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Great Trading Routes of the Sahara
This 1889 map of trans-Saharan trading routes by French explorer Edouard Blanc reflects the growing priority that Europeans gave to land-based trade during the late 19th-century imperial “scramble for Africa.” In articles about his work, Blanc stressed the importance of identifying “natural” geographic routes that would connect French colonial possessions in west Africa, such as Senegal, to Algeria in north Africa, and link the Mediterranean coast to Sudan and central Africa. Blanc based his maps not only on his own travels but also on nearly a century of reports from ...
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Library of Congress
Geographical Game of the French Republic
J.N. Mauborgne, a former professor of geography in Paris, created this “geographical game of the French Republic” in honor of the government of the National Convention during the French Revolution. Mauborgne’s game involves traveling around republican France, which was divided into 83 “departments,” the new unit of territorial administration that the Revolution introduced to replace the much larger historical provinces. Each space on the map shows a different department with its departmental capital, or chef-lieu. Players move counter-clockwise about the board from department to department, ending on the ...
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Library of Congress
Journal of the Voyage of Laurent Lange to China
Swedish born Lorenz Lange was among the many West Europeans to enter Russian service during the reign of Peter the Great. In 1715, he was sent to China as a special envoy to promote Russian commercial interests. This book recounts his overland journey through Tobol'sk, Tomsk, Eniseisk, Irkutsk, the Trans-Baikal region, and northern China. He remained in Beijing for two years. Based on his excellent reporting, the tsar sent Lange back to Bejing as consul in 1719 to supervise the Russian caravan traders in the Chinese capital. His mission ...
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Library of Congress
Brazil, which Coast is a Portuguese Possession, Divided into Fourteen Captaincies, Showing the Middle of the Country Inhabited by Many Unknown Peoples
This coastal map of Portuguese Brazil is by one of the greatest of the French cartographers, Nicolas Sanson (1600-67). Sanson gave geography lessons to both King Louis XIII and King Louis XIV. He also was named official geographer to the king, and his two younger sons succeeded him in this position. Until Sanson, the field of cartography was dominated by the Dutch, whose maps favored aesthetics over exactness. Sanson’s maps, notable for accuracy as well as elegance, marked a shift in the dominance of the field of cartography from ...
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National Library of Brazil
Map of French Guyana and of the Island of Cayenne
This map of French Guyana and the island of Cayenne is by Jacques Bellin (1703-72), a prolific cartographer attached to the French Marine Office. It reflects the careful mapping of bays, seas, and harbors that characterized 18th-century French naval cartography. In addition to the detailed information about the coast, Bellin’s map includes notes about the interior of this part of South America, much of which was still largely uncharted by the Europeans.
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National Library of Brazil
Course of the São [Francisco] River and the Navigation Along It from São Paulo to the Pitangui Mines
This early-18th century manuscript map shows the São Francisco River in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. In this period, the Portuguese sent numerous expeditions up the São Francisco and its tributaries in search of gold, silver, and diamonds.
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National Library of Brazil
Map of the Northern Realms Including the Kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, Norway
This map of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is by the French cartographer Guillaume de L'Isle (1675-1726). The son of a geographer, de L’Isle began working in the field of cartography at a young age. In addition to learning from his father, he studied mathematics and astronomy with the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712). This training led de L’Isle to produce scientifically accurate maps. In 1718, he became the official geographer to the king. De L’Isle’s maps continued the trend in French ...
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National Library of Brazil
Map of the Bay of Benguela and the Cantonbelle River
This map of the Bay of Benguela, on the coast of present-day Angola, is by the French cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-72). Trained as a hydrographer, Bellin was attached to the French Marine Office and specialized in producing maritime maps showing coastlines. In 1764, he published Le Petit Atlas Maritime (Small maritime atlas), a work in five volumes containing 581 maps. Bellin’s maps were in the tradition of Sanson and de L’Isle, and placed great emphasis on scientific accuracy rather than on artistic beauty for its own sake.
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National Library of Brazil
Brussels, Important City in the Netherlands, Capital of the Duchy of Brabant
This late-18th century French map shows Brussels, at that time an important city in the Spanish Netherlands and the capital of the Duchy of Brabant. The map shows the borders of the city and the Senne River. The location of the city on the river made it an important commercial center for trade between France and the Germanic states. In 1695, Brussels was attacked by the army of Louis XIV, and suffered heavy damage. It remained under siege off and on until it was captured by the French in 1746 ...
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National Library of Brazil
Police Headquarters on the Rue de Jérusalem
The Franco-Prussian War was brought about by rising tensions between France and Prussia in the 1860s. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, was determined to check the growth of Prussian power and avenge what it saw as a series of diplomatic humiliations. Prussia, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believed that a Prussian-led war of the German states against France would be a decisive act leading to creation of a unified German empire. The conflict began on July 19, 1870, when France declared war. The French army proved woefully unprepared and suffered ...
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National Library of Brazil
California or New Carolina: Place of Apostolic Works of Society of Jesus at the Septentrional America
Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was a French cartographer and publisher of atlases. This hand-colored map by de Fer from 1720 is actually a pirated copy of a manuscript map of 1696 by Father Eusebio Kino (1645-1711). Kino was an Italian-born Jesuit priest who was trained as a cartographer. Best known for his work in establishing missions and in defending the rights of Indians, he also made important geographic discoveries. In the 1680s and 1690s he explored Pimería Alta in present-day southern Arizona and northern Mexico. His explorations of Baja California ...
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Library of Congress
Palestine, Tribes, and Jerusalem
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782) was one of the most important French geographers of the 18th century. He worked during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. D’Anville’s approach to geography was geometric; he believed that man’s presence was worthy of acknowledgement only insofar as it helped the cartographer to establish the boundaries of a place. He focused on fidelity to what was documented about the territory in question using knowledge gleaned from travel journals, historical accounts, old maps, poems, and more. D’Anville was ...
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Library of Congress
Brazil: According to New Surveys by Messrs. of the Royal Academy of Sciences, etc.
As seen in this map, much of Brazil was still uncharted territory in the early 18th century. The annotations about the rivers, native peoples, and mines of the interior provide limited information. The map was printed in Leiden by Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733), a Dutch publisher and bookseller who specialized in reissuing maps acquired from earlier mapmakers. Van der Aa’s major work was the elaborate Galerie Agréable du Monde (The pleasurable gallery of the world), a compendium of some 3,000 plates in 66 parts, bound in 27 ...
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National Library of Brazil
The Course of the River of the Amazons, Based on the Account of Christopher d’Acugna
Nicolas Sanson (1600-67) is considered by many to be the founder of the French school of cartography. Originally from Abbeville, he was also known as Sanson d’Abbeville. He was trained as a military engineer but became a prolific cartographer who produced over 300 maps. Around 1643, he began publishing maps, working with publisher Pierre Mariette. This 1680 map of the Amazon most likely is a reprint by his son Guillaume (1633-1703), who carried on the family firm after Nicolas’s death. The account referred to in the title is ...
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National Library of Brazil
The Kingdom of France
This map of the Kingdom of France is attributed to Alexis-Hubert Jaillot and Guillaume Sanson, son of Nicolas Sanson, who is widely considered to have been the father of French cartography. Although dated 1724, in the monarchy of Louis XV, the map appears to be one of the last known reprints of Jaillot’s L’Atlas français (French atlas) of 1690, published more than two decades after the cartographer’s death. It depicts the provinces and major cities of France under the reign of Louis XIV, as well as the ...
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Library of Congress
Africa, or Greater Libya
This map of Africa by Nicolas Sanson, royal geographer to Kings Louis XIII and XIV, and commonly known as the father of French cartography, was published by Sanson’s own house in 1679 in Paris. The map was based, according to Sanson, on a composite of information drawn from other maps as well as “upon the observations of Samuel Blomart.” It also may have drawn on the Dutch writer Olfert Dapper’s work of 1668, Naukeurige Beschrijvingen der Afrikaensche gewesten (Description of Africa). The continent is presented as “Greater Libya ...
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Library of Congress
New Map Showing the Spanish and Portuguese Explorations with Observations of the Most Ingenious Geographers of Spain and Portugal
This map, showing the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula, was published in Amsterdam by François Halma (1653-1722), a Dutch bookseller and publisher who started a business in Utrecht, later moved to Amsterdam, and finally settled in Leeuwarden. In addition to publishing maps, Halma produced one of the earliest Dutch-French dictionaries.
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National Library of Brazil
New Atlas of China, Chinese Tartary and Tibet
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782) was one of the most important French geographers of the 18th century. This map of Guangdong Province in southern China is one of 42 maps in his Nouvel atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise et du Thibet (New atlas of China, Chinese Tartary, and Tibet), published in Holland in 1737 as a companion work to Father J.B. Du Halde’s Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine (Geographic, historical, chronological, political, and physical description of ...
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Library of Congress
New Physical, Political, Industrial and Commercial Map of Central America and the Antilles: With a Special Map of the Possessions of the Belgian Colonization Company of Central America, the State of Guatemala
Unlike Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, Belgium never had colonial possessions in the Americas. It entertained, nonetheless, certain colonial ambitions, as reflected in this map. Following the breakup of the United Provinces of Central America in the civil war of 1838-40, the caudíllo Rafael Carrera rose to power in Guatemala. Belgium became an important source of external support to the new regime as it struggled to consolidate itself as an independent state. The Compagnie belge de colonisation (Belgian Colonization Company), commissioned by Belgian King Leopold I, became the ...
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Library of Congress
The Western part of New France, or Canada, Done by Mr. Bellin, Royal Marine Engineer, in Order to Further Understanding of Present-Day Political Matters in America
This detailed map of the Great Lakes region of western “New France” by Jacques Nicolas Bellin was published by the Heirs of Homan in 1755, shortly before the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, the conflict that resulted in the transfer of New France to British hands. Bellin was just one representative of a greater movement by French royal and military cartographers in the 18th century to map New France using the knowledge possessed by Native Americans. This map shows details not only of the Canadian waterways, but also of ...
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Library of Congress
Map of the Bay of Rio–Janeiro
Jacques Bellin (1703-72) was a prolific cartographer attached to the French Marine Office. His sea atlases reflected the careful mapping of bays, seas, and harbors that characterized 18th-century French naval cartography. In 1764, he published Le Petit Atlas Maritime, a work in five volumes, containing 581 maps. This map, from the second volume of the atlas, shows the Bay of Rio de Janeiro and its important natural harbor.
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National Library of Brazil