标题: Taiwan Cartography [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 3-30-2012 11:39 标题: Taiwan Cartography Kwangyin Liu, Mapping Taiwan: A journey through history. Taiwan Today, Mar 31, 2012 (available now) http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=188482&ctNode=1767
(book review on The Mapping of Taiwan; Desired economies, coverted geographies. SMC Publishing Inc 南天書局, 2011)
Quote:
"Growing demand for spices in Europe launched one empire after another; the most notable being the Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. * * * Possessing limited knowledge of the new world, early attempts by European cartographers to map Southeast Asia often saw the size of the Spice Islands, such as Java and Sumatra, exaggerated. Taiwan was frequently drawn out of position and incorrectly portrayed as a rectangular land mass, sickle-shaped half-island or cluster of islets.
"'Since Taiwan’s major ports were dotted along its western coastline, many believed that whoever controlled the Pescadores controlled Taiwan,' Keating said.
The nineteenth century saw "China and Japan forced to open their ports for international trade—a development leading to Taiwan’s rise in prominence on maps commissioned by the Western powers. For the first time, these charts took on greater sophistication, accurately listing features including mountains and their heights, names of rivers and major harbors. But Taiwan was still an afterthought during this period, Keating said, adding that this soon changed when demand for camphor and tea—two items later produced in large quantities on the island—started ramping up in the West.
Note: Maluku Islands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maluku_Islands
("Spice Islands" most commonly refers to the Maluku Islands and often also to the small volcanic Banda Islands, once the only source of mace and nutmeg; section 1 Etymology)