The early modern period encompasses roughly 300 years of history, but within this brief period emerged the modern world as we know today. The foundations for national boundaries, the existence and confirmation of faraway continents, the establishment of colonies all took place in this period, and it was a time when globalization in the modern sense came to appear. This period was the harbinger for the interconnected society which we live in today, and it was made possible by enterprising nations and adventurous individuals who chose to navigate the known world and aggregate the knowledge of the cultures therein. The collection of knowledge was aided by the arrival of new and more accurate maps which lead the way for future generations to foster connections with nations around the globe. Maps in a sense have been the heralds of global connectivity and they have put into a tangible medium the means by which peoples from across the globe interact and they have served to foster social discourse in a fashion unrivaled by any other mechanism. To further understand the implications of the encounter between the cultures of the East and West during this time, one must look also toward religion for many of the earliest known explorers were missionaries who sought to anoint the four corners of the globe with the religion of their fervor. In this paper, we will look specifically to the exploits of Father Matteo Ricci, who was a pioneering figure in the Eastern understanding of the West.
Rudimentary maps have existed for as long as man was capable of written thought, but they were fairly local in nature and never accurately depicted much outside the boundaries of which the cartographer lived. However, as peoples began to trade and network w...
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... historic map was the catalyst for commerce and precursor to subsequent relationship between the East and West. As such, it is then easy to assume and apprehend the notion that this map must assuredly mark an epoch in the history of Chinese world-knowledge if not of Chinese thought . Maps have invariably changed the way in which nations and cultures interact with one another and as such they are an integral part in the manner in which life is lead in today’s society. The immense bearing that Father Ricci’s map had upon the East-West relationship is coming to fruition just now, as China is becoming one of the emerging superpowers of the 21st century. The importance of maps and the vital role they play in the affairs of this world can be best embodied in something that Robert Rundstrum said, “Mapping is fundamental to the process of lending order to the World. (1926)”
Now that we’ve made our way through the journey of Ken Jennings’ incredible book I feel as if it’s important for me to try to sway you to become more involved in geography. It’s a truly fascinating subject and can take you places you never thought you could ever visit. If you don’t want to leave your home, at least buy an atlas, map, or visit Google Earth. You never know what you could discover in your journey. If you don’t think maps or an atlas is your thing, you never know if you never try. Jennings created a journey, for me I would have never cared to take had it not been assigned as a college class assignment, but now I’m so glad I did. Jennings shined a different light on geocaching, and map hunting. He made it fun, interesting, and overall thrilling.
Until the 1950s, Atlases were mostly comprised of maps that simply show space and place. However in 1953, the World Geo-Graphic Atlas, published by Walter Paepcke’s Container Corporation of America (CCA) with Herbert Bayer, changed people’s notion of what maps look like and what information they contain. Bayer believed, that maps were “a record of time and perhaps even a tool of prognostication.” By the use of Isotypes (International System of Typographic Picture Education), Bayer created an atlas that is universal, therefore allowed viewers to understand complex data more clearly and easily.
Nowadays the wide array of transportation means and infrastructures at our disposal has made it relatively easy for us to travel from one country to another; even when those countries are thousands of miles away from each other. However, during the 13th and 14th centuries, travelling was not that easy. Yet, two men, the Italian tradesman Marco Polo and the Moroccan Jurist Ibn Battuta became famous for having managed to perform extremely long distance journeys away from their home country. At the end of their long travels, both men shared their experiences with the world via the books, The Travels of Marco Polo and The Travels of Ibn Battuta. An analysis of those two texts reveals two things. On one hand, Marco Polo remained a cultural outsider to the people he met during his travels, thus enhancing his power of observation and stimulating his curiosity. On the other hand, Ibn Battuta travelled as an insider, and consequently he judged the people he met only in light of his Muslim background.
In the middle of the 19th century, despite a few similarities between the initial responses of China and Japan to the West, they later diverged; which ultimately affected and influenced the modernizing development of both countries. At first, both of the Asian nations rejected the ideas which the West had brought upon them, and therefore went through a time period of self-imposed isolation. However, the demands that were soon set by Western imperialism forced them, though in different ways, to reconsider. And, by the end of the 19th century both China and Japan had introduced ‘westernizing’ reforms. China’s aim was to use modern means to retain and preserve their traditional Confucian culture. Whereas Japan, on the other hand, began to successfully mimic Western technology as it pursued modernization, and thus underwent an astounding social upheaval. Hence, by the year 1920, Japan was recognized as one of the world’s superpowers, whereas China was on the edge of anarchy.
As if the Harris map weren't suggestive enough, other maps have also surfaced. It's a specific map that Menzies points to as definitive proof that the Chinese had already explored the world long before the Europeans ever set sail in the age of exploration. This map, known as the 1418 map -- so called for the date it was supposedly published -- clearly shows all of the world's oceans, as well as all seven continents, correct in shape and situation. Even more startling is the map's accurate depiction of features of North America, including the Potomac River in the Northeast of the present-day United
In the text The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, the author Jonathan Spence compares images or pictures based on topics related to the Ricci’s encounters with china and its way of culture and society. The aspects that will be identified are religious conversion, financial crisis with trade and expansion, and how both of these issues relate to what was explained in class this semester. Thus, taking these factors into account, the issues that are present in each chapter will be analyzed.
The coastal border of Asia was inhabited by some of the world's earliest known civilizations that developed around fertile river valleys. These people “may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel with one another”1.
Like the Arabs, the Europeans sometimes let their religion come between them and the truth. The best example of this is what Boorstin refers to as the “Great Interruption,” a time in the Middle Ages where theological, rather than geographical, accuracy was prioritized in mapmaking. Rather than continuing the work of Ptolemy and refining his rectangular coordinate system, cartographers “spent their energies embroidering a neat, theologically appealing picture of what was already known, or was supposed to be known.” (Boorstin, 100) Maps depicted the world as a circular disc divided into three parts, the three parts being the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, separated by a T-shaped flow of water. Jerusalem was always in the center of the maps; the justification came from a verse in Ezekiel saying that God had placed Jerusalem in the midst of the nations, which was interpreted literally. Allowing Christian dogma to determine the shape of the earth was a major failing in Boorstin’s eyes; nevertheless, the episode was only an “interruption,” and Europe eventually resumed discovery. Firstly, Boorstin credits the west for the modern clock and calendar. Although earlier versions of clocks from other parts of the world are mentioned, the author focuses primarily on the contributions of westerners to its development. When missionary
Many regions of the world define what is outside of their normative and accepted practices to be taboo and therefore, these foreign practices face condemnation. However, through expanding ones view of the world and myriad divergent regional practices, one is better able to perceive different regions of the world as not superior or inferior to one another yet equal but different. In his Travels (1360CE), explorer John Mandeville details various practices of the foreign peoples he had encountered in his travels around the world; many of these rituals would be highly denounced by the European readers for whom Mandeville writes this book. Though Chapter 22 of Travels does not contain an explicit mention tolerance as a primary motivation for the work, the reader’s comprehension of perceivably heinous yet permissible acts in these foreign lands sketches alternate models of normative behavior. Sixteenth century European members of popular cultures, such as Ginzburg’s Menocchio, apply their interpretative filter the reading and synthesize notions that are more reflective of their popular lifestyle. Mandeville’s accounts of foreign cannibalism, disfigured peoples, idolatry and an emphasis on nature face popular interpretation in the sixteenth century that formulates a defiant and tolerant worldview in response to the imposing cultural center/defining of superior culture by the Council of Trent.
Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor., and Anthony Esler. Prentice Hall World History. Boston, MA: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
With the decline and fall of the western empire, the classical age of Rome came to a close as disease, warfare and corruption conspired to bring about the downfall of an ailing empire that had once conquered the known world. Where once enlightened despots had ruled a debauched and unwieldy polity, now barbarians stood over the ruins of a once thriving metropolis. In its absence a new world would arise with new values and ideals. Turning their back on a pagan past the Christian children of these wild men from the north would spawn the greatest houses of future European nobility, and when they looked back for a legacy, they would not see their ancestors as pillagers picking at the bones of a defiled Rome, but instead as its trusted guardians, partnering with the Church to carry her legacy through the “Dark Ages”.
Since the beginning of humankind, the study of geography has captured the imagination of the people. In ancient times, geography books extolled tales of distant lands and dreamed of treasures. The ancient Greeks created the word "geography" from the roots "ge" for earth and "grapho" for "to write." These people experienced many adventures and needed a way to explain and communicate the differences between various lands. Today, researchers in the field of geography still focus on people and cultures (cultural geography), and the planet earth (physical geography).
The claim being discussed here is that the only way a map or a way of representing things can be useful is if it simplifies the knowledge that the actual territory gives, that is, if it reduces the salient i...