1802 Johannes Walch Map of the East Indies, South Pacific, Australia, Hawaii

This is Johannes Walch's 1802 map of Australia and Oceania, including the East Indies, the Philippines, China, Korea, and Japan. Overall, Walch presents the whole as a 'Fifth part of the world,' extending further the terminology established by Ptolemy, in which the world - formerly composed of the three parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa - had already been amended with America, the Fourth part of the world. The map extends from Sumatra and Cambodia, eastwards to include Hawaii and the Marquesas Islands. It was printed in order to celebrate the exploration of the region of the prior two centuries, most particularly those of Captain James Cook (1728 - 1779). The map includes the Dutch voyages of the 17th century, notably Abel Tasman's (1603 - 1659) voyage in 1642, and shows the tracks of Captains Marshall, Byron, Wallis, Bougainville. The map is dominated by the tracks of Cook, however, underscoring the achievements of that explorer. The tracks of all three of Cook's great voyages appear here: his 1768-1771 observation of the Transit of Venus at Tahiti; his 1772-5 search for the legendary great southern continent, (during which he crossed the Antarctic Circle three times) and his fatal third expedition to seek the Northwest Passage, during which he met his end in Hawaii. New Zealand is shown as two islands with with its shores charted as per Cook's first voyage. Maori placenames are used, represented with phonetic spellings. Australia is shown complete (albeit with a 'coast never traveled' noted in German.)

Sea of Korea vs. Sea of Japan

The sea between Japan and Korea is here identified as Das Coreanische Meer (The Korean Sea). Historically, Korea has used the term 'East Sea' since 59 B.C., and many books published before the Japanese annexed Korea make references to the 'East Sea' or 'Sea of Korea.' Over the centuries, neighboring and western countries have identified Korea's East Sea using various terms. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences referred to the East Sea as 'Koreiskoe Mope' or 'Sea of Korea' in their 1745 map of Asia. Other seventeenth and 18th century Russian maps alternate between 'Sea of Korea' and 'Eastern Ocean.' The 18th century Russian and French explorers Adam Johan von Krusenstern and La Perouse called it the 'Sea of Japan,' a term which became predominant in western mapping. Nonetheless, the name is currently still a matter of historical and political dispute.

'Land von Bougainville'

The mapping of New Guinea evidences uncertainty about the island's shape and extent. The known western and northern coastlines of New Guinea have been connected with dotted lines, to join with Bougainville's 1767 discoveries of the Louisiade Archipelago and Solomon Islands (marked with a massive Guadalcanal.)

A Spur To Exploration

The audience for this Augsburg-printed German-language map would not have missed the detail that none of the explorers' tracks appearing on this map belonged to Germans. Maps of the Pacific such as this likely encouraged German efforts to join the exploration of the East in the mid-19th century. Walch's son and heir produced several further editions of this map, amending its treatment both of the south coasts of Australia and the charting of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands - areas where the German Empire would establish colonies between 1884 and 1919.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Johann Walch in 1802, and separately issues. It is in part based on (and improved from) a 1796 Karte von der Inselwelt, Polynesien oder dem Fünften Welttheile by Franz Joh. Jos. von Reilly and Daniel Djurberg. Some examples were added to atlases factice but Walch produced no atlas for his larger format maps, resulting in their market scarcity. We see seventeen examples of this first 1802 edition in OCLC, out of some twenty-eight examples of all known printings.