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He 19th century It is still today one of the most fascinating periods in history. It produced numerous ideological, political and technical revolutions that forever shaped contemporary times. At the same time, he opened the doors of a world, expanding numerous discoveries, contacts between various civilizations and scientific advances. The change was structural and all levels.
Hence the cartography also evolved. The dawn of modernity were plagued by graphic innovations that would give way to the cartographic crafts of our time. It was no longer simply to represent the world (after the century it would already be practically explored and uncovered in its entirety), but to locate the human being in it. Nature tamed, wasn’t it time for map To humanity itself?
We have already seen how Illustrators like JH Colton either John B. Sparks They tried to do so through an innovative format: the river, a continuous current since the beginning of the times of which They would break down tributaries in the form of cultures and civilizations. Those were imaginative and prisoners of their time, plagued by a rampant Eurocentrism and full of historical and political clichés.
However, they were interesting for themselves, because they aspired to capture in a single graph the passage of time. All the time. The work of both, but especially of Colton, would contribute to expand the explanation of history and social geography through graphic tools. But it wasn’t seminal. Such honor may correspond to the author of the probably first histomapa always: Friedrich StrassAustrian cartographer.
Entitled Der Strom der Zeiten (The current of time), The Enlightenment would see the light as soon as 1803, time before Napoleon had raised his empire. The excellent graphic and bold finish of the representation would enjoy great success, being translated into several languages and serving of remote influence for other activists, educators, geographers and illustrators (From Emma Willard until Eugene pick).
Der Strom der Zeiten I drank in part of Joseph Priestly’s ideasBritish philosopher, and aspired to capture a vertical understanding of the history of human beings. Under the title of “History of the World”, part of a gray nebula of which cultures already known by then. The Greeks, the Assyrians, the Italians, the Chinese or the Phoenicians. Strass focuses your attention in European peoples and cultures, marginalizing the development or prominence of African or Asian empires.
The beginning of everything. (David Rumsey Collection)
Detail of the first villages. (David Rumsey Collection)
The importance of the Roman Empire. (David Rumsey Collection)
It was a common evil of the illustrators, intellectuals, scientists and European thinkers of the time. China and India monopolized half of the world’s population and half of its economic production for centuries. However, the Strass river quickly focuses on The Roman Empire Like the Muñidor of so many civilizations of the present, and from which numerous central states would arise to the development of Europe, such as Spain or France.
Eastern cultures. (David Rumsey Collection)
Latin kingdoms. (David Rumsey Collection)
Taxes arise, unify and disappear as time progresses. Strass’s historical gaze was essentially elitist: he listed the monarchs and leaders based on their possessions (Felipe II and Carlos V become the longest river tributary of their time) in chronological way. To the right are felt Asian civilizations. Others, such as African or American, do not even appear.
Der Strom der Zeiten It is an incomplete map of human history, but one of great relevance for the development of a different look at the passing of time and the position of the human being in it. And next to all this, it is still beautiful today.
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