History, Nation and performative cartography – The Kingdom of Denmark 1850

Resumé

This article discuss the performative character of a nationalistic mapping practice, related to the debate about the duchy of Schleswig as a part of the Danish Kingdom in the 19^th century, were cartography was used to visualize and promote a historical myth about Danish supremacy over Schleswig. The article also reveals that this cartographic narrative, even today penetrates into general historical teaching material used in elementary school as well as in history books. This illustrates, that uncritical use of historical maps, might lead to the risk of reproducing erroneous cartographic myths. As such, this article concludes, that precaution should be taken when using historical maps or producing contemporary cartographic visualizations of historical events, due to the performative power of cartography.