Cartographic Essays
India, 1763: Eve of British Supremacy
I. The Year the Map Chooses The map is called India. In 1763, there was no India. What the map actually shows is the Persian-speaking court of a diminished Mughal...
India, 1763: Eve of British Supremacy
I. The Year the Map Chooses The map is called India. In 1763, there was no India. What the map actually shows is the Persian-speaking court of a diminished Mughal...
Expeditio Crucis: Mapping the World the First C...
I. A Date Written in Roman Numerals The title cartouche at the top of this map carries a date in Roman numerals: MCXXXV. 1135. Not 1099, the year Jerusalem fell...
Expeditio Crucis: Mapping the World the First C...
I. A Date Written in Roman Numerals The title cartouche at the top of this map carries a date in Roman numerals: MCXXXV. 1135. Not 1099, the year Jerusalem fell...
大清: The New Frontier, 1760
In 1760, the Qianlong Emperor composed a poem to celebrate the final defeat of the Dzungar Khanate, the last great nomadic empire of Inner Asia. The conquest had taken nearly...
大清: The New Frontier, 1760
In 1760, the Qianlong Emperor composed a poem to celebrate the final defeat of the Dzungar Khanate, the last great nomadic empire of Inner Asia. The conquest had taken nearly...
The Unwritten Republic: Mapping Mongolia Betwee...
I. A Mongol Ghost in a Soviet Machine To map the Mongolian People's Republic in the interwar years is to capture a nation in a state of profound, suspended animation...
The Unwritten Republic: Mapping Mongolia Betwee...
I. A Mongol Ghost in a Soviet Machine To map the Mongolian People's Republic in the interwar years is to capture a nation in a state of profound, suspended animation...
1642 — The Establishment of the Ganden Phodrang...
I. A Mongol Khan Hands a Monk the World There is a peculiar founding myth at the heart of Tibetan political modernity, one that tends to get smoothed over in...
1642 — The Establishment of the Ganden Phodrang...
I. A Mongol Khan Hands a Monk the World There is a peculiar founding myth at the heart of Tibetan political modernity, one that tends to get smoothed over in...
West Africa in 1660: Trade, Empires, and the At...
I. An Honest Preface I want to begin with something I don't usually do in these essays: an admission. This map is the one I am least satisfied with. Not...
West Africa in 1660: Trade, Empires, and the At...
I. An Honest Preface I want to begin with something I don't usually do in these essays: an admission. This map is the one I am least satisfied with. Not...