La expansión territorial de Rusia en el siglo XVIII: Primeros pasos de la cartografía

P. 301–321.

Volosyuk O. V.

Russia entered the international arena simultaneously with the Portuguese and Spanish empires: since the early sixteenth century, the territorial expansion of the Russian state had transcended its own ethnic territory. At that time, due to the high population density in the west and the void in Siberia, the Russian expansion had been oriented towards the east with the subsequent colonization of Central Asia and northwestern North America. With the expansion of Russian dominions and the increase in the number of subjects new information appeared concerning these territories. The accumulation of cartographic knowledge of exceptional importance urgently required its systematization. At that time, scientific interest coincided with Peter the Great's geopolitical intention of providing and documenting historical evidence of Russia's rights to the newly discovered lands. For that purpose, he decreed that scientific Russian cartography be developed and the state's progress in expanding its territories be made public.

Keywords: colonization, колонизация, cartography, Ломоносов М.В., картография, territorial expansion, территориальная экспансия, Mikhail Lomonosov, 18th-century Russia, Россия XVIII в.

In book

De Reinos a Naciones. Espacios, territorios y mentalidades

Abad T., Volosyuk O. V. Ediciones Polifemo, 2021.