| This dissertation is a comparative analysis of European and American cartographic representations of the contested spaces on the North American continent from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. An examination of how both European imperial interests and American national interests used maps to project their power over the continent serves as a prism to refract differences in the rival ideologies as they manifested in social, political and economic terms.;The governing structures of absolutism and republicanism are considered from their roots, to help articulate differences inherent in imperial and national political culture and how they manifested cartographically. I suggest that the tactical superiority of the national map, with its ability to project itself over territory uninhabited by enough of its citizenry to justify sovereignty, allowed the United States to engage in the practice of cartographic determinism. That the Spanish were unable to counter the American westward advance was due in large part to their inability to articulate their claims on maps. Though the Spanish sought to counter the American advance both militarily and diplomatically, their inability to defend their claims cartographically put them at a distinct disadvantage that ultimately proved insurmountable. |
