Mapping

Mapping is a sub-culture which was coined in 2008 based on the ideas of MervueMeringue and some succeeding mapping influencers. Mapping can constitute: representing countries as personalities and eventually developing storylines off of such personalities, and war stimulations - animations based on troop movements and occupied land in wars.

Etymology
The term "Mapping", used as a substituting word for alternate future, is based off of the fanbase of alternative future, alternate history, history, etc. In a certain context, it refers to any mapping video with characterization or personification of countries and their interactions starting with MervueMeringue. It comprised of maps of Europe, which lead to a person, called TheJarJar99, to create the term Mapping. It was later popularized and made official by 99batran whom coined the term for the fanbase called "Mappers". The term had later been officially used by MervueMeringue.

Fanbase
In 2010, Matthew Nicolson, or known as MervueMeringue, created a video showing an alternate future of events fictionally predicted by himself, and making it realistic. Real-world countries were shown in the video, and personification took place in them. The "countries" would fight with each other, creating tensions in the fictional world of Nicolson's mind. Two years later, a person on YouTube called TheJarJar99 made the second video of Mapping, clarifying the term in more detail. The "countries" turned certain colors depending on their actions. For example, they turned any color if they were at "war" with each other, or white when they were speaking. This gathered attention for Mapping, but didn't inspire others to do it. Later that year, however, a person named Brandon, or known as 99batran, was inspired by Nicolson and started to make Mapping videos. 99batran revolutionized Mapping, and made it more popular and widespread than TheJarJar99 or MervueMeringue. More people gained attention to the videos, such as EthanConquistador and HistoryMapper, whom then decided to make Mapping videos of their own. In October 2012, 99batran used the hosting service site Wikia to create TheFutureofEuropes Wiki, an encyclopedia for Mapping and the fanbase of it. This gained attention of TheJarJar99 and EthanConquistador, but not much other early Mappers. The fanbase grew wider and bigger as more people started to be inspired by older Mappers, eventually starting a new breakout of Mapping. In the years 2013 and 2014, a huge number of people started to do Mapping. In middle 2015, though, the fanbase grew to 700 people Mapping. In Mid 2016, it grew to an estimated 1100+. In late 2016 Mapping grew quickly with Romanian Mapping reaching 20,000 subscribers and becoming the most subscribed mapper. the majority of the fanbase resides on the TFOE wiki or Discord, G+, or reddit.

Other Websites
Various other websites have been doing mapping before the TFOE community, however, they do not do animated mapping most of the time, just one moment in time. These include websites like alternatehistory.com, althistoria.proboards.com, and althistory.wikia.com. Most of these are more focused on the timeline behind the map than the actual map. However, Mapperdonia's kind and definition of mapping differs. in 2016 mappers began to migrate to G+ and in 2018 there has been a slight influx of mappers to reddit due to the creation of royal mapping's sub Reddit for mapping. Mapping