Cartography in the Russian Empire
Abstract Russian and West European skills combined to produce skilled surveyors and a cartographic tradition which both recorded and documented the expansion of the Russian Empire. Tsar Peter I in the 1720s was the first ruler to recognize its significance as an important tool in securing Russian ac...
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| Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2016
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe268 http://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2F9781118455074.wbeoe268 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe268 |
| Summary: | Abstract Russian and West European skills combined to produce skilled surveyors and a cartographic tradition which both recorded and documented the expansion of the Russian Empire. Tsar Peter I in the 1720s was the first ruler to recognize its significance as an important tool in securing Russian access to the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Pacific Ocean. New scientific bodies, and especially the military from the 1760s, were charged with the mapping of Russia and its new territories, and imperial expansion also brought new cartographic and surveying skills and information from able practitioners in Finland, Poland, and elsewhere. New thematic maps were created to assist in the exploitation of the empire's resources and in colonial settlement, especially in Siberia in the 19th century. Mapping and exploratory expeditions from the late 18th century, in the reign of another expansionary ruler, Katherine the Great, led to extensive fur‐trapping in the east and Russia's claim to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the northwest coast of America. |
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