Since we’re aimlessly floating in space with no real orientation, who first decided that the North Pole is “up” and the South Pole is “down” and not vice versa?

Question

Since we’re aimlessly floating in space with no real orientation, who first decided that the North Pole is “up” and the South Pole is “down” and not vice versa?

In:

Answer 1

Europeans.

Europe is the source of the maps we are most familiar with today, because European mapmaking was carried along with European ships when they went colonizing. European mapmakers have known for thousands of years that the Earth was roughly spherical, and that they were closer to one side of it than the other, and they naturally drew themselves in the center of the map. They also knew a lot more about what was South than what was in the extreme North, so Europe just sort of ended up top-center on the globe as far as they were concerned.

Several dozen centuries later and the great age of exploration has kicked off in Europe, at which point the British, in a massive excess of national pride, decided they were Longitude 0, dead center of the whole goddamn hemisphere, and then shot anyone who disagreed.

So here we are.