The Cartographic Formation of a Global World

Abstract

Some years after the publication of Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in 1570, a grateful owner of the atlas expressed his admiration in the following words: ‘You compress the immense structure of land and sea into a narrow space, and have made the earth portable, which a great many people assert to be immovable’ (quoted by Brotton 1997: 175). The praise of this statement contains significant ideas concerning the mobility and unity of global space that speaks to the theoretical concerns raised so far. The purpose of this chapter is to show how the map preceded and produced the globe as a social space or, in other words, how the globe has been unified through cartographic means prior to, and concurrent with, European imperial projects. It will be argued that mapping was prioritized as it enabled the coordination of social practice on a global scale, as if the world was a single and unified space.