Cartography's Links With War And Conflict

Maps have been linked to war and conflict from the earliest times. According to S.J.Schuler (360. here.com), the oldest is a Chinese “Garrison map” dated 180 BC which was discovered in a cave in Hunan in 1973. The Arabs and the Ottoman Turks used maps in their military campaigns in Europe. In 1539, as England faced the threat of invasion from France, Henry VIII’s minister Thomas Cromwell ordered (in English of his time): “Expert men of every shire in Ingland beyng nere the see” to draw up maps “of all the places… where any danger of invasions ys like to be and to certifie the said daungers and also best advises for the fortificacion thereof.”

- P.K. Balachandran

Political maps were not drawn until after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 because it was only after this European treaty that the concept of territorial sovereignty took root in international relations.

In medieval times and also during the early stages of European rule in India and Ceylon, native kings, and later the Portuguese, Dutch and British rulers, based their dominance on political alliances in which less powerful entities swore allegiance to the bigger power and accepted the latter’s suzerainty. Actual and direct territorial control was not exercised or considered necessary. Furthermore, at that time, boundaries between principalities were indeterminate and changing with every shift in the balance of power. In such a state of flux, territoriality was not a key factor and therefore, political map making made little sense.

However, things changed when concepts of “territorial sovereignty” and the “nation state” were accepted as the norm in international relations. The era of political maps defining sovereign territories dawned. Claims and counter claims about territories often ended up in armed or economic conflicts as territorial sovereignty had become sacrosanct.

CARTOGRAPHIC WARS IN SOUTH ASIA