With the rapid and regular shifts in who controlled what in and after WW2 (and 1), how often did civilian map makers update and publish new maps? How did they decide whose government controlled what? “Well, Germany and Austria are one now. And now Germany and Czechoslovakia. Albania is Italian. More of China is Manchukuo. Oh wait, now Poland is German and Soviet. Now part of Finland is Soviet. Now France is German. Now Indochina is Japanese…”
How was the post war situation as well? How did civilian mapmakers figure out which roads, bridges, villages and cities were still around and which were obliterated? Did they have to rely on military sources from West and Soviets, or did they have their own surveyors?
Redrawing maps was nothing new as it was a regular occurrence as every year boundaries were changed and new countries were formed while empires were dissolved and new lands created.
The biggest changes weren’t even in Europe it was in the indo-pacific region and Africa where old colonial colonies were lost or declared independent. Great Britain, Holland, France, Germany and other European nations lost or gave up control of colonies shortly after WW2 in these regions. With new countries being born or old ones being renamed.
Civil wars and wars for independence were common in the indo-pacific after the war was over so the maps constantly changed sometimes on a monthly basis. The same can be said for many parts of Africa as boundaries were redrawn and new nations were created and some old nations fell.
I know all of that general information. I’m looking for the more nitty gritty stuff like how it was decided who owned what when it came time to map an area since it could shift rapidly and could give credence to a claim or a counter claim. Or how often map makers published new maps to the public of their various countries since the old maps were often out of date rapidly on a macro and micro level, everything from countries being created or absorbed in a few days to tracking down which Belorussian villages were destroyed.