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Mapping and Empire : Soldier-Engineers on the Southwestern Frontier / ed. by Gerald D. Saxon, Dennis Reinhartz.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2010]Copyright date: 2005Description: 1 online resource (232 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292796775
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 623.71
LOC classification:
  • UG472 M37 2005eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One. Spanish Maritime Charting of the Gulf of Mexico and the California Coast -- Two. Spanish Military Engineers in the New World before 1750 -- Three. Spanish Military Mapping of the Northern Borderlands after 1750 -- Four. U.S. Army Military Mapping of the American Southwest during the Nineteenth Century -- Five. Henry Washington Benham: A U.S. Army Engineer’s View of the U.S.-Mexican War -- Six. Trabajos Desconocidos, Ingenieros Olvidados: Unknown Works and Forgotten Engineers of the Mexican Boundary Commission -- Seven. Soldier-Engineers in the Geographic Understanding of the Southwestern Frontier: An Afterthought -- Contributors -- Index
Summary: From the sixteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, Spain, then Mexico, and finally the United States took ownership of the land from the Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico to the Pacific Coast of Alta and Baja California—today's American Southwest. Each country faced the challenge of holding on to territory that was poorly known and sparsely settled, and each responded by sending out military mapping expeditions to set boundaries and chart topographical features. All three countries recognized that turning terra incognita into clearly delineated political units was a key step in empire building, as vital to their national interest as the activities of the missionaries, civilian officials, settlers, and adventurers who followed in the footsteps of the soldier-engineers. With essays by eight leading historians, this book offers the most current and comprehensive overview of the processes by which Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. soldier-engineers mapped the southwestern frontier, as well as the local and even geopolitical consequences of their mapping. Three essays focus on Spanish efforts to map the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, to chart the inland Southwest, and to define and defend its boundaries against English, French, Russian, and American incursions. Subsequent essays investigate the role that mapping played both in Mexico's attempts to maintain control of its northern territory and in the United States' push to expand its political boundary to the Pacific Ocean. The concluding essay draws connections between mapping in the Southwest and the geopolitical history of the Americas and Europe.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292796775

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One. Spanish Maritime Charting of the Gulf of Mexico and the California Coast -- Two. Spanish Military Engineers in the New World before 1750 -- Three. Spanish Military Mapping of the Northern Borderlands after 1750 -- Four. U.S. Army Military Mapping of the American Southwest during the Nineteenth Century -- Five. Henry Washington Benham: A U.S. Army Engineer’s View of the U.S.-Mexican War -- Six. Trabajos Desconocidos, Ingenieros Olvidados: Unknown Works and Forgotten Engineers of the Mexican Boundary Commission -- Seven. Soldier-Engineers in the Geographic Understanding of the Southwestern Frontier: An Afterthought -- Contributors -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

From the sixteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, Spain, then Mexico, and finally the United States took ownership of the land from the Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico to the Pacific Coast of Alta and Baja California—today's American Southwest. Each country faced the challenge of holding on to territory that was poorly known and sparsely settled, and each responded by sending out military mapping expeditions to set boundaries and chart topographical features. All three countries recognized that turning terra incognita into clearly delineated political units was a key step in empire building, as vital to their national interest as the activities of the missionaries, civilian officials, settlers, and adventurers who followed in the footsteps of the soldier-engineers. With essays by eight leading historians, this book offers the most current and comprehensive overview of the processes by which Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. soldier-engineers mapped the southwestern frontier, as well as the local and even geopolitical consequences of their mapping. Three essays focus on Spanish efforts to map the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, to chart the inland Southwest, and to define and defend its boundaries against English, French, Russian, and American incursions. Subsequent essays investigate the role that mapping played both in Mexico's attempts to maintain control of its northern territory and in the United States' push to expand its political boundary to the Pacific Ocean. The concluding essay draws connections between mapping in the Southwest and the geopolitical history of the Americas and Europe.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Aug 2024)