Cartography is simultaneously “the art, science, and technology” of representing and manipulating physical spaces.[1] Its history was alongside technological and scientific advancement, granting cartography a perceived legitimacy. It can perform several ideological functions for a cartographer and its audience, such as codifying nationalism, building empire, and justifying colonial expansion. Cartography often relies on certain persuasive tools like symbolism, physical structuring, and nomenclature to construct its argument about a region or space. It can also represent mankind’s control over the physical and natural landscape.
Etymology
The origins of the word ‘cartography’ can be traced back to Greek term ‘chartēs’ and ‘graphein,’ meaning ‘map, write’ respectively.
The History of Cartography
Denis Cosgrove brings up the history of cartography in his work, “Cultural Cartography.” He states, “It has been observed that the word ‘cartography’ itself is a fairly recent neologism, coined in 1839 by Portugese scholar Viscount de Santarem.”[2] The Viscount’s work, Atlas do Visconde de Santarém, catalogued and reproduced up to 145 maps over the course of its three editions. [3] It was Viscount de Santarem, in his definition, who tied cartography to mathematical and scientific precision. Cartography was professionalized and became a means of “defining and defending national terriotory.”[4]
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Caption: Second Viscount of Santarem, 1850
Although the word itself had yet to be cited, the notions of cartography that the Viscount of Santarem cited appear much earlier than his initial work. David Woodward argued that “The change in the abstract conception of space – from the center-enhancing mappaemundi to the Ptolemaic isotropic structure of mapmaking – has often been called the quintessential modernity of Renaissance cartography.”[5] The transition that Woodward is referring to here is, in particular, the insertion of longitude and latitude lines as a means of uniting depictions of physical space. This, he believes, creates “control points” that was coupled with the “rediscovery of Ptolemy’s manual of mapmaking.”[6] Ptolemy’s manual, Geography, was fundamental to many mapmaking efforts during the Renaissance and early modern period.
(Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mappa_mundi#/media/File:Hereford-Karte.jpg)
Caption: Hereford Mappa Mundi, about 1300
Unlike chorographies, the terrestrial coordinate system described in the Ptolemaic works is applied onto larger regions of the world.[7] Furthermore, cartographies did not center on a specific place, such as Jerusalem or Rome. This system created a sort of uniformity in mapping, in “space, scale, and proportion.”[8]
(Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldseem%C3%BCller_map#/media/File:Waldseemuller_map_2.jpg)
Caption: Waldseemüller map, 1507
Despite the advancement of scientific methods, theorists and historians have argued that cartography remained ideologically grounded. As Edney states, “Cartography, like all real maps, is human-made and is the product of cultural and social forces.”[9] The human element is also a critical consideration here. Technological and scientific advancement, though increased the production and accessibility of maps, did not increase ‘accuracy.’
As Woodward acknowledges, while cartographies were not centered on a particular viewpoint, the mapmaker could manipulate “the field of view of the projection.”[10] He cites the example of Hondius’s two-hemisphere map, which “includ[ed] the Americas and Europe/Africa in the same hemisphere.”[11] The other instance of physical manipulation could be in the orientation of a map. In this sense, European nations would be placed in the northern hemisphere, an example of physical privileging.[12]
Aside from physical manipulation, cartographic images could be structured to privilege certain languages or time periods.[13] Each of these choices can make an argument within cartographies.
With this in mind, cartography had the potential to structure nationalism. As historian Wintle, in “The Roots of Nationalism,” coupled with notions of ‘accuracy,’ cartography was a tool of legitimacy. This is particularly important for defining borders and as Wintle writes, “unit[ing] a population with its natural surroundings.”[14] Schmidt reiterates this concept in “Mapping an Empire:” “By means of cartography, lands could be sketched, sovereignty staked, and ambitions articulated.”[15] This can be demonstrated by the methods of physical manipulation and more subtle spatial privileging Woodward describes.
Quote Library
Cartography’s Mathematical and Scientific Basis:
Cosgrove, Denis. "Cultural Cartography: Maps and Mapping in Cultural Geography / Les Cartes Et La Cartographie En Géographie Culturelle." Annales De Géographie 117, no. 660/661 (2008): 159-78.
“It has been observed that the word ‘cartography’ itself is a fairly recent neologism, coined in 1839 by Portugese scholar Viscount de Santarem. Its appeal over the more mundane ‘map-making’ is explained by the professionalization of map production in an era when European states were developing topographical map series for the purposes of defining and defending the national territory, and using statistical mapping as a bureaucratic, regulatory and planning device.” 169.
Cosgrove, Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining, and Representing the World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007.
“Map-making’s scientific claims to offer progressively accurate and objective, scaled representations of spatial relations have been challenged with recognition of the inescapable imaginative and artistic character of cartographic process and products that accompany framing, selection, composition and graphic representation of mapped information." 155.
“Cartography acts not merely to record the various ways that they city is materially present, but as a creative intervention in urban space, shaping both the physical city and the urban life experienced and performed there.” 170.
Ricker, Britta, Menno-Jan Kraak, and Yuri Engelhardt. "The Power of Visualization Choices: Different Images of Patterns in Space." In Data Visualization in Society, edited by Engebretsen Martin and Kennedy Helen, 407-24. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Accessed April 28, 2021. doi:10.2307/j.ctvzgb8c7.30.
“Cartography is defined as the art, science, and technology of making and using maps. It requires both qualitative and quantitative methodologies associated with data handling and information communication design.” 407.
Ideological Function of Cartography:
Edney, Matthew H. Cartography: The Ideal and Its History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.
“Cartography, like all real maps, is human-made and is the product of cultural and social forces. It is an image constructed in a somewhat incoherent manner by a web of idealization that are deeply rooted within modern West culture. It depicts what mapping should be, no what mapping is.” 228.
Schmidt, Benjamin. "Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America." The William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1997): 549-78. doi:10.2307/2953839.
“By means of cartography, lands could be sketched, sovereignty staked, and ambitions articulated.” 552.
Theories of Nationalism:
Wintle, Michael. "Emergent Nationalism in European Maps of the Eighteenth Century." In The Roots of Nationalism: National Identity Formation in Early Modern Europe, 1600-1815, edited by Jensen Lotte, 271-88. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016.
“Cartography has been particularly associated with the assertion of a state’s territorial ambitions vis-a-vis another’s, and with the claims of empire.” 271.
“Cartography can perform a ‘nationalization function’ by standardizing locations in the map, and in charting both physical and human geography at the same time the map can unite a population with its natural surroundings (such as German forests, or maritime England) to express the nation.” 272.
[1] Ricker, Britta, Menno-Jan Kraak, and Yuri Engelhardt. "The Power of Visualization Choices: Different Images of Patterns in Space." In Data Visualization in Society, edited by Engebretsen Martin and Kennedy Helen, 407-24. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Accessed April 28, 2021. doi:10.2307/j.ctvzgb8c7.30. Pg. 407.
[2] Cosgrove, Denis. "Cultural Cartography: Maps and Mapping in Cultural Geography / Les Cartes Et La Cartographie En Géographie Culturelle." Annales De Géographie 117, no. 660/661 (2008): 159-78. Pg. 169
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Woodward, David. “Cartography and the Renaissance: Continuity and Change,” Cartography in the European Renaissance. Pg. 12.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid. 13.
[9] Edney, Matthew H. Cartography: The Ideal and Its History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. Pg. 228.
[10] Woodward, David. “Cartography and the Renaissance: Continuity and Change,” Cartography in the European Renaissance. Pg. 14.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid. 17.
[14] Wintle, Michael. "Emergent Nationalism in European Maps of the Eighteenth Century." In The Roots of Nationalism: National Identity Formation in Early Modern Europe, 1600-1815, edited by Jensen Lotte, 271-88. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016. Pg. 272.
[15] Schmidt, Benjamin. "Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America." The William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1997): 549-78. doi:10.2307/2953839. Pg. 552.