French geography, cartography and colonialism: introduction

This paper provides an introduction to a special feature of the Journal of Historical Geography devoted to recent research, by French scholars, on the relations between French geography, colonialism and the mapping of colonial boundaries, with particular reference to Africa between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.     

Asia in the history of cartography

The History of Cartography, Volume Two, Book One: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1992. ISBN 0 226 31635 1. Pp xxiv, 579, 355 illus., 40 coloured plates. US$143.75 (cloth).

The History of Cartography, Volume Two, Book Two: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1995. ISBN 0226 31637 8. Pp xxviii, 1,040, 503 illus., 40 coloured plates. US$195.00 (cloth).     

Theory and the history of cartography

Abstract

Cartographic history has been dominated by an empiricism that treats the nature of maps as self‐evident and which denies the presence of any theory. In contrast, this paper argues that theories lie at the root of all empirical study whether or not they are acknowledged. The linear, progressive model of cartographic development, for example, is not a law deduced from historical evidence; if it were it would be easily and quickly dismissed. It derives instead from our cultural beliefs concerning the nature of maps, which is to say from our unexamined theories. Historians of cartography need to be critical of their assumptions and preconceptions. Theoretical discussions in the history of cartography must address not whether we should use theory at all but to which theories we should adhere. It is inadequate simply to knock theories down. We must establish a debate in which old understandings of maps, of their creation, and of their use are replaced by better (that is, more consistent and coherent) theories.