Shifting Boundaries and the Imagination of Region History

• Author: An Chang
• Position: Professor, Executive Director of Human Right Research Center at Northwest University of Political Science and Law
• Pages: 3-16

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Unit 1: Shifting Boundaries and the Imagination of Region History1

Moderator: An Chang (Professor, Executive Director of Human Right Research

Center at Northwest University of Political Science and Law)

Ladies and gentlemen!

Both for legal science and histography, it is particularly necessary for making

interdisciplinary research, including a research paradigm such as regional order.

Establishing a new international political order is a common topic, and it may need to

reflect on a series of knowledge production modes and knowledge itself of the old order.

Nianshen Song (Professor, Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and

Social Sciences)

Topic: The Age of Discovery and “America’s Birth Certificate”

It’s a great pleasure to be here.

My presentation is largely inspired by Professor Yongle Zhang’s book Shifting

Boundaries. One of my on-going projects concerns the way the West constructed the

divisions and imagination of the globe. Although the project also touches upon the issue of

International Law, my main focus differs from Professor Yongle Zhang’s, which is the

Monroe Doctrine, but pays more attention to visual materials, particularly maps.

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That

being said, our research agendas overlap significantly. Therefore, I read his book at a slow

pace. The reading was a thought-provoking process. This presentation is partially a product

of such an intellectual journey.

I would like to share a story about a map, the 1507 World Map made by German

cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. The map is widely known as the very first to name the

continent that Christopher Columbus had “discovered” “America.” Preserved in the

Library of Congress of the United States, it is one of the national treasures collected by the

library.

The Waldseemüller Map of 1507 distinguishes itself in several ways. For one thing, it

is very large: composed of altogether twelve sheets of paper, the overall size is more than

three square meters. It was a rare large-size map printed at the time. Another feature is the

shape of the American continents. The curve of the east coast is relatively familiar to

contemporary readers. But the entire shape of the continents is still blur since the Europeans

had not yet arrived at the west coast. On the southwest part of the map, where today’s South

America locates, we see a printed word “America.” As we know, the new continent was

not named after Christopher Columbus the “discoverer,” but another Italian navigator,

Amerigo Vespucci. As a matter of fact, the map was Martin Waldseemüller’s salute to

Vespucci. He drew two portraits on the upper part of the map. On the left was Claudius

1 This Unit is translated by Yuheng Xie (East China University of Political Science and Law) and Xiaofu Li

(Associate Editor of FLIA Review). Professor Nianshen Song translated his own speech. The translation has

been modified and confirmed by the speakers.

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Editor: Monroe Doctrine was released in 1823, clearly outlining the stand of the United States at the time

that European powers should no longer colonize the Americas or interfere in affairs relating to the sovereignty

of American countries such as the United States and Mexico. Instead, the United States remained neutral in

disputes between European nations or in wars between them and their American colonies.