2015 Volume 67 Issue 6 Pages 480-502
Tracing the development of modern mapping in East Asia requires reviewing Western imperial maps and cartographic surveys, which were initiated on the coasts and gradually advanced inland. This paper categorizes the surveys carried out into four types and examines them chronologically.
Surveys by diplomatic missions such as the Macartney Embassy to China were the first type to be conducted. In the aftermath of the Opium War, a number of armed conflicts arose concerning trade between Western countries and East Asian countries, giving rise to the second type of survey: wartime surveys. Western countries subsequently opened legations and consulates in East Asia; surveys spearheaded by diplomatic officials stationed at these outposts comprise the third type. The fourth type of survey to emerge was cadastral and topographical surveys undertaken in colonies.
It is remarkable that in East Asia, native inhabitants were mobilized to survey colonies and imperial maps were translated for their use. These attitudes about mapmaking would seem to undermine the notion that imperial cartography implies the exclusion of people from the mapped county from both making and using maps. To facilitate a consistent understanding, the paper suggests that the long tradition of cartography in this area must be taken into account.
