The Cartographic Production of Territorial Space: Mapping and State Formation in Early Modern Denmark

Abstract

Contemporary transformations in global politics have called into question the spatiality of the sovereign territorial state. In light of such claims to change, this article argues that in order to understand the spatial underpinnings of the sovereign territorial state we have to understand how sovereign territoriality was historically based on a cartographic reality of space. The article demonstrates how an epistemic change in cartographic practice from the 15th to the 17th centuries transformed the reality of space and hereby conditioned the possibility of defining the state in territorial terms. The article presents a historical exposition of the mapping of Danish territory and state formation from ca. 1450–1650. This serves to illustrate how the state strived to achieve ‘authorship’ of its territory in order to unify knowledge of the territory. This process was completed 10 years prior to Denmark turning into a ‘role-model’ of absolutist governance in Europe. In conclusion, the article highlights the implications of the cartographic foundation of territorial space for current discussions of globalisation and change.