European occupation of Tamil territory, colonial strategies and development: Through geographical survey efforts and mapmaking

This book presents the creation of landscape drawings, illustrations, maps, and site plans of the Portuguese settlements along the Chola coastal region, the colonial maps of the Dutch East India Company, and the cartographic work carried out under the supervision of the Danes at Tharangambadi. It also examines in detail the maps of Tamil towns prepared by the French East India Company in Pondicherry for colonial military purposes, as well as the maps produced by the British East India Company in Chennai for military, revenue, and administrative needs, along with the nature of colonial settlement. It provides a thorough account of the geographical studies conducted by Catholic missionaries, the creation and printing of Tamil regional maps and geographical books in Tamil, and the teaching of geography in schools by Protestant missionaries through globes, maps, and Tamil-printed geographical texts (1708–1856). The work sheds new light on how colonial expansion spread-starting from the production of land maps during the period of European commercial growth, to the occupation of Tamil territories, and the development of geographical surveys and map-making efforts.