Imperial borderlands : maps and territory-building in the northern Indochinese peninsula (1885-1914)

Based on colonial archives and indigenous maps, this book delivers a connected history of imperial margins in Southeast Asia by comparing the British and French geographical policies and practices at the end of the 19th century. Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Figures Acronyms and Transcription Conventions Introduction 1 A History of Maps and Territories 2 Confines, Margins, Frontiers: Space as an Object 3 Connecting Empires Chapter 1 Connected Histories of Exploration 1 A Well-Stocked Colonial Library with a Long History 2 Geographies of Exploration and Travel Narratives before 1885 3 Colonial Knowledge and Empire-Building after 1885 Chapter 2 Colonial Geographical Departments and Large-Scale Map-Making Programmes 1 The Creation of Colonial Geographical Departments 2 Systematic Mapping of the Whole Territory: A Qualitative Advance? 3 Meeting the Challenge of Limited Staff, Budgets and Material Chapter 3 Geographical Institutions: Collaboration, Competition, and Confrontation 1 Rivalry and Cooperation between Map-Makers 2 The Circulation and Uses of Maps Chapter 4 Triangulation “from the Mountains to the Sea” 1 Tough Working Conditions and a Dangerous Terrain 2 Topographers and Geodetic Surveyors in Action: Adapting Standard Practice 3 Human Settlements and Dwellings: A Map-Maker’s Headache Chapter 5 Consulting the Local Population 1 The Role of Intelligence: Local Information Sources during the Conquest 2 Place Names, the Impossible Task Chapter 6 Using Asian Maps: Borrowings and Reworkings 1 Checking Historical Borders Chapter 7 Colonial Roads and Territorial Reconfigurations 1 Travelling across the Territory 2 The Margins Reconfigured by Roads Chapter 8 Locating, Demarcating, and Crossing the Border 1 Theoretical Variations 2 Boundary Marking in Practice 3 Border Controls and Infringements Chapter 9 Logics of Rule and Territorial Anomalies 1 The Specific Status of the Frontier Provinces 2 Unstable Territorial Divisions Conclusion Bibliography Index "This book presents a connected history of South-East Asian borderlands, drawing on late nineteenth-century British and French geographical policies and practice at the margins of their empires. It focuses on the 'scramble' in Asia, when the British Raj incorporated Upper Burma (1885), and the French created a protectorate in Annam-Tonkin, the Northern part of present-day Vietnam (1884). Fought over by the colonial states and neighbouring nations, the frontier zones were fashioned and represented not only by the two European powers, but also by the Chinese Empire, the Kingdom of Siam, and the local populations. The counterpoint between the discourses produced and the cartographical practices on the ground, in the longue durée, lays bare the interacting processes of territory-building in all their unpredictability. This book, translated by Saskia Brown, is the updated version of the author's Aux confins des empires. Cartes et constructions territoriales dans le nord de la péninsule indochinoise (1885-1914) (Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2018)"-- Provided by publisher