CartoCuriosity - Formosa, a propaganda con-job on the Qing

What if a map could justify the conquest of a nation? In 1895, as China and Japan negotiated the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895), Japanese publisher Nakamura Yoshimatsu issued a remarkable map of Taiwan. Disguised as the work of a British naval officer, it subtly redrew the island to exaggerate vast 'ungoverned' tribal regions and diminish Qing authority. The result was one of the most consequential examples of persuasive cartography, a map that may have helped shape the negotiations leading to Japan's acquisition of Taiwan. Today, we explore the map, the politics behind it, and the extraordinary role cartography played in the transfer of an empire.