Last week, the government of India announced far reaching liberalization of the cartography and geospatial sector. This is a major step towards enhancing indigenous capacity in this crucial sector by allowing private sector greater space to innovate as well as opening it up, with some restrictions, to international players to invest onshore. For hundreds of years, cartography has been at the cutting edge of technological innovation, and its military, geostrategic and commercial importance cannot be emphasized enough. Therefore, in order to understand the significance of the new policy, it is important to know the history of cartography.
The Age of European Rivalry
In the early 16th century, Spain and Portugal had the best maps in the world. They had the best information since they had pioneered voyages to the Americas and the Indian Ocean. Not surprisingly, they guarded this information jealously and all maps were a state secret. Returning captains were expected to share the details of new discoveries only with designated officials although a lot of information soon seeped out due to espionage and bribery.
By the1530s, however, Dutch and Flemish merchants had collected enough information that their maps had begun to surpass those of the Iberians. The Dutch had a private sector-led approach to cartography that allowed talented mapmakers like Gerardus Mercator to make rapid innovations. Some of these innovations, such as the Mercator projection, are used to this day.
The technology soon crossed the Channel to England. A Flemish cartographer Jodocus Hondius set up shop in London in the 1580s and dramatically upgraded the capabilities of the English. The Dutch and English had a free-wheeling attitude to mapmaking – they collected information from their own voyages (such as those of Francis Drake), from privateers and pirates, and shamelessly stole it from their rivals. The result was that they soon had the best maps in the world. This was a key reason that they were able to outcompete Spain and Portuguese.
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