Catherine Tatiana Dunlop
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226173023
- eISBN:
- 9780226173160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226173160.003.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
This chapter begins the book’s exploration of Alsace-Lorraine’s cartographic archive with a discussion of scientific survey maps. Scientific mapmaking constituted an important first step in the ...
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This chapter begins the book’s exploration of Alsace-Lorraine’s cartographic archive with a discussion of scientific survey maps. Scientific mapmaking constituted an important first step in the visualization of modern European boundaries. In order to draw and demarcate their territorial borders, European states created new mapping institutions that trained professional corps of surveyors in the use of scientific instruments and triangulation techniques. Modern French and German governments both desired maps of Alsace-Lorraine that were mathematically precise, ordered, and void of any references to local cultural particularities. As a result, French and German surveyors—though they worked for rival states—produced nearly identical maps of Alsace-Lorraine and collaborated closely on joint border commissions. The French and German states’ gridded, homogenous maps of their disputed border territory were so similar, in fact, that they became objects of frequent transnational exchange, particularly in times of war.Less
This chapter begins the book’s exploration of Alsace-Lorraine’s cartographic archive with a discussion of scientific survey maps. Scientific mapmaking constituted an important first step in the visualization of modern European boundaries. In order to draw and demarcate their territorial borders, European states created new mapping institutions that trained professional corps of surveyors in the use of scientific instruments and triangulation techniques. Modern French and German governments both desired maps of Alsace-Lorraine that were mathematically precise, ordered, and void of any references to local cultural particularities. As a result, French and German surveyors—though they worked for rival states—produced nearly identical maps of Alsace-Lorraine and collaborated closely on joint border commissions. The French and German states’ gridded, homogenous maps of their disputed border territory were so similar, in fact, that they became objects of frequent transnational exchange, particularly in times of war.
