Mapmaking is a fundamental instrument of imperial and surveillance power.

Evidence

Google discovered by chance or intention the source of every mapmaker’s power. The great historian of cartography, John B. Harley, said it succinctly: “Maps created empire.” They are essential for the effective “pacification, civilization, and exploitation” of territories imagined or claimed but not yet seized in practice. Places and people must be known in order to be controlled. “The very lines on the map,” wrote Harley, were a language of conquest in which “the invaders parcel the continent among themselves in designs reflective of their own complex rivalries and relative power.” The first US rectangular land survey captured this language perfectly in its slogan: “Order upon the Land.” The cartographer is the instrument of power as the author of that order, reducing reality to only two conditions: the map and oblivion. The cartographer’s truth crystallizes the message that Google and all surveillance capitalists must impress upon all humans: if you are not on our map, you do not exist. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 485

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Harley’s cartographic theory and to broader literatures on maps as instruments of state power; also resonates with the ADDENDUM article on trees as infrastructure in that both concern how dominant systems render territory knowable/controllable. — connects to: Map names are the primary instrument of imperial spatial power.; Colonial management required objectifying territories through maps and data-gathering surveys. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 311; Imperial power operates through selective ignoring rather than panoptic surveillance — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1384 (+1 more)
• SHARE: The Harley quote ‘Maps created empire’ and ‘Order upon the Land’ slogan are perfect nuggets for someone into the history of cartography.

Broader Connections

• Colonial management required objectifying territories through maps and data-gathering surveys. #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 311
• The same map technology can serve either subversive or centralizing political ends #qualifies (0.82) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1585
• Map names are the primary instrument of imperial spatial power. #qualifies (0.80)
• Imperial power operates through selective ignoring rather than panoptic surveillance #contradicts (0.80) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1384