In order to understand a map’s function in the world, we must ask: when was the map made, how, and why? Who created the map, and who was its intended audience?
Widely used to navigate and identify large parts of the world by displaying geographical concepts, maps often reveal hidden historical agendas. Maps were used to survey and lay claim to new lands. Historians can view maps as social constructions of the world through the eyes of Empires, countries, and individuals. A particular discourse is evident in every map, and by asking these questions, their concealed agendas become more evident:
Power and knowledge were integral in early modern map-making. In an era of early empire and discovery, a deliberate policy of censorship was enforced. Cartography often emulated the abstract ideas of the British Monarchy. In this sense, cartographers always upheld a political agenda. Many students followed their teacher’s mapmaking styles. Early modern maps therefore, often display common imperial ideas that persisted for many years.
The development of print also complicated matters. Printed maps sometimes feature revised details that were not approved by the author, or were informed by outside forces. Lewis Evans’ map of the middle British colonies in North America, for example, was subject to plagiarism and manipulation.
Cartographers were paramount to the construction of maps, and their structural training in cartography was often evident in their work. Cartobibliography – the history or description of printed maps, can reveal contemporary ideas about land and ownership, as well as changes to borders through expansion, and visions of ‘new lands’ in the age of empire.
Compare Lewis Evans’s map of the North American British Colonies, above, with Thomas Kitchin’s, below. Can you identify any similarities or differences in their style, or geographical features?