From Borderlands to Boundary Lines: Mapping on the Edges of the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT The evolution, nature and characteristics of boundary mapping in Central and Eastern Europe were distinctive, especially considering the imperial borders of states neighbouring the Ottoman Empire. Affected by strong military and geopolitical needs, demarcation maps were not based on cadastres or property mapping undertaken by civil authorities but exclusively on military mapping. The maps were a part of peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire, which gave them the power of legal documents. Moreover, boundary maps constituted an important tool in defending state sovereignty and subsequently in the state- and nation-building processes. In this article I analyse how countries bordering the Ottoman Empire made their demarcation maps, which strategies they applied, what level of cooperation they had with Ottoman cartographers, what cartographic conventions they met, and how these maps were received at the Ottoman court. I argue that boundary mapping was the key driver of territorial statehood in the region.