CARTOGRAPHY AS POWER: PORTUGUESE MAPPING OF SRI LANKA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON TERRITORIAL CLAIMS

Abstract

The Portuguese maritime empire established the enduring frameworks for territorial understanding and governance that extended far beyond the era of direct colonial control. This was accomplished through pioneering cartographic practices. This research investigates the critical role of maps produced by the Portuguese in the representation of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) during the 16th and 17th centuries. These representations served as instruments of power. They shaped subsequent claims to the territory and functions performed by those administrative boundaries. These analyses have no precedent in either Sri Lankan historiography or in the emerging field of diaspora studies. The research also examines the consequences of those representations. The research was done by underlining apparent contradictions between the claims made of maps by their compilers and the actual functions of the maps, especially when comparing the maps with the cartographic adaptations made by both the Dutch and British successors of the Portuguese, who appear to have used the maps produced by the Portuguese as precedents for making their mappings of the island.