Die Weite Sibiriens und des Ozeans in Berichten und Aufzeichnungen von Forschungsreisenden von der Mitte des 18. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts

Vast unknown regions around the world were travelled and described by scholars in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. In this paper, James Cook’s three South Pacific expeditions, the second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) and the Academy Expedition (1768-1774) to Siberia will be discussed. One of the main objectives of these expeditions was the mapping of spaces, their cartographic measurement and description. In keeping with the “Age of Reason” the researchers and sailors made use of the most modern technology available in doing so. Wherever they were, whether on the high seas or in the wilderness of Siberia, they measured distances and their respective position, the location of cities, rivers and islands. The daily, sometimes several times daily recurring measurements transformed the vastness of space into a natural obstacle that needed to be mastered. And they clearly deceived themselves into thinking that they might reduce these distances by means of “daily logs”. They were convinced that the maps they drew or inspired represented spaces not that they had made but that they had merely measured.