The Past as Science: Romanian Cartography at the Paris Peace Congress of 1919

Abstract

Romanian cartography at the Paris Peace Conference has so far received very little attention. Nevertheless, Romanian scholars produced tens of maps to support Romanian claims, most of them ethnographic ones. Seen as unscientific in 1919, they were quietly brushed aside. The present article argues that Romanian maps of 1919 displayed the same ideas found among Romanian elites. Ethnographic space was for them not just a matter of graphic representation of census results, but also the historical development of ancient and modern Dacia. Romanian cartography was congruous with Romanian culture in a wider sense. The article will review these ideas and then discuss their impact in Paris in 1919 and for Romanian culture since then.