Democratic Republic of the Congo刚果民主共和国

Rene Cambier

This paper introduces the General Atlas of the Belgian Congo, a project of the Royal Colonial Belgian Institute. The atlas will contain sixty to seventy plates covering seven themes—history, geodesy, physical environment, biogeography, anthropology, administration, and economy—to synthesize current knowledge of the colony. Each plate has bilingual French-Dutch notes. Three maps are finished: phytogeography, explorations, and national parks. Eight to ten maps are planned yearly; revised editions will follow.

Walter W. Ristow; Niels Nielsen; Axel Schou; W. E. Calvert; Hugo Hassinger

This review examines sixteen noteworthy general and topical regional atlases published during the past decade, representing eleven countries. It applies the Wright-Platt classification of atlases, distinguishing between general regional and topical regional works. The atlases discussed include French thematic volumes on viticulture, textiles, peat bogs, and hydroelectric power, as well as national and regional atlases from Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, Tanganyika, India, Australia, and Brazil. The review assesses their organization, cartographic quality, editorial collaboration, and scholarly utility. It finds that such specialized atlases serve primarily researchers and serious users, and that many reflect the growing practical needs of regional planning, resource appraisal, and national self-knowledge. The cooperative production of the Atlas of Denmark is singled out as exemplary, while the rainfall atlas of Brazil fills an important gap in South American climatic studies. The review concludes that regional atlases make significant contributions to geographical scholarship and inter-institutional collaboration.

Malcolm E. Bondy

This note reports on a valuable addition to the Map Division's African holdings: five folios of the French-Flemish Atlas Général Du Congo Et Du Ruanda-Urundi (Algemene Atlas Van Congo En Van Ruanda-Urundi), published by the Institut Royal Colonial Belge, Brussels, 1948. When complete, the atlas will consist of seven sections—History, Geodesy, the Physical World, Biogeography, Anthropology and the Social Sciences, Politics and Government, and Economics—each subdivided into folios. The five folios currently acquired cover an introduction, biogeography, history, and political affairs. The introductory folio includes a 1:3,000,000 map showing international, provincial, and district boundaries, along with towns, villages, rivers, lakes, missions, mines, roads, railroads, and airports, supplemented by a comprehensive 23-page gazetteer. Other folios delineate vegetation zones, national parks and forest reserves, routes of Congo explorers, and administrative subdivisions since 1888, each accompanied by relevant textual material. The publisher indicates additional folios in preparation on ethnology, language, population density, transportation, hydrography, boundaries, telecommunications, and economy. For topics not yet issued, researchers may consult René de Rouck's Atlas Géographique Et Historique Du Congo Belge Et Des Territoires Sous Mandat Du Ruanda-Urundi (Bruxelles, 1947) in the Map Division's reading room. This acquisition enriches cartographic resources for African studies and offers useful guidance for researchers and collection development.

This review assesses two publications on Africa: a tribal dictionary offering grammatical, etymological, and phonetic (IPA) information, praised as a mine of data but criticized for its alphabetical order that obscures a comprehensive view; and the I.R.C.B. General Atlas of the Congo, including five maps—population density, tsetse flies, anti-slavery campaigns, plant production, and frontiers. The reviewer notes their utility while pointing out specific shortcomings, such as inaccuracies in the vegetation map and an important missing name on the boundary map.

A.E. Meeussen

This review evaluates a language map of the Congo in the General Atlas by Van Bulck. It praises the map for adopting linguistic rather than ethnic criteria in areas like Katanga, avoiding excessive variants, and achieving a common orthography for language names. However, it identifies several classification defects: Mbanja should be a Banda dialect, the Megye group belongs to Eastern Sudanic, Kaonde groups with Luba, and Boyo/Vira/Masanze with Maniema. It also notes missing dialects in the Mongo area, unjustified splits of linguistic units due to ethnic reasons, and naming inconsistencies. The reviewer regrets the absence of important references. Overall, the map is well executed, balanced, and visually pleasing.

Yonge, Ena L.

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of national atlases produced worldwide up to the late 1950s. The author reviews the development, scope, and cartographic quality of more than two dozen national atlases, with an emphasis on those published after World War II. The study examines atlases across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, analyzing their thematic coverage, scales, symbolic innovations, and accompanying explanatory texts. Key findings highlight the leading role of European countries—particularly Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden—in producing atlases that integrate physical, economic, and social geography with advanced graphic techniques. Outside Europe, emerging national atlas projects in Israel, Morocco, the Congo, Australia, and the United States are documented, though many regions remain underrepresented. The paper underscores the value of national atlases as tools for planning, education, and research, and notes the growing trend of bilingual map legends and summaries to serve international audiences. The survey reveals increasing ambition and scope in national atlas production, mirroring both rising nationalism and the demand for systematic spatial knowledge of individual countries.

H. Arnhold

This article reviews the overall design and content of the Atlas Général du Congo (Brussels, 1948/54, published by the Institut Royal Colonial Belge). The atlas plans to publish 110 maps with accompanying texts, covering political, physical, economic, and human themes. All maps use a uniform scale of 1:5,000,000 and include detailed bilingual explanations in French and Flemish. The article highlights the 25 maps published so far, including topics such as national parks, exploration routes, administrative divisions, geology, population density, surface water, plant and animal production, land surveying, languages, historical events, medicine, climate, gendarmerie posts, and missionary activities. The author highly praises the atlas for its comprehensive concept, technical rigor, and unique value as a regional geographic reference.

Ena L. Yonge

This article is a comprehensive review of regional atlases, written by Ena L. Yonge. The author begins by noting that, given the ever-increasing flood of atlases from around the world, individual reviews of each publication are impossible; therefore, a summary survey is adopted. She also stresses that no single reviewer can be sufficiently expert in all aspects of geography, cartography, and linguistics to render sound critical judgments. The roughly one hundred regional atlases discussed are grouped primarily by continent or large region and then arranged alphabetically by country. In the European section, the author evaluates national and thematic atlases from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, and other countries, covering topics such as road transport, historical geography, climate, population, economy, and land use. She comments in detail on cartographic quality, scales, printing techniques, and practical utility. For example, the Austrian national atlas, directed by Hans Bobek and Erik Arnberger under the Commission for Land Planning of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, was published in five annual parts and demonstrates excellent cartography and printing. The Atlas de Belgique and the Atlas du Survey National supplement each other with plates on hydrogeology, phytogeography, agriculture, basic industries, waterways, and railways. The Climatic Atlas of Czechoslovakia is praised for its beautiful large-scale maps of temperature and precipitation. The article then turns to North America, focusing on state atlases in the United States, including Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. These atlases cover agriculture, forestry, economic resources, historical geography, and population, often compiled by universities or state agencies for educational and planning purposes. In the South American section, the author highlights notable publications such as the Atlas do Brasil, the Atlas de economía colombiana, and Venezuelan climatic and forest atlases. Throughout the review, the author acknowledges the scholarly value and cartographic achievements of many works while also pointing out occasional problems such as overly large formats or inappropriate scales. Overall, the article provides a broad and informative reference guide to regional atlases for scholars in geography, cartography, and related fields.

T. E. Hilton

This review evaluates P. Gourou's atlas of population density and distribution in the Équateur province of the Congo, part of the Atlas Général du Congo. It examines three 1:1,000,000 maps: administrative units, rural density using sixteen categories, and population distribution. The reviewer finds the visual presentation effective, but notes that symbols are not directly proportional. The maps reveal population concentration along communication lines and avoidance of large rivers, with statistical tables supplementing the demographic data. Despite minor defects, the atlas is considered valuable for detailed regional studies; the reviewer hopes production continues despite recent political instability.

This review criticizes the electoral map of the Congo (1961) by J.H. Pirenne, which represents the May 1960 elections. The main flaw is its selective treatment of political parties: only parties with the largest number of seats are highlighted, while the multiplicity of local parties is largely ignored. The author questions why some local/ethnic parties are assigned distinct colors while others are not, particularly when both are equally regional in nature. This inconsistency undermines the map's stated goal of showing territorial fragmentation and localized leadership influence, as well as the need to adapt structures to regional divergences. Overall, the review argues that the map's methodology fails to adequately convey the extreme political fragmentation of the Congo.