Tabula Indiae Orientalis. Emendata a F. de Wit

Title

Tabula Indiae Orientalis. Emendata a F. de Wit

Description

Map shows total Southeast Asia with Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Celebre, the Maledives and the Molucces. With Cambodia and Malaysia, partly China, India. Decorative title cartouche.

ca. 1688

Artist

Wit, de (1610-1698)

Frederik de Wit (1610 – 1698). His Atlas began to appear around 1662 and by 1671 included anywhere from 17 to 151 maps each. In the 1690s he began to use a new title page "Atlas Maior" but continued to use his old title page. His atlas of the Low Countries first published in 1667,was named Nieuw Kaertboeck van de XVII Nederlandse Provinciën and contained 14 to 25 maps. Frederik de Wit quickly expanded upon his first small folio atlas which contained mostly maps printed from plates that he had acquired, to an atlas with 27 maps engraved by or for him. By 1671 he was publishing a large folio atlas with as many as 100 maps. Smaller atlases of 17 or 27 or 51 maps could still be purchased and by the mid-1670s an atlas of as many as 151 maps and charts could be purchased from his shop. In ca.1675 Frederik de Wit released a new nautical atlas. The charts in this atlas replaced the earlier charts from 1664 that are known today in only four bound examples and a few loose copies. Frederik de Wit new charts were sold in a chart book and as part of his atlases. Frederik de Wit published no fewer than 158 land maps and 43 charts on separate folio sheets. In 1695 Frederik de Wit began to publish a town atlas of the Netherlands after he acquired a large number of city plans at the auction of the famous Blaeu publishing firm’s printing plates. Dating Frederik de Wit atlases is considered difficult because usually no dates were recorded on the maps and their dates of publication extended over many years.

Historical Description

In the first centuries after the turn of the times, Indian traders spread their culture over large parts of Southeast Asia. The Kingdom of Funan (200-550) in the Mekong Delta developed into the first center of Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia. It was replaced by the Khmer Kingdom and the Srivijaya Empire in Sumatra. 750 Borobodur was built on Java, a terraced temple complex of enormous size. The Khmer kings created an equally impressive work of art with the construction of their Angkor Wat temple complex. From the 9th century, the Tai migrated from the north to their present-day settlement areas and met the high-ranking Mon, whose culture they shaped. In 1044 the first Burmese Empire was founded with Bagan as the capital. In Southeast Asia, extensive trade had developed from the 6th to the 16th century, numerous shipwrecks testify to this development, such as that of the Lena Shoal junk. The ship types of the junk and the balangay were used for this trade. Two main routes of trade China on the one hand and Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula on the other hand could be determined. One route leads along the mainland and the second route along Borneo, Palawan to the island of Luzon. In the 15th century, Arab, Persian and Indian traders converted the Malays to Islam. The Muslim Malacca took the place of the Hindu kingdom Majapahit on Java. With the exception of Siam, all Southeast Asian countries were colonized from the 16th century. The background to colonization was the region's wealth of raw materials and spices, which were of particular value at the time. After the trade had been dominated by Arab traders for a long time, the European powers now fought over supremacy in the region. The Spaniards became active in the region at the same time and colonized with the aim of conquering China and converting to Christianity the Philippines, which they named after the Spanish King Philip II. The British came to Southeast Asia as the third major colonial power and also tried to establish themselves in the region. After initially holding an insignificant base in Indonesia, after negotiating with the local sultans, they reached control of the island of Penang and Singapore, which was then a small Malay fishing village. Together with the port city of Malacca, these areas formed the so-called Straits Settlements, the most important bases for the British in Southeast Asia.