters in the show do tend to refer to the war and the past tense it's possible ceasefire was declared shortly after this happened to prevent the war from escalating and considering how much the world hates Gilead my money is that they were to once you're new to LA finally we get to the dark red areas which the map notes as being rebel occupied areas these areas are mostly centered around the Gulf Coast the west coasts along the Canadian border and including large parts of Michigan and a land around Vermont now here's the part where we need to look at the map from a Gilly eye perspective because these rebels may actually be seen as freedom fighters to gilja as enemies for example we know that Alaska and Hawaii are still part of the US with their capital Anchorage per show creator Bruce Miller and since that means the US would still control the headquarters a United States Pacific Fleet presumably they would then still have the loyalty of all the ships aircraft sailors and Marines that went with it that's a safe to assume that these rebels along the West Coast in a Canadian border are either American troops still in place wherever brought the civil war to a halt or rebel forces taking orders from the rump us to be honest that second option may be more likely since you can see black dots representing Gilead military bases in the region's so justin gilja some kind of presence in the rebel occupied areas farther east though and the influence of the rump us in the rebel occupied areas becomes less clear Michigan in Vermont are isolated from the west coast although with Canada nearby perhaps they still maintain communication with Anchorage through them but otherwise can't depend on direct support if things go wrong although in my personal head Canon Bernie Sanders leads an underground resistance movement in Vermont drowning Gilead soldiers in vats of maple syrup the rebel occupied areas in the south do have access to the sea but since we don't know the state of the Panama Canal they also may be isolated from Anchorage I don't remember the show mentioned what is going on in the south but the book did mention Baptists rebels fighting Gilead so who knows maybe there are Independent Baptist militias fighting in skill yet while ignoring orders from Anchorage there's still a lot missing from the map for example we have no idea what happened to Puerto Rico or America's possessions in the Pacific since they aren't listed anywhere in the map they probably aren't a part of Gilead but whether they are still low to Anchorage or went their own way is unclear also what happened to all the American troops stationed overseas the day returned home to take part in the Civil War we may never know nevertheless despite one glaring tybone this is actually a well done map and considering that maps for commercial speculative fiction rarely meet the standards of quality found among alternate cartographers it still managed to give us more information about the world while leaving enough questions for us to ponder over while we wait for season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale this map gets my seal of approval I hope to see more maps like it when The Handmaid's Tale returns well that is not the same subject if you like what I do please comment subscribe share this video support me on patreon I'm Matt Mitrich the ultra historian by [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Alternate Historian

Views: 593,492

Keywords: alternate history, map, maps, Gilead, The Handmaid's Tale, Hulu, Margaret Atwood, alternate cartography, Civil War

Id: cpGGXC7MZak

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018