The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State

Book excerpt: Throughout history the control of land has been the basis of political power. Cadastral maps - cartographic records of property ownership - played an important role in the rise of modern Europe as tools for the consolidation and extension of land-based national power. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Properly Mapping, illustrated with 127 maps, traces the development and application of rural property mapping in Europe and European colonies from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. The authors go beyond traditional cartographic research, approaching the maps as political instruments rather than as simple geographical or historical tools. The result is an unprecedented examination of the political and economic forces behind the production of maps and advances in cartography, demonstrating how the seemingly neutral science of cartography became a political instrument for national interests. Beginning with a review of the roots of cadastral mapping in the Roman Empire, the authors concentrate on the use of cadastral maps in the Netherlands, France, England, the Nordic countries, the German lands, the territories of the Austrian Habsburgs, and the European colonies. During the seventeenth century, governments began to use maps to secure economic and political bases; by the nineteenth century, these maps had become tools for aggressive governmental control of land as tax bases, natural resources, and national territories. The culmination of extensive bibliographic and archival research made possible by the authors' considerable linguistic skills, this work draws from source materials in ten languages and spanning five centuries. It will remain thedefinitive source on the subject for years to come. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State was awarded the 1991 Kenneth Nebenzahl Prize for the best new manuscript in the history of cartography.