The Rise and Fall of European Maps in Late Qing Diplomacy

During the late 1800s, the Qing Empire faced challenges along its vast frontiers, where foreign powers tested its sovereignty. While some came through military confrontations, more persistent threats emerged in the form of non-military border negotiations. In these negotiations, Qing officials struggled to defend their positions with Qing-produced maps, which European dismissed for inaccuracy. Although the Qing had relied on European maps in earlier negotiations with Russia, by the 1860s it began to question their reliability. This paper examines two crucial negotiations: first, the discussions with Russia over western Xinjiang from the 1860s to the 1880s; second, the 1880s negotiations with France over Vietnamese border. It demonstrates how the question of map authorship became a crucial concern and how the notion of “Chinese old borders” emerged. These two interlocked proto-nationalistic developments reached a boiling point in the early 1890s during the Pamir controversy with Russia, after which nearly all foreign-authored maps were no longer deemed trustworthy

Asian studies · China · Diplomacy · Empire · Negotiation · Vietnamese · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · Chinese history and philosophy · Eurasian Exchange Networks