The Imperial Map
Cartography and the Mastery of Empire
Critically reflecting on elements of mapping and imperialism from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, the essays discuss the nature of the imperial map through a series of case studies of empires, from the Qing dynasty of China, to the Portuguese empire in South America, to American imperial pretensions in the Pacific Ocean, among others. Collectively, the essays reveal that the relationship between mapping and imperialism, as well as the practice of political and economic domination of weak polities by stronger ones, is a rich and complex historical theme that continues to resonate in our modern day.
"The Imperial Map showcases some of the best recent historical scholarship on cartography and empire in a variety of settings, from Qing China to twentieth-century Europe. It demonstrates many of the insights of new approaches to the history of cartography in a series of compelling and informative studies which share a broadly contextual approach to map history. As a whole, the book provides ample evidence of the richness and diversity of the cartographic archive which empire so often sought, but failed, to master."—Felix Driver, Royal Holloway, University of London
“The Imperial Map provides a fascinating account of the relationship between mapping and the ways in which communities build and maintain empires. There is something here for all those interested in the political, social and imperial history of geography of past times.”—Times Higher Education
INTRODUCTION
JAMES R. AKERMAN
CHAPTER ONE
The Irony of Imperial Mapping
MATTHEW H. EDNEY
CHAPTER TWO
“Exalted and Glorified to the Ends of the Earth”: Imperial Maps and Christian Spaces in Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century Russian Siberia
VALERIE A. KIVELSON
CHAPTER THREE
Contending Cartographic Claims? The Qing Empire in Manchu, Chinese, and European Maps
LAURA HOSTETLER
CHAPTER FOUR
The Confines of the Colony: Boundaries, Ethnographic Landscapes, and Imperial Cartography in Iberoamerica
NEIL SAFIER
CHAPTER FIVE
Hydrographic Discipline among the Navigators: Charting an “Empire of Science and Commerce” in the Nineteenth-Century Pacific
D. GRAHAM BURNETT
CHAPTER SIX
MICHAEL HEFFERNAN
Notes
Contributors
Index
Geography: Cartography | Cultural and Historical Geography | Social and Political Geography
History: British History | Discoveries and Exploration | European History | General History
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