History of Making the World Map and Discovery of the Far East : Focusing on the islands in the sea east of Korea
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Yi, S.
1NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION Email: skyigeo@gmail.com
Abstract
The geographical information on the Far East was reflected in making the whole world map in the wake of being introduced「Atlas of the Chinese Empire(皇輿全覽圖; Huangyu quan lan tu)」, which was made in the Qing Dynasty of the early 18th century, to France. The geographical information on the Far East, which had been supplied to the whole world by way of France, was shared extensively through the world map that was produced in the 18th century. At this time, the geographical information on Joseon(old Korean dynasty), for example, on Ulleungdo Island and Usando Island was indicated with Fan ling tao and Tchian chan tao, respectively, on the map. During the latter half of the 18th century, the geographical information, which was newly found by the exploration of the countries such as France and the United Kingdom, was added to the world map that was produced conventionally. This type of geographical information was spread to the whole world up to the first half of the 19th century. For instance, it was expressed in this period by being mixed Argonaut(Take-shima), Dagelet(Matsu-shima), which were newly found and added, as well as Fan ling tao and Tchian chan tao, which correspond to the existing geographical information. A work of intensively confirming geographical information is made by the exploratory countries from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. For example, Fan ling tao and Tchian chan tao, which had been expressed on the existing map, were be confirmed to be islands that don't exist, while exploring the eastern coast of Joseon. And then, the information on Fan ling tao and Tchian chan tao came to disappear on the world map during the first half of the 19th century. On the other hand, Argonaut and Dagelet(Ulleungdo), which were newly found in the sea east of Korea, were precisely settled. Around the mid-19th century, the existence of Dokdo Island came to be known to the external world by the whaling ship of France and the warship of the United Kingdom, and began to be gradually expressed on the world map. Meanwhile, Argonaut was confirmed to have no substance, thereby having come to gradually disappear on the map with passing the latter half of the 19th century. As a result of analyzing a map that was produced in Japan through this study with regard to Dokdo Island of being asserted ownership by Japan, Japan failed to properly recognize Dokdo Island all through the 19th century. As witness, 竹島(Take-shima) and 松島(Matsu-shima) were generally expressed on a map of having been made in Japan. These two islands are estimated to correspond to Argonaut and Dagelet(Ulleungdo), which were expressed on a map of having been produced, respectively, in the West. As shown in the process of producing a western map, a trace of having been felt doubt about the identity of Argonaut was clearly revealed even in a map of having been made in Japan. Also, it could confirm all from the period of having been unknown the existence of Dokdo Island to the process of being known definitely in the maps made in Japan during the 19th century. Japan copied the map of having been made mainly in the United Kingdom with a Japanese-style version during the 19th century. It applied a Japanese-style name to the frame of having been established in the United Kingdom and then indicated Argonaut as 竹島(Take-shima) and Dagelet as 松島(Matsu-shima). As for Dokdo Island, it was used a name of Rochers Liancourt for a long time, which was accepted in the West, and while Argonaut was drawn moving toward the northern coast of Ulleungdo Island around the years in 1904-0905 by japanese map makers, the name of 竹島(Take-shima), which had been a Japanese-style name in Argonaut, was overlapped to the name of Liancourt Rocks. Hence, a name of Japanese-style name in Dokdo Island was settled as 竹島(Take-shima).
Keywords
History of the World Map; Discovery of the Far East; the sea east of Korea