Cartography of Latin America, map-making of the realms in the Western Hemisphere, was an important aim of European powers expanding into the New World. Both the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire began mapping the realms they explored and settled. They also speculated on the lands that were marked terra incognita. Indigenous groups created maps of their territories, some of which predated the arrival of the Europeans. Maps for Spain also projected "its particular sense of order, religion, and justice, or what was understood as policía in its new colonies."[1] Maps could be a form of propaganda;[2] empires used maps as a means to assert sovereignty over territory, even when the situation on the ground did not merit it. The Spanish crown mandated the creation of reports from indigenous towns in New Spain, the Relaciones geográficas, a major state-directed project for gathering information.[3][4] with written descriptions and usually a map. A useful collection of articles pointing to some major issues in New World cartography has recently appeared.[5] When other European powers began exploring and settling the zones that Spain and Portugal had claimed as their own, maps began to delineate the boundaries between empires.[6] As Latin America nation-states coalesced following independence in the early nineteenth century, map making was a standard national project.[7]
Map showing the line of the Treaty of Tordesillas. 1502. Alberto Cantino.
Detail of the Waldseemüller Map, showing the name "America". 1502.
Portuguese map of Brazil by Lopo Homem (c. 1519) showing the coast and natives extracting brazilwood, as well as Portuguese ships
Tenochtitlan 1524.
Map of the Relación geográfica of Culhuacan, Mexico. 1580.
Americas. c. 1640. Dutch. Jodocus Hondius
Map of America Meridional. 1771. Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla
Carte de l'Amerique. 1774. French. Guillaume Delisle
Map of the equator from the La Condamine expedition. mid 18th c.
Map of the Caleta de San Lazaro showing the Batería de la Reina, Havana, Cuba
Chimborazo Map, Alexander von Humboldt. 1805.
Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790, showing lands over which they asserted sovereignty, but did not necessarily control
Map of Spanish America, ca. 1800
Captaincy General of Chile in 1775
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