Methodological Changes in the Maps of the Argentine Military Offices: Towards a Specialized Topographic Cartography (1865-1912)1
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METHODOLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE MAPS OF THE ARGENTINE MILITARY OFFICES: TOWARDS A SPECIALIZED TOPOGRAPHIC CARTOGRAPHY (1865-1912)1 Mazzitelli Mastricchio, Malena2 1. Organization and goals of the first military cartographic offices The maps produced during the second half of the XIX Century by the military offices were, in most cases, closely linked to military works and needs. For instance, they charted the frontiers of those terrains that were still under the control of indigenous people; they built small forts and made plans of the camps where tasks of military skills were developed. In other words, those maps were aimed at charting the movements of the armies. In addition, certain financial limitations did not allow the planning of cartographic works of a higher scope. In that moment, the geographic and topographic information necessary for making maps was drawn from military campaigns, but these campaigns were not exclusively aimed at making topographic maps. On the contrary, the maps were one of all the objectives of the campaign, but not the most important one. This way of making cartography –which can be called in situ cartography since the map was developed while the military troop moved forward on the terrain- was not the only way of gathering the necessary information for carrying out the cartography. There was another method called compilation method. In this method, the map was made entirely indoors, in an office, and it consisted in gathering every possible cartographic antecedent of the region to be charted. The compilation practice was not an easy task because it implied comparing all the information of each map –which are generally made to different scales- and selecting those maps considered to contain the most accurate information. This method was intended to correct and complete the data of the already published maps. These two ways of making cartography (in situ or by the compilation method) are not mutually exclusive at all, on the contrary, many times a combination of both cartographic practices could be carried out. Another characteristic of cartography at that moment was that the scales chosen for making maps were very variable and depended on the army’s needs. For example, if the purpose was to develop the plan of a military camp, they used a scale that allowed enough detail3, but if the military need was more regional, as it was the case for the planning of the route a troop would follow, smaller scales4 were used in order to chart a wider terrain. 1 A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 12° Meeting of Geographers of Latin-American, April 3 to 7 2009, Uruguay. 2 Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino –SEGEMAR (Argentine Geological Mining Survey). 3 This kind of work can be exemplified by: the “Plano del Campamento de la división Norte de Buenos Aires en Trenque-Lauquen” 1:5.000 and the “Plano del Campamento de la División Costa Sud de la Frontera de la Pampa sobre el arroyo Puan” 1:157.800. 4 In this scale we can mention the works carried out by Cte. Wysoscki: in 1877 “Plano General de la nueva línea de Frontera en la Pampa” 1:1.866.700; “Plano General del telégrafo militar sobre la nueva línea de Frontera en La Pampa” 1:1.000.000, among others (IGM, 1912: 87). 1 This functional way of choosing the scale of the maps resulted in many charts having different scales, what did not allow the splicing of one to another making up a mosaic- type map. Another factor that impeded the union of two or more maps was the inexistence of a single reference system, meaning that each chart was made with a different system of coordinates, what also made difficult the measurements between two maps. All these works charted the terrain discontinuously, they followed a route determined by military needs and problems, and they did not chart the terrain under a singular criterion or to the same scale. These cartographic practices were progressively modified at the time military topographic offices gradually began to define their work plans and methods. The first military office was the Committee of Engineers 5 (1865-1879). The organization of this Committee had been in charge of Engineers Colonel Juan Czets6 and depended on the “Inspection and General Command of Arms”7 (that depended on the Ministry of War and Marine), the function of which was to administrate and regulate everything concerning military subjects. In that moment, the precariousness and institutional disorganization of the armies was shown not only by the continuance of regulations and norms inherited from the colonial period8, but also by the recruiting system of soldiers, which did not have any kind of training in military subjects. The Committee of Engineers had the objective of surveying the terrain topographically and carrying out military plans based on the data provided by the expeditions of the armies’ groups that worked in the field campaigns. It also had to centralize all the plans that were being developed by the Inspection and General Command of Arms. The Committee of Engineers functioned approximately during the same time that lasted the war with Paraguay (1865-1870). Many authors coincide in affirming that this war made evident, on the one hand, the need of organizing the structure of the army, and, on the other hand, the need of counting with a professional army. Thus, during the decade of 1870 the first “Military General Instruction” took place. It included general norms for the Army and taught the armies how they should act during the campaigns (Fazio, 2005b: 9). The Nation’s Military School was created in this context of institutional organization. Two years later, in 1872, the Committee of Engineers was attaché to the Secretariat of the War Ministry and became the “Office of Military Engineers”. This modification did not imply staff changes (which continued to be the same: General Benito Nazar, in charge of the Direction of the Committee; Major Sergeant Federico Melchert; Jordán Wysocki; Francisco Host and the Engineers Alfredo Ebelot and Octavio Pico), but it is inscribed within the institutional changes that began to take place in the heart of the Army. The Campaign to the Desert9 carried out by General Julio Argentino Roca in the indigenous territories of the Northern Patagonia in 1879, coincided with the creation of the Military Topographic Office 10 (1879-1885). The Office kept in charge of General Manuel Olascoaga11 (1835-1911) and Major Sergeant Jordán Wysocki12 (1830-1883). 5 Mesa de Ingenieros. 6 Juan Czetz was a Hungarian soldier that, after his wedding in Spain with the niece of Juan Manuel de Rosas, settled in Argentina in 1859 (Cutolo, 1968). 7 Inspección y Comandancia General de Armas 8 One of the norms inherited from the colonial period is the continuance of “Spain’s military Regulations for the service of the Army and the Navy”, enforced by Carlos III in 1769 concerning military justice (Fazio, 2005a: 1). 9. Campaña al Desierto 10. Oficina Topográfica Militar 11 Manuel Olascoaga was born in 1835 in Mendoza Province. He was a military man, topographer and politician. He graduated from Alberto Larroque school. After participating in the Campaign to the Desert, he 2 The rest of the staff13 of the Military Topographic Office would be designated by Olascoaga and had to be military men. Olascoaga’s faculty of choosing his staff was important because he was allowed to select technicians that, according to his criterion, were more qualified for solving and facing the goals proposed by the office. The Military Topographic Office had the objective of carrying out trigonometric works, gathering and ordering geographic, topographic and cartographic works that had been developed until then in the Army. It also had to make topographic profiles, research the natural history of the territories where the military commissions advanced, and take notes for the general diary and the accountability books of the Commissions. Many authors point out that it is not by chance that this Office had been created the same year the Campaign to the Desert was carried out (Zusman, 1996; Lois, 2004). In fact, the goals of the Office were framed in the needs of the process of territorial formation, this is, as Zusman (1996) points out, from a material point of view, the process of territorial formation required: 1) the reconnaissance of the space to be controlled (explorations); 2) the compilation of all the information relative to physical conditions and economic potentialities, and 3) the systematization of the knowledge obtained in previous activities with the purpose of economic valuation, but also for the construction of those arguments that were of use for the defense of territorial pretensions (cartography, trip stories). The Military Topographic Office run until January 2nd 1884; in that moment, the “General Army Staff” was created (eliminating the former Inspection and General Command of Arms). According to Fazio (2005b), the creation of the Staff was one of the most important decisions made by the National State aiming at the reform of the Army. From the perspective we are following in this paper, it is important to set out that the General Army Staff, took over the functions of the Military Topographic Office and, as we will see, it incorporated new ones. Indeed, one year after the creation of the General Army Staff14, the IV Section of Military Engineers, Topography and Cartography was founded. Its manager was Colonel Juan Czetz and its secretary Colonel Benjamín García Aparicio15. published “Estudio Topográfico de la Provincia de La Pampa” and diverse topographic and cartographic treatises. He was the governor of the National Territory of Neuquén and founder of Chos Malal city, the first capital of the province.