The Mapping of Java
The islands of Java in addition to Bali located 8 degrees south of the Equator from the Indian Ocean are two of the 17,000 islands of which make up the Republic of Indonesia, the planet’s largest archipelago in addition to the fourth most populous nation on Earth. The archipelago can be also home to the fabled Spice Islands of the Moluccas, the quest for which provided the major stimulus for the great voyages of discovery from the 15th in addition to 16th centuries. To reach these little in addition to remote islands, explorers in addition to merchant adventurers could invariably call first at Java to replenish food in addition to water supplies after the long haul across the Indian Ocean through the Cape of not bad desire, in addition to to pick up local pilots to guide them through the maze of islands between Java in addition to the Moluccas.
Prior to the arrival of the European merchant adventurers in addition to explorers from the region, Javanese merchants on the strategically located island of Java had traded spices in addition to some other tropical products with merchants through China, Japan, India, Persia in addition to the countries of the Middle East for centuries. Documentary in addition to archaeological evidence of trade between these countries in addition to the medieval Majapahit Hindu empires of Java in addition to Sumatra, in addition to with the later Muslim Sultanates of the fifteenth in addition to sixteenth century abounds. Java was well known to both Chinese in addition to Indian chroniclers through the beginning of the millennium. Javanese ports such as Banten in addition to Sunda Kelapa (modern-day Jakarta) , which commanded strategic trades routes between east in addition to west through the Sunda Straits, were used by Hindu merchants as provisioning centres en route to China.
the idea was only from the 16th century of which maps of Java began to appear in European books on exploration in addition to in atlases in addition to collections of sea charts, since there was no tradition of map or chart generating from the orient outside China. Even in China, mapping was confined to the Indoor of the country for purposes of taxation in addition to military conquest. Despite the high degree of quantification on Chinese maps, the Chinese still believed in a flat Earth a millennium after the Greek geographer Ptolemy constructed his world map based on the concept of a spherical Earth in addition to the obliquity of the elliptic.
The initial attempts to map the island of Java were crude in addition to generally showed an island of oval shape of which was disproportionately broad in addition to which has a completely unknown southern coastline.
This kind of was not surprising given the inhospitable nature of the southern coast where the stormy Southern Ocean plunged to great depths from the Java Trench only a few kilometres offshore in addition to where natural harbours were few in addition to far between.
A very famous early 17th century (1606) map of Southeast Asia in addition to the Indonesian islands shows where Francis Drake (Dra. Appulit), the English seafarer in addition to privateer (pirate), called into one of the few ports on the South Java Coast (Cilacap) in 1580 to resupply his ship, the ‘Golden Hind’, on his way back to Plymouth through his circumnavigation of the globe between 1578 in addition to 1580. Drake became the first captain of an expedition of any nation to complete a circumnavigation of the planet. The first circumnavigation took place between 1519 in addition to 1521 with an expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator from the employment of the Spanish crown. Unfortunately, Magellan was killed in a skirmish on the island of Cebu from the Philippines in 1521 in addition to his first officer, Jan Sebastian Del Cano assumed command. He in addition to one ship, the Victoria, reached Spain which has a surviving crew of 18, in September 1522, three years after the all 5-ship expedition set out thus completing the first circumnavigation of the planet. Drake’s voyage was 56 years later.
1606 map of SE Asia in addition to Indonesia by J. Hondius showing Drake’s landfall at Cilacap in 1580 | Photo courtesy of Bartele Gallery
Abraham Ortelius’ iconic map of Southeast Asia first published in 1570 in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the planet’s first uniformly sized atlas, shows Java as the idea was to appear until the early 17th century. This kind of bloated shape with an effectively blank southern coast was repeated in regional in addition to individual maps of the island until well into the 17th century. In contrast, the north coast facing the shallow Java Sea has numerous ports of which have served as trade centres for centuries in addition to hence the coastline was mapped to a reasonable degree of accuracy. However, the idea was not until the 1630s of which the true shape of Java was depicted on the maps of Southeast Asia by Blaeu in addition to Jansson, two great rivals from the atlas trade. Both Blaeu in addition to Jansson depict a narrower, more proportioned in addition to recognizable Java on their regional maps of Southeast Asia in addition to Jansson went further in addition to produced a large-scale map of the island in 1657 in his all 5-volume sea atlas Atlantis Majoris Quinta Pars Orbem Maritimum.
Throughout the remainder of the 17th century in addition to through to the 18th century, the mapping of Java increased, especially the portrayal of the southern coastline culminating in one of the most beautiful, rare in addition to sought-after maps of the island, Johann van Keulen’s large scale map of west in addition to east Java entitled Insulae Iavae Pars Occidentale in addition to Pars Orientale (shown below), on two separate plates of which were frequently joined to make one map of the island of which was published from the early 18th century. A more well-known variation of the same map with insets of Batavia in addition to a coastal profile through the Roads of Batavia appeared in Van Keulen’s Zee-Fakkel, Part V in 1728.
In contrast to Java, the mapping of the adjacent island of Bali, Indonesia’s primary tourist location from the 21st century, remained stuck from the 16th century which has a map of the island produced by William Lodewijcksz, a member of Cornelis de Houtman’s pioneering voyage to the East Indies in 1595-97. Later maps of Bali such as François Valentyn’s Kaart van Het Eyland Bali published in 1726 in Part II of Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën – his eight-volume history of the East Indies – contains little brand new cartographic information, however then Bali was still a Hindu kingdom in addition to not a major part of the Dutch in addition to Javanese trading empire.
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The Mapping of Java
The Mapping of Java