Maps without country borders

[s0meguy]

I was going through the cartographers choice maps and it occurred to me that in most maps, political entities/countries do not have borders. Is this because of artistic reasons or because countries/empires/other do not have clearly defined borders? How was it in the real ancient world?

[vorropohaiah]

in the case of my map it's purely by chance - i had the political borders layer hidden when i converted the map to jpg since most of my maps are designed for my conworld, things like climate, political borders, trae routes etc are very important, though they might not make it into the finished product

[hobbit604]

google "blank world map" lots over there

[LS-Jebus]

I think it is because most people here make maps for RPGs, fantasy novels, or experimental purposes. In such cases, typically the important details are visuals (so it looks nice) and the specific locations involved in the game/story. The maps are designed for the adventures of an individual or small group. The tavern they visit needs to be on the map, as does the mountain range so you can have an idea of where they are going, but the borders of the world's kingdoms are insignificant. So borders are either not well defined, or not depicted.

Whereas when developing a map for the sake of developing a world, more attention will be given to borders because they play an important part in conflicts on the larger timescale.