Overview What would our lives look like if there were no maps? Answering this question leads us to the benefits of maps or Cartography. Section 1.1 uses examples to illustrate that maps are an interface between the environment and people. They help people process geospatial information (e.g., for localizing a building) and even more advanced geo-spatial relationships (e.g., for determining the adjacency between buildings and green areas) correctly and quickly. These tasks lead to the definitions for Cartography and maps (Sect. 1.2). The basic principles contained in these definitions (communication, modeling, and encoding) are deepened in Sect. 1.3. Furthermore, it is shown that Cartography is characterized by numerous overlaps with other disciplines—but also by some unique features (Sect. 1.4).