When you load up a new map, everything is blank...lets get something to start with
Initially, QGIS only has a single basemap to work with, let's add it!
In your browser pane, find XYZ Tiles and click the down arrow to find the Open Street Map basemap. Click and drag it into your layers box, and it will appear on the map.
There are lots of different options for loading basemaps, but first you have to connect them to your project from their hosted locations online (or self host). Here's a fast way to get a bunch of standard basemaps though, thanks to Klas Karlsson (one of the main qgis devs)!
1) Download the python script below and open it in a text editor (e.g. notepad).
2) Open up the Python console in QGIS by going to Plugins-->Python Console
3) Copy the python script into the editor and press enter.
4) Enjoy all your basemaps! Thanks Karl!
What if you want to load your own georeferenced map, like one from MapWarper? Easy enough!
1) Right-click on XYZ and select "New Connection"
2) Look back at your mapwarper project page and choose the Tiles URL (the same one you use with ArcGIS online or Knightlab Storymaps
3) Name your connection and you should be good to go!
Finally, what about importing a local raster file, whether its a georeferenced historical map, a Digital Elevation Model, or some other raster. Even easier!
1) Make sure you know where the file is hosted on your computer, or download the file from the internet (Like with the rectified GeoTiff from Mapwarper)
2) In the main toolbar, go to Layer --->Add Layer-->Add Raster Layer
3) In the Source section, click the "..." and navigate to your saved georeferenced raster as your raster dataset, open it up, and click "Add" to add it to your map.
It may look the same, but this map is locally hosted!
That's it for the basics of adding rasters and basemaps to QGIS!
