Bibliographie complète

The French monarchy accumulated a large number of geographic documents describing its colonies. The thesis submits to close examination the role of the state in an intellectual activity consisting of observing, recording and representing graphically the colonial territory. Exploiting various types of documents – topographic, cadastral, hydrographic and general maps –, the study aims not to present an inclusive portrait of cartographic activity, but rather to explore various thematic issues, notably: the bounding of colonial territory, courtiers’ cartography, validation mechanisms, specialization and useful knowledge, the uses of geographical information. With regard to a historiography increasingly preoccupied with the modes of territorial dispossession and of the inscription of knowledge, the thesis analyzes the contexts and mechanisms of the production, collection, archiving and re-use of geographical documents produced by or for the state in New France. In exploring the colonial context of imperial cartographic activity, the study confirms the importance of the state in this field. But it affords a more precise view of that activity in emphasizing the complexity of the genesis of maps that sooner or later gravitated toward the metropolitan centre.