Maps of War

Mapping Conflict Through the Centuries

Maps of War cover

Description

A magnificent visual survey of how conflict was recorded and planned, using maps produced at the time to reveal how warfare and its documentation has changed through the centuries.

There is little documented mapping of conflict prior to the Renaissance period, but, from the 17th century onwards, military commanders and strategists began to document the wars in which they were involved and later, to use mapping to actually plan the progress of a conflict. Using contemporary maps, this sumptuous new volume covers the history of the mapping of war on land and shows the way in which maps provide a guide to the history of war.

Content includes:
- The beginnings of military mapping up to 1600 including the impact of printing and the introduction of gunpowder
- The seventeenth century: The focus is on maps to illustrate war, rather than as a planning tool and the chapter considers the particular significance of maps of fortifications.
- The eighteenth century: The growing need for maps on a world scale reflects the spread of European power and of transoceanic conflict between Europeans. This chapter focuses in particular on the American War of Independence.
- The nineteenth century: Key developments included contouring and the creation of military surveying. Subjects include the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War
- The twentieth century including extended features on the First and Second World Wars including maps showing trench warfare and aerial reconnaissance. Much of the chapter focuses on the period from 1945 to the present day including special sections on the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars.

Table of Contents

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: FIRST NOTIONS OF MILITARY MAPPING
Maps in the Classical world
Early Asian mapping
Ottoman Empire
Fifteenth-century developments
Sixteenth-century expansion
Printed maps
Firearms and fortification
Religious dimension

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: MAPPING FOR SIEGES
Maps and pictures
Maps for the French State
Fortresses and siege warfare
Swedish and Russian efforts
Increased precision
Military adaptation rather than revolution

FIRST WORLD WAR: TOTAL WAR
Geopolitics
Trench warfare
Use of aircraft
Coordination
Wartime cartography
Information and propaganda

SECOND WORLD WAR: GLOBAL CONFLICT
Unprecedented scale
Three dimensions
Restrictions and the media
Engaging the American public

MODERN WARFARE: 1945 TO THE PRESENT DAY - FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO THE PRESENT
Projection
Surveys and serveillance
Satellites
Local level
Modern challenges

Index
Picture Credits

Product details

Published Oct 18 2018
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9781472830531
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations More than 150 historical maps
Series General Military
Short code GNM
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Jeremy Black

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the Univer…

Resources

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