Cartography, Mapping, and War

War always takes place in a spatial context, which makes cartography one of its central tools. However, for a long time, armies were waging wars with few maps, or even no maps at all, relying mostly on mental maps or local guides. A stronger connection between cartography, mapping, and war appears for the first time in the early modern period when, under the pressure of protracted wars and new war techniques (artillery), the relationship between warfare and cartography became closer, not only encouraging the use of maps, but also serving as the biggest stimulus to the development of cartography. The development of warfare strategy, which, over time, grew into a scientific discipline, led to a better education of officers in both map use and mapmaking. A major turn in that regard would take place in the early eighteenth century, when the establishment of military academies, which included surveying and mapmaking in their curricula, enabled the development of military cartography as a separate field of cartography specialized in the production of maps for military purposes. An even closer relationship between mapping and warfare was established in the nineteenth century when specialized national mapping agencies appeared within the military forces. Technical advances in warfare cartography were further spurred by military requirements in the twentieth century. Under the influence of World Wars I and II, mapping for military purposes advanced immensely, not only in the technical sense (due to the application of aerial imagery), but also in regard to the specialization of mapping aimed at trench warfare, aviation combat, and marine warfare. Although WWI military cartography was marked by national productions of different scales, map projections, and measurement units, the global nature of WWII contributed to the unification of different geodetic and cartographic sign systems into a single international standard. The application of photogrammetry and satellite imagery during the Cold War enabled rapid mapping, ensuring complete world coverage at a medium scale. Because of the transition from the analog to the digital age and the development of digital imagery, satellites, and GIS technology, cartography and mapping for military needs underwent massive changes in the late twentieth century.