Mark Jefferson was the Chief Cartographer for the US members of the Paris Peace Conference which resulted in the Versailles Peace Treaty. This talk at Eastern Michigan University describes the ethnographic maps and the role of calculation in boundary-making.
DEMONSTRATION LESSON IN ENGLISH 4 MATATAG CURRICULUM
Not Justice, But Things for Them: Mark Jefferson at the Paris Peace Conference
1. “Not Justice, but Things for Them”
Mark Jefferson at the Paris Peace
Conference
Jeremy W. Crampton
2. Outline
1. Jefferson Brief Biography
2. (Some) Maps at the Paris Peace Conference
3. Jefferson in Context
a) “Ethnographic” mapping
b) Calculation
4. Legacies and Conclusion
3. Bowman obituary 1949:
“His keen scythe could mow down a
waving field of words at one sweep.
He had a dryness and wit that
sometimes offended the dull and that
were a constant source of amusement
to his friends”
“I can’t say that Professor Jefferson was
a gentle spirit. If one couldn’t take it,
he was often very severe and sarcastic
to the point of cruelty.” – Raye Platt,
former student
21. “We made eight maps showing the distribution of
nationalities; four of these maps were copied from
neutral European or American authorities, while the
other four represented the moderate patriotic claims of
the Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks, and Albanians respectively.
We then put all eight maps together and coloured up
the areas which nobody disputed.
“This left almost all the Balkans in dispute.
“We then made a second map using only the neutral
authorities. This time the areas in dispute were really
narrowed down to a place where they were
manageable. It proved pretty conclusively that 60–80%
of the territory in the Balkans in dispute was put in
dispute by propaganda.”
23. 3. Jefferson in Context
“Calculation”
Statistical Atlas of the United States based on the Ninth Census
1870. Compiled under Authority of Francis A. Walker, 1874.
Library of Congress.
24. April 3
Orlando: defends right of Italy to Fiume,
citing London Treaty
Wilson: make Fiume a free city. Locals
want autonomy
Orlando: no
Trumbic [Serb Minister of Foreign
Affairs]: should be Yugoslavia. An
ethnographic map shows Croat
domination
April 11
Orlando: Bolshevik unrest on streets of
Rome
Wilson agrees to meet privately with him
April 20
Orlando chastises Wilson for double
standards
Orlando leaves the talks after emotion-filled discussion and “weeps
by the window”
Deliberation of the Council of Four Notes of the Official Interpreter Paul Mantoux
25. Marinelli, 1919. AGS Geographical Review, “The Region of Mixed
Populations in Northern Italy” Vol. 7, No. 3 (Mar., 1919), pp. 129-148
26.
27. “All tyrants have attempted to
improve the world by killing and
persecuting those who opposed
them, but the dead men’s thought
has always prevailed”
--Mark Jefferson, June 1938
EMU Jefferson Archives Office
28. List of Inquiry maps donated by Jefferson to AGS in 1932 and subsequently transferred to Yale
30. April, 1919
Appointed representative of the American Commission to
Negotiate Peace for the Commission of Expert
Geographers
“to study the tracing of new frontiers” (USA, Britain,
France, Italy and Japan)
MJ:
“Boundaries always offer the best possible grounds of quarrel, if
men are inclined to quarrel. The descriptions of these boundaries
by men neither acquainted with the ground traversed nor able to
read the nature of the ground from maps, would be full of
opportunity for real misunderstanding”
“Governments must pretend to an infallibility quite beyond their
capacities”
33. Jefferson’s contributions in context
Ami Boué 1847 “Ethnological” Map of Turkey in Europe
--Geologist of French origin
--Geology of Balkan states
--Lamarckian evolution
--Direct fieldwork observation of places and peoples
Notes de l'éditeur
Built in 1906 to Theodora Jefferson’s design
Border = “natural boundary of Italy”
Fiume = Italian with foreign admixture above 50%, surrounded by Croats
