A cartografia como instrumento de controle: do mapeamento de fronteiras ao imperialismo de dados no ciberespaço

Abstract

This study aims to critically analyze the historical evolution of cartography as an instrument of geopolitical domination and social control, identifying the continuities and technical transformations spanning from the analog representations of the 19th-century nation-state to contemporary digital monitoring. Methodologically, the work centers on qualitative research guided by the theoretical frameworks of Critical Geography, the History of Cartography, and Contemporary Geopolitics. The results demonstrate that metric and spatial standardization in the early 20th century, alongside boundary demarcations by military commissions, functioned as "paper armor" to facilitate capitalist expansion and impose state sovereignty over areas perceived as demographic voids (*terra nullius*). This process operated through the criminal, systematic expropriation of Indigenous populations and the erasure of biophysical elements. Conversely, the study observes the emergence of counter-cartographies and Indigenous self mapping as tactics for safeguarding collective memory and fostering spatial resistance. The transition to the digital era has sophisticated territorial control through algorithms, establishing a form of data imperialism that reinscribes historical cartographic silences and deterritorializes peripheral populations.