Charting and Knowledge in Enlightened Empires: The Case of Tierra del Fuego in Anson’s Voyage Round the World (1748)

Abstract

ABSTRACT As argued by Philip Stern, exploration and Enlightenment were mutually influential, suggesting that the charting performed on exploratory voyages is a particularly apt knowledge practice around which to frame an investigation of the validity and depth of the contradictions and challenges of Enlightenment. This paper uses the charting of Tierra del Fuego by George Anson in the 1740s as a case study for discussing one specific tension in both exploration and Enlightenment: the role of the national and of the universal in the creation of geographic knowledge. It will discuss Anson’s charting process, the publication of his ideas, and the clash his publication caused when planning later voyages. Charting could not only legitimate participation in Enlightenment networks of knowledge-making, but also mask imperial motives and biases in the language of intellectual criticism.