History of Space

 Nizhoni Franklin

Richard Simpson

Cultural Geography

9 February 2021

History of Space

Paul Carter’s “Spatial History” discusses the naming of spaces and how imperial history affects different landscapes.

Carter first explains to the reader the harmfulness of imperial history by telling us that using this kind of history ends up reducing spaces to stages, only paying attention to certain points in time rather than everything that happens in and around that landscape. He also goes to say that imperial history isn’t always completely accurate and tends to put the main subjects of some events more into heroes rather than showing the world who they actually were, one example being colonization. We read about the positives of the colonists, the supposed discovery of “The New World”, Manifest destiny when in actuality these events in history caused the genocide of millions of Indigenous peoples and the forced relocation of the remaining Indigenous tribes. Imperial history even shows that most places are named after the people who discovered them, rather than aspects of the places.

Paul Carter’s “Spatial History” talks about different spaces and their names as an example of the harms imperial history and the hasty naming of spaces without much exploration or symbolism going into them.