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This is a hand-drawn historical map in Russian, detailing the global colonial and territorial divisions from 1784 to 1876. The map's hand-drawn nature is apparent from its illustration of borders, landmasses, and territories. Various colors are used to represent the colonial empires of the time, including:
- Great Britain (light green)
- France (purple)
- Spain (red striped)
- Portugal (brown)
- Netherlands (green)
- Germany (purple)
- Austro-Hungarian Empire (dark green)
- Russian Empire (yellow)
- Ottoman Empire (blue)
- United States (red)
The map differentiates between territories that belonged to the colonial powers in 1783 (presumably chosen because it was the year of establishment of the United States) and territories acquired by the powers between 1784 and 1876. The latter date might have been chosen for several reasons: it is the 100-year anniversary of the start of the American Revolution; it was the year Victoria was declared Empress of India; it is late enough to allow for Russia's acquisition of Sakhalin Island (in the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg).
It also features notations for key historical years, marking when particular territories were acquired (black) or gained independence (red).
Russian attitudes towards colonial possessions shifted dramatically from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, with the earlier period seeing varyingly successful attempts to expand Russia's contiguous borders in Central and East Asia, giving way to the Soviet contention that colonialism was a specific feature of the capitalist West. Perhaps we are missing something in our reading of the map, but it seems to lack the overt and often very heavy-handed propagandistic qualities of later Soviet anti-colonial cartography.
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