Where is the West? This unit explores the role that mapmakers have played in imagining the West. Maps do more than simply reflect a land’s geography. From the earliest days of European settlement and exploration, maps have been used to name lands and people and to establish borders. In most cases, maps say as much about the mapmaker as they do about the land itself. This unit encourages students to read maps as artifacts of historical worldviews. Students develop critical tools for understanding how cartographers have imagined space.