The conquest of landscape: representations of Mexican territory in a couple of illustrated Parisian weeklies during the French intervention (1862-1867)

Abstract

This paper studies the representations of the territory, the communication infrastructure, and the climate during the French intervention in Mexico (1862-1867), based on the quantitative, iconographic and iconotextual analysis of the images and reports published on the matter by two Parisian illustrated weeklies: Le Monde Illustré and L'Illustration Journal Universel. The results obtained after exploring the three proposed categories –landscape, views, and cartographic images– were contrasted with Mexican and French letters, memoirs, and newspapers, with the aim of evidencing the various ways in which each faction configured its own representations of Mexican soil to be used within the battles waged on the symbolic field of the war.