A Late Enlightenment Enterprise: The British East India Company's Survey of the Paracels in 1808. (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ding, Yannan
• Is Part Of: Cartographic journal. Volume 57:Number 4(2020)
• Page Start: 366
• Page End: 378
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Paracel Islands -- Enlightenment -- history of cartography -- British East India Company (EIC) -- Alexander Dalrymple -- Philip Maughan; Cartography -- Periodicals; 526.05
• DOI: 10.1080/00087041.2020.1884432
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-7041

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the survey of the Paracels organized by the British East India Company (EIC) in 1808 in the context of the late Enlightenment. It documents the preparatory work for and execution of the survey to show that it overturned the erroneous representations of the Paracels on maps and charts from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Using new archival material, including ship's journals, memoirs, and private letters, this paper examines details of this survey, including patronage networks and the role played by institutions to argue that the late Enlightenment was a period of transformation in the epistemology and methodology of geography.