Geodetic surveying comprises the determination of locations on and the dimensions of the earth’s surface at a various scales. In the 19th century, its technologies are those of direct measurement of the earth’s surface combined with astronomical observations. Its social context encompasses all those individuals and institutions involved in the creation, preservation, use, and arrangement of knowledge of the earth. In the introductory part of the paper the author mentions several important events in the history of the 19th century geodesy. Geodetic work on determining the size of the Earth by measuring the lengths of the meridian arcs continues in this century. An international surveying organization was established and the international meter convention adopted. Basing on a detailed research of geodetic surveying in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the 19th century, a part of these surveys is presented that relates to Switzerland, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Common to all these geodetic surveys is that they were necessary for the development of cartography and were carried out by military institutions. The developed geodetic networks are characterized by the use of different ellipsoids, different prime meridians, different coordinate systems and their origin. In the area under consideration in the 19th century, there were five different ellipsoids in use suggested by Bessel, Bonenberger, Schmidt, Valbeck and Zach. Prime meridians were: Budapest, Ferro, Greenwich and Paris. There were also several different coordinate systems. For example, in the territory of present-day Croatia, and then within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, at that time there were four different coordinate systems with origins in Klostar-Ivanic (present-day Croatia), Krim (present-day Slovenia), Vienna (Austria) and Budapest (Hungary).