Re-inscribing propositions: historic cartography and Philippine claims to the Spratly Islands

This paper draws on critical cartographic studies to analyse the territorial evolution of the Philippines and problematize how Filipino politicians leverage historic maps to bolster claims in the South China Sea. The analysis juxtaposes the dispute in the South China Sea, the legacy of colonialism in the Philippines and historic cartography of maritime Southeast Asia. This article makes three overarching arguments. First, Filipino officials extract old maps from their spatial–historical contexts and insert them into modern conceptualizations of territory. The maps are re-inscribed with new propositions in accordance with maritime claims of the modern Philippine state. Second, this analysis problematizes the politicians’ arguments that the historic maps support those claims. Their re-inscriptions are incongruent with the internal logic of the maps themselves. Third, this cartographic strategy, in conjunction with a broader discursive initiative, prompts nationalistic responses among Filipinos and fosters a newer iteration of a Philippine geo-body enmeshed in maritime Southeast Asia. This illustrates the complexity of the South China Sea dispute, the discursiveness of maps and the inchoate nature of territory, particularly in ocean-space.