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The Times History of the World in Maps

Book October 2014

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David Byers Miller
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c.1645 new maritime empires

Blaeu

mapping
dominance
In the sixteenth century, the Dutch embraced
the Reformation and Protestantism and rebelled
against the Catholic Spanish empire, establishing
the independent Dutch Republic in 1588. The small
republic grew to be a world power based on ships,
commerce, and cartography. By the mid-seventeenth
century, the Blaeu family had become one of the largest
mapmakers in Europe.
In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands ruled
an empire stretching from New Amsterdam (todays
New York City) to Batavia (todays Jakarta, Indonesia).
In Amsterdam, at the center of this empire, the
Blaeu publishing house started selling maps in 1599.
Blaeus globes and maps were popular with Dutch
merchants and sailors. Willem Janszoon Blaeus
first world map, issued in 1606, highlighted Dutch
knowledge and discoveries.

Beautifully illustrated map of the World from the Blaeu publishing house the leading European map publishers of the time. British Library, London, UK.

The principal rivals of the Dutch in the East Indies

were the Portuguese, and a bitter battle for supremacy
took place between the two countries during the
seventeenth century. The Dutch East India Company
(Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), formed
in 1602, became one of the worlds most powerful
trading companies, usurping Portugal in the Asian
spice trade by 1641 in places like Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and
the Spice Islands (Indonesia). The VOC made Batavia
(modern-day Jakarta) their Asian headquarters in 1619.
The Dutch merchant fleet, Europes largest, traded
throughout Asia and brought commodities such as
nutmeg and cinnamon back to Amsterdam; but the
ships needed accurate maps for worldwide trade. The
Blaeus, by being appointed as cartographers to the
Dutch East India Company, gained access to secret
map information denied to mapmaking rivals. The
political and business connections of the Blaeu family
increased the demand for their maps.
As the Dutch prospered, the demand for maps and
atlases increased for businesses (merchants and
sailors), and also among the general public. The affluent
Dutch population were curious about other countries

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and Blaeu wall maps came to express status in Dutch

society, often taking the place of paintings in Dutch
homes and businesses. Blaeu maps and atlases satisfied
customers by offering the best in Dutch cartography,
illustrated with the finest artwork. For example, border
art for the world map, labelled in Latin, depicts the sun,
moon, and the five known planets along the top. The
bottom panels reveal the Seven Wonders of the World.
Panels on the right feature the four seasons, and those
on the left illustrate the four elements of (from top)
fire, air, water, and earth. On the map, the continents
of Antarctica and Australia remain largely unknown
(Terra Australis incognita). The Arctic regions of
North America and Greenland are not drawn, and
Korea appears as an island.
After Willem Blaeu died in 1638, his son Joan Blaeu took
over the company, and he produced larger and larger
atlases culminating in the Atlas Maior (Great Atlas) in
1662, which consisted of eleven volumes holding some
600 maps. This atlas was the most expensive publication
of the seventeenth century and was also considered the
best. This enormous atlas totalled almost 4,000 pages
of maps and text in the Dutch language and 5,300 pages
in the French language edition.
The fortunes of the Blaeu business followed the rise
and fall of the Dutch Republic. The waning of the
Dutch empire saw the loss of Chinese trade in 1662
and of New Amsterdam in 1664 (the victorious English
renamed it New York). In 1672, France declared war on
the Dutch Republic and invading French forces were
only stopped when the Dutch opened the dykes to
flood the borderlands of Holland. The Blaeu family had
competitors in the mapmaking field and this war hurt
trade as it reduced the empires wealth. Much of the
money to buy maps was gone by the late seventeenth
century. Also in 1672, the Blaeu mapping studio was
destroyed during the great fire in Amsterdam, and
many of the copperplates for maps were lost to the
flames. Joan Blaeu died the following year. The Blaeu
publishing house continued until 1712, but its golden
age had passed.

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1784 early america

Abel Buell
The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally ended the
Revolutionary War (17751783) between Great Britain
and the new United States of America. The first
American-made map to show the territorial extent of
the United States was published by Abel Buell in 1784,
with the title, A New and Correct Map of the United
States of North America Layd Down from the Latest
Observations and Best Authorities Agreeable to the Peace
of 1783.

The map, a masterpiece of cartography, measures

109.4 cm x 122.8 cm (about 43 x 48 inches), comes in
four sections, and is beautifully hand-coloured. The
map displays the patriotic pride of the new republic
by prominently featuring its flag in the large cartouche
(lower right). The flags thirteen stars and stripes,
representing the original thirteen states, is lit by the
sun, and the flags staff is carried by an angel-like
goddess.

Peace talks recognizing US independence started

in Paris in 1782 shortly after allied American and
French forces defeated the British army at Yorktown,
Virginia. Benjamin Franklin, one of the American
peace negotiators, wanted the British to cede Canada
to an independent America. In the end, the US did not
get Canada, which remained British; but the Treaty of
Paris confirmed Britains former thirteen colonies as
independent, with territorial boundaries stretching
from the Atlantic coast westward to the Mississippi
River, as shown on the Buell map.

States get large labels on this map except for New York,
which was in a boundary dispute with Connecticut
over the westward extension of state lands. Buell, a
Connecticut citizen, favoured the territorial claims
of his home state, and so the name for New York is
missing from the map. In fact, competing state claims
to western lands, as shown on Buells map, threatened
to pull the new nation apart. However, in 1784 Virginia
ceded its land claims north of the Ohio River to the new
federal government, and other states soon relinquished
their territorial claims too.

The mapmaker, Abel Buell, born in Connecticut in

1743, was a silversmith, type founder, and engraver. In
1769, he established the first English-language type
foundry in America. His 1784 map is based on a variety
of sources, including John Mitchells 1755 map of North
America, which was used to establish boundaries for
the Treaty of Paris. As an engraver, Buell was able
to beat a rival cartographer, William McMurray, by
printing his own map.

Abel Buells map reflects a key moment in the history

of the United States and claims a number of firsts:
The first map of the newly independent United States
that was compiled, printed, and published in America
by an American, according to the US Library of
Congress. Also, it was the first American-made map to
be copyrighted and to feature the new US flag. Finally,
it is a rare map, with only seven known copies in
existence. The copy currently on display at the Library
of Congress was purchased for a record price of $2.1
million (1.2 million) in 2010.

united states

Abel Buells 1784 map of the United States. This was the first map of the US produced in America,
by an American. British Library, London, UK.

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1863 the american civil war

Gettysburg

battlefield
map
The American Civil War raged between the northern
states and southern states from 1861 to 1865. The
southern states seceded from the United States in
1861, forming the Confederate States of America (CSA),
also known as the Confederacy. Confederate forces
won most of the early battles, but a fateful encounter
near the small rural town of Gettysburg changed the
course of the war. Theodore Ditterlines oval-shaped
map, Field of Gettysburg, is considered the first map
published of this pivotal battle, in which Union (US)
forces stopped an attack by a Confederate army.
Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War,
resulted in some 51,000 casualties (killed, missing,
wounded). The Confederate Army of Northern
Virginia commanded by General Robert E. Lee,
invaded the northern state of Pennsylvania with some
70,000 troops. Union troops encountered elements
of the Confederate army near the town of Gettysburg,
and Union forces ultimately swelled to some 90,000
soldiers as reinforcements rushed to the battlefield.
The Union Army of the Potomac was led by Major
General George Meade, who had just been given
command of that army.
The map by Ditterline shows topography, roads,
railroads, troop and artillery locations, and troop
movements from 1 July to 3 July 1863. Ditterline, a
northern cartographer, compiled the map based on
eyewitness accounts of the battle. George W. Childs,
a Philadelphia newspaper publisher during the Civil
War, endorsed the map and added that his opinion was
shared by several officers in the battle.
On the first day of the battle (Wednesday, 1 July), the
more numerous Confederate forces (in red on the
map) made the Union defenders (in blue) retreat from
their positions north and west of Gettysburg. The
Union army fell back through Gettysburg and took a
defensive position south of town on Culps Hill and
Cemetery Hill.

By Thursday, 2 July, the Union soldiers (called

Yankees by the Confederates) were gaining in
numbers and strengthening their positions on
the series of hills south of Gettysburg. Union
reinforcements were streaming in along the Baltimore
turnpike. Confederate troops (called Rebels by Union
soldiers), spearheaded by General Longstreets corps,
attacked the Union left flank (southernmost position
on Ditterlines map). Lees plan was to have the rest of
the Confederate line assault the Unions centre and
right flanks, but these attacks were ineffective. While
Longstreets attack almost broke the Unions left flank,
thousands of Confederate soldiers died in the attempt,
but the Union positions held.
The Union and Confederate lines remained about
the same on Friday, 3 July. Lee decided to hit the
Union centre, because he thought the flanks had
been reinforced at the expense of the centre. Lee
ordered a massive artillery bombardment to precede
a Confederate infantry charge of some 12,000 soldiers,
which becomes known as Picketts Charge, after Major
General George Pickett. Picketts Division is labeled
on Ditterlines map. However, Meade anticipated the
assault against the Union centre, and the Confederate
attack failed with huge loss of life.
After the battle, Lee pulled his army out of Pennsylvania,
and the rebels retreated back to Virginia. Many believe
that Gettysburg marked the beginning of the end of the
Confederacy. Lees army never recovered from the loss
of thousands of soldiers during the three days of battle.
Theodore Ditterline captured a critical turning
point in US history, with an attractive map design
that effectively tells the story of a complex battle.
Collectors covet this rare map, which is 40 cm x 49 cm
(15 in. x 19 in.), and a copy sold for $5,400 in 2013.

Detailed map of the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863, showing troop and artillery positions.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA.

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