Historical Atlases

Anne here, and today I'm talking about maps — specifically the maps that you find in historical atlases. By historical atlases, I don't mean old atlases exactly -- though you can learn a lot from them, too. I mean maps that have been specifically drawn to illustrate changes in borders, the extent of empires at different periods in time, and so on.

I have a number of historical atlases and it can be very easy to get distracted by the stories that are implicit in the maps. Take for instance these two maps, the first reflecting the situation in Europe in Napoleon's time, and the second after Napoleon was finally defeated and the European borders were redrawn at the Congress of Vienna which took place in 1815 — and no, they didn't simply put the borders back where they had been before Napoleon. (Click on the maps to see an enlarged version.)

Before Napoleon, the continent of Europe was a collection of kingdoms, principalities (ruled by a prince and/or princess), grand principalities (ruled by a grand prince and/or princess), grand duchies (where the ruler was a grand duke and/or grand duchess) or duchies, ruled by a duke and/or duchess. Some were independent, some were "client states" of bigger countries, and some were more or less for decoration — the power of the "ruler" was in name only.

Napoleon took over many of these small kingdoms and territories, often appointing his relations and friends as the ruler. Apart from appointing himself Emperor of France, he appointed his relatives King of Naples, King of Holland, Grand Duke of Berg, King of Spain, King of Westphalia and Grand Duchess of Tuscany. More details here.

Today, only the Duchy of Luxembourg remains, courtesy of a decision made by the Congress of Vienna.  Countries such as Lithuania and Finland were also grand duchies at some time in the past. It's fascinating to delve into the history.

It was a question about Poland that had me pulling out my trusty historical atlases. I had my current hero returning from Poland — and my critique partner said "Did Poland exist at that point?"

It did and it didn't, but after consulting a number of sources, I decided since the Kingdom of Poland had come and gone over the years and the borders changed —for instance part of Poland under Napoleon was called The Duchy of Warsaw between 1807 and 1813 — my hero could still call it Poland because that's what Polish patriots called it regardless of official titles and shifting borders —and thus modern readers wouldn't be confused. Besides, people are usually slow to adopt new names when they've grown up with the old ones.

Actually, if you want to see how much the borders of Europe have changed over time, go to this site, where the Daily Mail has a fascinating time-lapse animation of Europe's changing borders since 1100. You need to scroll down until you find something that looks like this.

  Here's another site where you can see how European borders have changed between 1910 and 2000. Two maps, side by side, the same scale — so easy to see the difference.  And that's just Europe.

So if you're interested in history, why not get yourself a historical atlas? They're utterly fascinating. Flip through the pages and you'll see the rise and fall of empires, the conquest of countries, the spread of colonization, the carving up of Africa by the colonial powers — the results of which are still causing untold grief and destruction, the disappearance of civilizations, and more. And you're spoiled for choice. 

Do you like looking at maps? Do you have an atlas, or do you just rely on google maps these days? Have you ever explored a historical atlas? Interested in looking at them now? 

Comments

[Lillian Marek]

LOL—I love historical maps and atlases, and they're very useful if you happen to be in need of a couple of small, not terribly well known, German states that existed before Bismarck's unification of Germany!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anne, I LOVE historical geography and the way borders change. In fact, I took advantage of all the shifting to create a tiny nation between Portugal and Spain for my July book, Once a Soldier. I see Lilian Marek has also taken advantage of the bits and pieces of the map--such a blessing for historical authors! I recall a Victoria Holt novel where the English heroine falls passionately in love with the prince of a German state. (They marry, she has a child, locals who disapproved of the marriage convinced the prince that his wife and son had died in childbirth, and then they tried to convince heroine she was mad and had imagined it all. Juicy historical romance at its best!) Thanks for the links--I can always use another delicious time waster. *G*

[Sue McCormick]

I love maps in general. But they become important to me for overseas genealogy. I'm not yet active in overseas research, but when I get there, I will become immeshed in the Germanies. Half of my ancestors and about a quarter of my husband's ancestors came from one or other of the various german states. Even my one Nederlands family poses a question (and one or two more German connections). The family came to the U. S. from Nord Brabant, which is a Netherlands province. But Brabant is in Belgian. Were they once united under the same government, or are they only connected by language?

I am a naturally curious person. But such questions are an important part of family histories. We want to know about the backgrounds of these people, where they lived and what their lives were like, not just names and begats.

So I am very grateful for the links you have supplied. I will be visiting them often.

[Liewen]

I love atlases, and I can spend hours looking at maps, either in paper atlases or on Google maps. I have a few atlases : modern ones, old modern ones (from the 70's and 90's), real old atlases (one from 1923), historical atlases and specialized ones. Having studied both History & Geography at University may explain a bit.
I'm that kind of freak who always check places when reading, including street names (I even bought a fac-simile of a 1890's London A-Z). It makes the story much more real.

[Teresa Broderick]

Ever since I was at school and had to read maps for exams, I've had a horror of them. I just can't seem to make head nor tails of them. Everything always looks jumbled and I can never follow borders or lines with any degree of success. So even though I would love to be able to understand them, it's a no go area for me.

[Anne Gracie]

Lillian, those little states are very useful for historical romance writers, I agree. :) Although the one time I needed a princess, I had to make up her principality, as the history of any eligible states didn't fit my story needs, and I decided I would rather make one up than mess with history. That little country of mine (Zindaria) is on a list of fictional countries on Wikipedia, which I thought was rather fun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_European_countries#Z

[Anne Gracie]

Mary Jo, I was thinking about your fictional country when I wrote this. Most people are so used to the borders of Europe as they now stand, that they don't understand how fragmented Europe really was in the past, when tiny nations abounded. Some readers get really cross about fictional countries because they think it's silly. But it's much more realistic than they think.
I remember in the research for my second book (Tallies Knight) where the real-life people whose escape from Napoleons forces I used for Tallie, escaped through Schleswig-Holstein, and I thought "What? Where on earth is Schleswig-Holstein?" And when I went looking I found it -- or rather them -- they were duchies that lie between Denmark and Germany and are now part of Germany.

[Anne Gracie]

Sue, you have a mighty tangle ahead of you. The area we know of as Germany today was once a veritable jewel box of small nations -- and the borders changed so much during and after Napoleon, particularly during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Belgium and the Netherlands also came and went in different forms. Your Brabant people might not even have spoken the same language as their host country — dialects varied quite considerably. What a fascinating area of research for you. Luckily there are a lot of historical maps on line.

[Anne Gracie]

Liewen, I also studied history and geography at university -- and historical geography and political geography (the study of borders) were especially fascinating to me. I love a good map. I get so frustrated when non-fiction books don't include them -- so many books are, in my opinion, crying out for a good map or three, and instead we get masses of pretty pictures, which is lovely, but a map grounds you, and orients you, and give the pictures a context.
I make up a board with several maps on it for most of my books, along with pictures. Knowing where my characters live and what the area looks like helps bring it alive for me, especially since I live on the other side of the world and can't just pop out to visit the location.

[Anne Gracie]

Teresa how awful for you. I hate it when an activity that's supposed to help and educate you is done in such a way that it turns you off it forever. Education should NOT be like that. I hope you have someone in your life who deals with the maps for you.

[Fiona Marsden]

I love maps. I spent hours as a child poring over the Reader's Digest Atlas. It went missing when my parents moved after my father retired and I still grieve for it. Aside from the fact that my mother used to tuck drawings I did as a child in it and they went missing too. I found a 1969 copy of The History of Cartography and it has some lovely fold out maps in it. On the subject of changing names. I love reading old romances set in Ceylon. (Tea Planters and such like)

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anne, such is my geographical geekdom that I actually remember Schleswig-Holstein from a high school world history class. The "Holstein" part helped because I grew up surrounded by dairy farms. *G* My San Gabriel is fictional, but there actually was a tiny little country, Couto Misto, on the border between Spain and Portugal, and it survived until well into the 19th century. I love stuff like that!

[Anne Gracie]

Very cool, Mary Jo.
I'd never heard of Couto Misto either. But I just looked it up and this is from Wikipedia: "As a result of complex medieval manorial relations, this land eluded both Portuguese and Spanish control for centuries, actually operating as a sovereign state of its own right until the 1864 Treaty of Lisbon that partitioned the territory between Spain (which annexed most of the land including the three villages) and Portugal (which remained with a smaller uninhabited strip of land). As a de facto independent country, the inhabitants of the Couto Misto had numerous privileges, including exemption from military service and taxes, and could grant asylum to outsiders and deny access to any foreign military contingent."

A perfect model for your fictional state. (And adding an explanation to readers — Once a Soldier, the book of Mary Jo's we're referring to is out next month. I was lucky enough to read it in advance.)

[Anne Gracie]

Lovely -- another map geek, Fiona. I have an old early 20th century (just) cyclopaedia (and yes, that's the spelling they used) which contained a section of maps and wow, the changes I could see then. You really can see the pink bits on the map -- meaning the British Empire, so much of which is now independent.

[Fiona Marsden]

Do you remember the big maps they had in schools that rolled down? If I ever came across some of them on ebay I would be so tempted.

[Elizabeth Rolls]

I love maps. As you say, all those stories implicit in the changing borders. I also have a book called Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davis about the hidden history behind all those lost borders, kingdoms and empires. It gets hidden in the history of modern countries. For example the various kingdoms of Burgundy get folded into French history and so on.

[Anne Gracie]

I sure do. And yes, Id grab one too.

[Anne Gracie]

That book sounds fascinating, Elizabeth -- thanks for the reference. And for dropping by.

[Jenny]

I love maps too. One of my treasured books is A Handy Reference Atlas by J Bartholomew printed in 1887.I love looking through it and trying to trace the old boundaries before WWI. Also, I am a keen genealogist, and I find a bit of knowledge about the borders sometimes helps me get an idea why my family came to Australia. Only a couple of them ended up on the gold fields, and I suspect the rest came because the political situations in their homelands.

[Mary M.]

I used to "read" maps for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Try doing that sometime! Think of trying to interpret any of the maps above so that a blind person or one who could not read the names could make sense of them. In our studio we had one person who was excellent at this, many who would not even try, and a few, like me, who organized a pattern and just forged ahead. I still remember the one with every Indian tribe in the United States, with no overlay of the states for reference. Be glad, writers, that you're usually dealing with a small, specific area at a time.

[Bona]

Yes, I like looking at maps. They make me imagine a lot of things. I have severa. atlases and yes, one historical atlas. Anybody who likes history should have one to know where happened what. I think I'm going to look for that webpage you mention in the Daily Mail.

[Minna]

Yep, Grand Duchy of Finland, part of Russian Empire and before that an integral part of Sweden.

I like looking at maps, though not so much historical maps, but really old maps. And in more modern maps there are all these interesting street names and place names.

[Anne Gracie]

Wow, Jenny, that old atlas sounds wonderful. As for why people migrate, its always a fascinating story, I think. And the courage it must have taken to up stakes and travel to the other side of the world, knowing youd probably never again see the people you left behind.

[Anne Gracie]

Mary, what a fascinating job — its hard to imagine how you would convey the sense of a map. Good on you! Such an important and useful skill.

[Anne Gracie]

I agree, Bona -- written accounts of history are only part of the story without maps to illustrate and place the story in context. In battles, for instance, location plays such a significant role. And how many of the trouble spots of today are caused by man-made borders?

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Minna -- its important to know what went before, I think. And how the smaller states have struggled to survive.

[Linda S]

I love all things map including historical atlases! I bought my first one for a college history course, and I used many in my career as a college librarian. In fact, I've never met a librarian who didn't like maps and atlases. I think it's an occupational characteristic.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Linda -- another reason I love libraries and librarians. :)