Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations/Part 2/Chapter 6
6
Maps; and their Historical Background
Maps are rarely on an adequate scale. The following are good Hand Atlases:
(1) An Atlas volume to the Cambridge Modern History, with a historical introduction of. about one hundred pages;
(z) Poole, Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, with concise articles;
(3) Droysen, Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas, with text.
Of very high value is The Map of Europe by Treaty[1] since 1814, by Edward Hertslet—a work to which many writers have been indebted.
The work consists of four volumes. Of these the first extends from the first Treaty of Peace of Paris, May 1814, to 1827; the second from 1828 to 1863; the third from 1863 to 1875; and the fourth from 1875 to 1891. There is a helpful Index, pp. 2,101–399.
The author's object was to bring together in a collected form the various documents that have given treaty sanction to the territorial changes made in Europe since 1814, and which, in thus defining the landmarks of Europe, 'constitute the Title-Deeds of the European Family'. The arrangement of the documents is chronological. Each treaty is preceded by a Table of Contents, and for each article there is a descriptive heading. Where the details are not of European interest, only the purport of the clauses of treaties is given. English is the language used throughout.
'That these Engagements', says the author, 'have been contracted, in many instances, with the avowed object of maintaining the Balance of Power, may be readily tested by referring to the Index under that heading.'[2]
Many of these engagements have been preceded or followed by European Conferences, and descriptions are given in some detail of the deliberations of the most important of these. References are given to the volumes of the State Papers in which the Protocols are to be found. The work contains, further, Declarations of War; Treaties for the European Guarantee of Independence and Neutrality of certain States; Decrees annexing Territories, and Protests of the Possessors against Annexations.
Owing to the frequent references to the Vienna Congress Treaty of 1815 in such Protests, the Index gives a key to all such references in subsequent European Documents.
In an Appendix are given copies of Treaties, or extracts from Treaties, which were concluded before 1814,[3] but are alluded to in the body of the work as being still valid, and there is a reference to the volumes of the State Papers, in which will be found extracts from and references to other documents not themselves inserted in the body of the work in order of date.[4]
The Index gives exact reference to every name and to every subject mentioned in the several Treaties or other international documents contained in the work.
The maps are sufficient in themselves, owing to their number, their scope, and their clearness, to make the work one of great value. The three general maps of Europe, showing the boundaries as fixed by the Vienna Congress Treaty of 1815, as in 1875, and as in 1891, are found on p. 274 (the first volume), p. 1976 (the third volume), and p. 3204 (the fourth volume). In the fourth volume there is a valuable series of maps illustrating the effects of the treaty arrangements of 1878.
For the author it may be claimed that he has fulfilled his object. Owing to the completeness and the connected form in which he has presented the necessary documents both primary and supplementary, the inquirer is no longer called upon to consult several Collections of Treaties, some of them not easily accessible in any one country, or to refer to Blue Books laid before Parliament on the subjects in question, or to State Papers, or even to accounts, apart from estimates, of the events contained in Treatises on International Law or international questions.
- ↑ The Map of Europe by Treaty, showing the various Political and Territorial Changes which have taken place since 1814. With numerous Maps and Notes. By Edward Hertslet, C.B., Librarian and Keeper of the Papers, Foreign Office; first volume, 1875. The Treaty of Ghent of 1814 is included.
- ↑ Introduction, p. ix. There are twenty-six entries under this heading in the Index for 1814–75; see, further, 'Peace of Europe' entries.
- ↑ Since 1641.
- ↑ See vol. iii, pp. 1977–2074. The pagination is continuous for the four volumes.