Maantieteellinen tieto ja valtiokehon rakentuminen: autonomian ajan Suomen Kartastot poliittisena toimintana

Authors

• Sami Moisio

Abstract

Natural scientific knowledge has been widely neglected in the field of political and state theory. Modern state territories are generally understood to be mainly a result of the social theoretical act. This paper examines the natural scientific knowledge that was used in the territorial construction of Finland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The early Finnish National Atlases (1899 and 1910) were new geographical representations in the history of Finland. These cartographic and textual representations were developed under the Russian rule, when the autonomous position of the geographical space called Finland was at stake. The aim of this paper is, however, to broaden the focus of explanation of the birth of the early Finnish National Atlases from anti-Russian ideology to the formation of general scientific and governmental practices in Finland. In this paper the Foucauldian notion of governmentality is discussed in tandem with the role of maps and natural scientific knowledge in the creation of the modern state. These theoretical notions are examined with reference to the history of the early Finnish National Atlases. Two conclusions follow. First, early National Atlases gave a picture of exact and ”scientific” boundaries of the Finnish proto-state – they naturalised Finnish territory while making a statement about political identity. Second, the early National Atlases were of crucial importance to the social construction of ”Finnish nature” and vertical territory. Therefore, early Finnish National Atlases put the Finnish nature into Finnish territory.