O Maloj Vlaškoj u kartografskoj tradiciji
Little Wallachia in Cartographic Tradition

Summary/Abstract: The paper offers a collection of roughly thirty carefully selected maps that show Little Wallachia in southwest Slavonia in the 18th century. The concept of Vlach communities as “Others” is related to the depiction of the former western border area of the Ottoman Empire, which at the end of the 17th century became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Little Wallachia, the term given to the region where the Vlach people once lived, became well-known over time. In Slavonia, that name progressively came to have a spatial connotation, becoming part of the cartographic tradition at the start of the 18th century, among other things. According to the languages used by each cartographer, the region is referred to by different names, including Valachia Minor, Kleine Walachey, Kleine Wallachey, Petite Valaquie, Walachia Minor, Piccolo Vallachia, and Little Valakia. These names are recorded on various maps published throughout Europe: Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, Nuremberg, Augsburg, London, Venice, Naples, Pressburg (Bratislava), and Siena. The significance of Vlachs in the province of Little Wallachia gradually diminished with the disappearance of specific circumstances connected to the Ottoman-Habsburg imperial border and peaceful times led to the transformation of the Vlach communities. Thus, a change in the circumstances surrounding the name’s origin resulted in Little Wallachia’s disappearance from the cartographic tradition during the 19th century. It is also possible to prove the territorialization and deterritorialization of border communities if we track the changes in the nomenclature of maps depicting Little Wallachia in the 18th century as compared to earlier and subsequent periods.

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