Jeremy Black - Maps of War: Mapping Conflict Through the Centuries

DETAIL OF THE SIEGE OF MALTA IN 1565. BY MATTEO PEREZ DALECCIO (1547-1616) One of a series of thirteen frescoes that decorates the Throne Room of the Grandmasters Palace in Valletta. The position of the Ottoman armies on the island is shown in great detail.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: FIRST NOTIONS OF MILITARY MAPPING

War requires a spatial as well as temporal sense and awareness. At the tactical level, that of battles, it requires the detailed understanding of the relationships between place and terrain, notably height, slopes and water features such as rivers and marshy ground. Each of these was, and is, significant for the tasks set for military units and for their relative effectiveness in discharging them. At the operational level, that of campaigns, the conduct of war requires an understanding of routes and of the relationships between place and terrain over the area of campaign. These are necessary for effective planning both about advances and concerning supplies. At the strategic level, there are requirements for geopolitical information so that challenges and opportunities can be grasped and priorities determined.

All of these levels involve the equations of force and space, and each requires maps: maps to present, maps to understand, and maps to convince. This book covers the variety of different ways in which maps have accompanied war, notably for geopolitical consideration, strategic planning, operational purposes, tactical grasp, news reporting and propaganda. In doing so, it considers the different stages of conflict preparation, planning, initiation, waging, outcome and retrospect and assesses the manner in which maps framed a particular perception of war at various scales and to very different audiences, from strategists to tacticians, from the military to the public, from those who were present to those who were distant. The application of mapping technologies developed in peacetime is assessed, as is their use in wartime. The entire situation in recent centuries is one of dynamism, as opportunities are grasped, tested and used.

For most of history, and still to this day, the relevant maps have overwhelmingly been mental maps, the understanding of place in the minds eye. These were ready means to help consideration and exposition. For example, the plan of an ambush or a fort might be drawn with a stick, a finger in the dirt or in powdered sand, sketched in the air or described with words. These methods did not leave records, written or otherwise, that survive, and that is a crucial point when looking at the mapping of war. It is a particularly significant point for pre-modern warfare. Nevertheless, pre-modern armed forces carried out complex operations that would have required a foreknowledge of terrain. How that knowledge was conveyed is less clear, but oral report was the key means. In the Roman sources, there are not references to the use of maps on campaign, but there are many references to scouts being sent out to learn about the locality. This suggests that an aural and visual approach to mapping was used, rather than a written system.