Good point. If south-up were the default, we would probably be manufacturing globes without any mounting system, and just leave them lying around with the Eurasian landmass facing down due to gravity.

It's true, that's how Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.

Also if the map is flat on a table, more stuff is closer to you.

No no no.

We should put Asia at the top, Europe bottom left, Africa bottom right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_and_O_map

Only if gravity was on the down side

-Dwight Schrute

You forgot to tilt it and to push the Greenwich meridian out of the center.

It hurts my head to even try to visualize this

That's one that not even XKCD made yet. I guess everybody will agree about it, but the people in tropical countries will agree louder.

> more of the land is closer to you and therefore easier to read.

As most people age, that gets less true. The optimum placement ends up being around an arms length away, so being away from the edge could help.

But if you're showing the whole world, typically the details aren't that important, so it's mostly arbitrary.

> I do wonder if early world explorers had been from the southern hemisphere and a tradition of "south up" was already established, if it would still look better to us to have more land on top.

No, the preference is conventional.

I should note, though, that Chinese maps were traditionally south-up. There's no reason to expect what hemisphere people are from to control that decision.

(Not only did the Chinese come from the northern hemisphere - they had an official orthodoxy holding that the north of China, where they originated, was morally superior to the south!

Nevertheless, they drew their maps with south at the top and referred to compasses as "south-pointing needles".)

I think the convention was born by magnetic north. I suppose it might also point to non magnetic south. Maybe a combination of the explorers and compass convention.

I suppose we can ask Australians and the kiwis.

Let's say you have a globe. It's easier to look at the top half than the bottom half.

People read things top to bottom. If you have half a page worth of content will you put it at the top and leave the bottom half of the page empty or the opposite? If you are writing a TL;DR will you put it at the top or bottom of the page?