The cartographic production of territorial space: Mapping and state formation in early modern Denmark

Geopolitics

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 335-358

  Strandsbjerg, Jeppe ^a  

^a Department of International Economics and Management   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CARTOGRAPHY; GEOPOLITICS; GLOBALIZATION; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; MAPPING; POLITICAL HISTORY; SOVEREIGNTY; TERRITORIALITY;

DENMARK; EURASIA; EUROPE; NORTHERN EUROPE; SCANDINAVIA;

EID: 46749123504     PISSN: 14650045     EISSN: 15573028     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14650040801991639     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. Morgan 'the goat' explains the importance of maps to Betty in the film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain.
2. Quoted and translated from the famous French cartographer Nicolas de Nicolay, who was commissioned by Catherine de Medici to map France, by C. Serchuk, 'Picturing France in the Fifteenth Century: The Map in BNF MS Fr. 4991', Imago Mundi 58/2 (2006) p. 146.
3. The pre-fix 'modern' is contentious. Regarding territory it refers to what I consider a conventional understanding of territory as being centralised, clearly demarcated, and homogenous. Regarding cartography, I have abandoned the term and instead I use 'scientific' and 'geometric' interchangeably to describe what is commonly called modern cartography.
4. M. Biggs, 'Putting the State on the Map: Cartography, Territory, and European State Formation', Comparative Studies in Society and History 41/2 (1999)
5. M. Escolar, 'Exploration, Cartography and the Modernization of State Power', in N. Brenner et al. (eds.), State/Space: A Reader (Oxford: Blackwell 2003)
6. and M. Neocleous, 'Off the Map: On Violence and Cartography', European Journal of Social Theory 6/4 (2003).
7. Studying the 'power of maps', and their influence on the political organisation of the world, there is a strong immanent incentive to change the focus and move beyond Europe. Especially, colonial mapping practices and the top-down production of colonial spaces are obvious areas. See for example R. B. Craib, 'Cartography and Power in the Conquest and Creation of New Spain', Latin American Review 35/1 (2000)
8. and M. H. Edney, Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India, 1765-1843 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1997). Several scholars have scrutinised the power relations involved in mapping which draw the attention to non-European experiences of mapping (and also of state formation).
9. The History of Cartography project inaugurated by Brian Harley and David Woodward is a good place to start: J. B. Harley and D. Woodward, The History of Cartography. Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1987).
10. See also L. Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (2001 Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
11. T. Winichakul, 'Maps and the Formation of the Geo-Body of Siam', in S. Tønnesson and H. Antlöv (eds.), Asian Forms of the Nation (Surrey: Curzon Press 1996).
12. T. Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997) p. 310.
13. D. Buisseret, Monarchs, Ministers and Maps: The Emergence of Cartography as a Tool of Government in Early Modern Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1992).
14. N. Brenner, 'Beyond State-Centrism? Space, Territoriality, and Geographical Scale in Globalization Studies', Theory and Society 28 (1999) p. 41.
15. Although, there are noticeable exceptions at the margins of the discipline of International Relations, such as Brenner et al. (note 4).
16. G. Lawson, 'The Promise of Historical Sociology in International Relations', International Studies Review 8/3 (2006).
17. J. G. Ruggie, 'Territoriality and Beyond - Problematizing Modernity in International-Relations', International Organization 47/1 (Winter 1993) p. 159, italics in original.
18. Ibid., pp. 149-150.
19. Importantly, he stressed the changing character of territorial space, and in continuation he suggested a possible development towards 'unbundling territoriality' and the EC - at the time of writing - as 'multiperspectival polity' representing non-territorial modes of rule. Sovereignty may be disputed within the EU but it would be hard to claim that it is not based on territorial exclusivity as it is the spatial boundaries that decide the differentiation of member states as well as the extent of the EU in general.
20. M. Mann, The Sources of Social Power - Volume I & II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1986 & 1993)
21. C. Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D. 990-1990 (Oxford: Blackwell 1992)
22. and Ertman (note 6).
23. A. Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence (London: Polity 1985) pp. 49-53.
24. J. Bartelson, A Genealogy of Sovereignty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995) p. 40.
25. S. Elden, 'Missing the Point: Globalization, Deterritorialization and the Space of the World', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30/1 (March 2005) p. 10.
26. Biggs (note 4) pp. 387-388.
27. Ibid., p. 399.
28. P. Sahlins, Boundaries: The making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley: University of California Press 1989) p. 28.
29. Bartelson (note 16) p. 31
30. H. Lefebvre, 'Space and the State', in Brenner et al. (eds.), State/ Space: A Reader (Oxford: Blackwell 2003) p. 85.
31. 3. Ibid, pp. 84-5
32. H. Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford, Basil Blackwell 1991) pp. 229-285.
33. Lefebvre, The Production of Space (note 23) p. 73.
34. Lefebvre, 'Space and the State' (note 22) p. 85.
35. Lefebvre famously opens The Production of Space by stating that "not so many years ago, the word 'space' had a strictly geometrical meaning: The idea it evoked was simply that of an empty area. In scholarly use, it was generally accompanied by some such epithet as 'Euclidian', 'isotropic', or 'infinite', and the general feeling was that the concept of space was ultimately a mathematical one." Lefebvre, The Production of Space (note 23) p. 1.
36. For another prominent writer, see M. d. Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press 1988).
37. In the words of Gaston Bachelard: "In [the] dynamic rivalry between house and universe, we are far removed from any reference to simple geometrical forms. A house that has been experienced is not an inert box. Inhabited space transcends geometrical space." G. Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press 1994) p. 47.
38. M. Dear, 'Postmodern Bloodlines', in G. Benko and U. Strohmayer (eds.), Space and Social Theory: Interpreting Modernity and Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell 1997) p. 51.
39. B. Teschke, The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations (London: Verso 2003) p. 540.
40. Latour introduces the distinction between humans and nonhumans as a replacement of the subject-object dichotomy. It plays a central role in his argument that nothing is either human or nonhuman but rather all things involve an assemblage of both. See B. Latour, Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1999) pp. 174-215 for a more detailed elaboration.
41. B. Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society (Milton Keynes: Open University Press 1987) p. 228.
42. Ibid., p. 229.
43. Ibid., p. 229.
44. I am grateful to Stuart Elden for, on a number of occasions, emphasising this point. See S. Y. Edgerton, The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective (New York: Basic Books Inc. Publishers 1975)
45. and E. Edson, Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World (London: British Library 1997).
46. D. Harvey, 'Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination', in S. Daniels and R. Lee (eds.), Exploring Human Geography: A Reader (London: Arnold 1996) p. 443.
47. As an example, the classic historical cartographer R. A. Skelton defined the map as "a graphic document in which location, extent and direction can be more precisely defined than by the written word; and its construction is a mathematical process strictly controlled by measurement and calculation". R. A. Skelton, Decorative Printed Maps of the 15th to 18th Centuries (London: Spring Books 1965) p. 1.
48. D. Wood, The Power of Maps (New York: The Guilford Press 1992)
49. J. B. Harley and P. Laxton, The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press 2001)
50. and Harley and Woodward (note 5).
51. J. B. Harley, 'Maps, Knowledge, and Power', in D. E. Cosgrove and S. Daniels, The Iconography of Landscape (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1988) pp. 278-280.
52. Latour, Science in Action (note 31) p. 224.
53. Ibid., p. 224.
54. See for example Lestringant who labels the Treaty of Tordesillas the first cosmographical event of the Renaissance in F. Lestringant, Mapping the Renaissance World: The Geographical Imagination in the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Polity in association with Blackwell 1994) p. 3.
55. See J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance 1450-1650 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2000)
56. and J. Brotton, Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (London: Reaktion 1997) for discussions of the treaties.
57. Escolar (note 4) p. 49.
58. It is important to note that I am not focusing on the Danish state in its entirety, which after 1660 was composed of Denmark, the Duchies Sleswig and Holstein, Norway, plus the Atlantic possessions Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The history of cartography in Denmark has been fairly national in its outlook in the sense that it has focused on the area that is currently Denmark and, thus, neglected the mapping of territories which are no longer part of the Danish state, such as Norway. There is one recent exception to this: U. Ehrensvärd, The History of the Nordic Map: From Myth to Reality (Helsinki: John Nurminen Foundation 2006), but more needs to be done in this area.
59. Ibid., p. 103.
60. Quoted by J. Revel, 'Knowledge of the Territory', Science in Context 4 (1991) p. 148.
61. W. Kula, Measures and Men (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1986) pp. 29-42.
62. Such as 'fod' (length of a foot) and 'alen' (the length of the lower arm); these measures varied greatly in size across the regions. As any means of calculating a standard for these were lacking, initiatives for standardisation came via the church, which in some cases would display templates for an 'alen' against which the local population could compare their own measuring tools and thus achieve a common measure within the area. Later on, standards for the 'alen', as an example, were to be found in any city hall - ordered by royal decree in 1521; K. Petersen, Mål og Vægt i Danmark (Lyngby: Polyteknisk Forlag 2002) pp. 23-31.
63. Revel (note 47) p. 134.
64. E. Ulsig and A. K. Sørensen, 'Studier i Kong Valdemars Jordebog - Plovtalsliste og Møntskat', Historisk Tidsskrift 81 (1981).
65. See O. Fenger, 'Kongelev og krongods', Historisk Tidsskrift 100/2 (2000).
66. E. Ladewig Petersen, Dansk Socialhistorie 3. Fra Standssamfund til Rangssamfund 1500-1700 (København: Gyldendal) pp. 24-5
67. It is important to note that 'time' did not lose significance for the calculation of space; most obvious is the case of longitudinal distance which is measured in terms of time difference. However, time was separated from space in the sense that it disappeared from the representation and immediate metronomic, and thus the fabrication, of space per se.
68. Originally the meter stood for 1/10,000,000 part of the meridian quarter from the North Pole to Equator through Dunkerque and Barcelona lying on the same meridian; Petersen, Mål og Vægt (note 49) p. 170.
69. D. Turnbull, Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers: Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge (Harwood Academic 2000).
70. The printing press, of course, had a major role to play for the ability to produce enough maps to supply a specialised market; see E. L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979), especially pp. 109-113 and 514-519.
71. Skelton (note 37) pp. 5-6.
72. A prominent example is Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which is generally considered to be the first European atlas. Ortelius was very well connected to a network of the best map producers in Europe. Due to the way in which Ortelius had compiled his work, his office effectively worked as a hub for a large network of map-engravers in Europe. From the beginning, it was this network which made possible the publication of the first atlas, and each subsequent edition presented maps of new areas and updated maps of areas already covered. Cartographers were very eager to send Ortelius their latest maps and gave advice on how to make improvements. In return Ortelius made careful dedications to the origins of all the maps he printed; L. A. Brown, The Story of Maps (Boston: Little, Brown and Company 1949) pp. 161-2.
73. Who is often branded 'the first Nordic scientific cartographer'; see M. Pihl (ed.), Det Matematisk-Naturvidenskabelige Fakultet - 1.del (Køobenhavn: G-E-C Gads Forlag 1983) p. 72
74. and A. A. Bjøornbo, Cartographia Groenlandia (Køobenhavn: C. A. Reitzel 1912) pp. 89-90.
75. N. E. Nørlund, Danmarks Kortlægning (Køobenhavn: Geodætisk Institut 1943) pp. 13-15.
76. Bjøornbo (note 60) pp. 90-102.
77. Buisseret (note 7).
78. From B. Bramsen, Gamle Danmarkskort (Køobenhavn: Rosenkilde og Bagger 1975) p. 52, my translation.
79. H. Gustafsson, 'The Conglomerate State: A Perspective on State Formation in Early Modern Europe', Scandinavian Journal of History 23/3-4 (1998)
80. and H. Gustafsson, Gamla riken, nya Stater (Stockholm: Atlantis 2000).
81. K. J. V. Jespersen, A History of Denmark (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2004) p. 33.
82. Ibid., p. 34.
83. Neocleous (note 4) p. 410
84. Bartelson (note 16) p. 98.
85. C. Due-Nielsen et al., Dansk Udenrigspolitiks Historie, vol. 1 (Copenhagen: Nationalleksikon 2001) pp. 273-77.
86. J. H. Elliott, Europe Divided, 1559-1598 (Oxford: Blackwell 2000) p. 49.
87. Neocleous (note 4) p. 422.
88. Ehrensvärd (note 45) p. 100.
89. R. Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan writing of England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1992) p. 111.
90. Nørlund (note 61) pp. 48-50.
91. And it seems that indirectly Lauremberg got it his way since both of the major Dutch publishing houses - Blaeu and Janssonius - began to produce new and more accurate maps of Denmark around this time, and several of these maps were dedicated to Jøorgen Seefeldt - a friend of Lauremberg, who could have provided the Dutch publishers with these maps; ibid., p. 51.
92. Ibid., p. 53.
93. See note 2.
94. For these events see C. O. Bøggild-Andersen, Statsomvæltningen i 1660 (Århus: Universitetsforlaget 1971).
95. Latour, Science in Action (note 31) pp. 219-21
96. and Turnbull (note 56) pp. 116-17.
97. H. T. Heering, 'Knud Thott og Forhistorien til Kristian V's Matrikul', Tidsskrift for Opmaalingsog Matrikulsvæsen 13/1 (1932) p. 14.
98. Ibid.;
99. and P. G. Henriksen, Hærkort i Danmark og Nabolande gennem Tiderne (Copenhagen: Geodætisk Institut 1971) p. 10.
100. S. E. Jøorgensen, Fra Chaussé til Motorvej - det Overordnede Danske Vejnets Udvikling fra 1761 (Copenhagen: Dansk Vejhistorisk Selskab 2001) pp. 26-27.
101. A commission to create a new legal code was established in 1661 and the law was signed by the king in 1683
102. B. Scocozza, Ved Afgrundens Rand (Copenhagen: Gyldendal & Politiken 2003) pp. 315-19. The law unified the territory of Denmark proper, excluding, the Duchies, Norway, and the Atlantic possessions.
103. He describes the modern order as a territorial geography in which social relations are measured in three dimensions: Longitude, latitude, and altitude. In contrast, the process of globality implies a four-dimensional space which adds a fourth dimension of globality to the previous three (J. A. Scholte, Globalization: A Critical Introduction (London: Macmillan 2000) pp. 47, 61).