I chose to look at the “19th-Century Caribbean Cholera” map, which uses a timeline to track the outbreaks of cholera from 1833 to 1872. The timeline and map contain points that locate periods of cholera in Caribbean islands, as well as notable news articles or information, tropical storms, and hurricanes. The project uses Google Maps as a platform to track this information through time. The perspective and orientation of the map is in line with the cartographic system that once was used to chart and represent the Caribbean for its respective European colonizers.
As Turnbull describes in Maps Are Territories, “the real distinguishing characteristic of Western maps is that they are more powerful than aboriginal maps, because they enable forms of association that make possible the building of empires” (Turnbull, Exhibit 10). The map’s relation to space is fraught with the history of colonialism in the Caribbean, and while it does not disentangle itself from this perspectival orientation, it makes a few efforts to illuminate this history. Viewers of the map will perhaps notice that the title is bookended by two compass roses, signifying the Cartesian, gridded map system. The timeline itself is a spatialization of time, holding only a linear pathway through the colonial period, with end limits.
Turnbull discusses the functionality of Cartesian maps to order the world, and to create an optimal field for the control of territories. This map contains a similar power relationship to the knowledge it carries. The points of interest, or placemarks, are presumably taken from historical documentation (the “methodology consideration” element of the project does not work). If governmental or administrative records were used to document these outbreaks, one might be wary of the inaccuracies or erasures held in these accounts. The use of news articles gives evidence and further insight into the toll taken on the populations of people affected by these outbreaks. Some of these articles demonstrate the relation of colonial trade practices and the transmission of disease: “We were told by the editor of the Barbados West Indian that the sickness was introduced into Guadeloupe and broke out at Point-a-Pitre soon after the arriving of a vessel from Marseilles, on board of which, during the voyage two persons died of cholera” (The Bermuda Gazette).
An alternate map might further investigate the ways in which the negligence and misuse of power in colonial trade brought the pandemic of cholera to the Caribbean, and how the ordering of space through maps contributed to the networks of trade from which this resulted.
Hello, I thought that this article was quite insightful on how power dynamics can be implemented through seemingly trivial map elements. I agree that the use of a Cartesian mapping system can be used to order the world and ultimately be used as a means to conquer it. It would definitely be interesting to pursue this alternative map idea and trace just how colonial practices influences the spread of Cholera. I would also be curious on how you would like that map to be displayed, if not through a standard Cartesian mapping style. Very refreshing post!