Creating Map Readers

The loss to the cartographically proficient Prussian army in 1870 initiated a drive to introduce more geography and maps into French society. One way to do that was through education. Jules Ferry’s 1881 reforms made primary school laïque (secular), free, and obligatory. In addition, classrooms textbooks such as Fouillée’s Le Tour de la France par deux enfants taught the benefits of geography. This cartographic introduction provided immediate access to small, simple maps to millions for the first time, effectively democratizing them on a large scale. As Fouillée introduced maps to schoolchildren, Vidal de la Blache promoted physical geography in France, the study of which will improve topographical accuracy on future maps. as the French learned how to read cartographic documents as the Third Republic progressed, I look at the changing nature of map publishing at the end of the nineteenth century and how that transformation affected future cartographic products. Enhancements in technology facilitated a more robust cartographic publishing industry, one in which printing in colour became easier and less expensive and, as we see throughout the book, more prominent.