Map collection
Map 1 and 2 - There is many to enter cartographically a country or a territory. Often, to better understand what’s going on « in », it is worth starting to get the picture of what is looking like the country or territory from outside. Putting the « area of interest in its political or economical context is helping understanding better what is happening inside (situation and processes). This particular context (origin of goods import) place Melilla within the globalisation system rather than as a territory fully dependent of the state it belongs, in spite of the fact that figures shows that more than 80 % are indeed coming from Spain. This is a way to show that if goods are unloaded directly in Melilla, it is certainly not to be sent on the metropolitan spain, but rather to « continue » their journey toward Morocco and possibly the rest of North Africa.
Map 3 - Geographers always hesitate between considering an area or a place as a « center », or a key point, an unavoidable central and powerful place around which is structured the rest of the space. If there are some area that could be called centrality, there is necessarily places that plays the rôle of « periphery » linked to these central place. But the qualification of a territory is often a question of perspective : Melilla is obviously at the « periphery » of Europe as some similar other « external territory », and it can be shown like this (and because it is at the margin, it benefit of a special status - more profitable compare to the other european region (tax, residence permit, circulation).
Philippe Rekacewicz