South America

Vibrant overview of the geographic consequences of South American independence movements during the early 19th century.

The momentous upheavals in the early decades of the 1800’s forever changed the geographic and political landscape of South America. The successful French invasion of Spain in 1807 as part of the Napoleonic Wars led many in Latin America to question the power of overseas authority. A series of scattered, irregular actions eventually coalesced into a larger independence movement, fueled by revolutionaries (libertadores) such as Simon Bolivar, Francisco de Miranda, and Jose de San Martin.

This map shows the result of their success, with colonial occupation restricted only to the Guiana coast in the northeast. However, large “coalition” states like the United Provinces and Gran Colombia would not last long, and several further countries would be created as a result in the coming decades. Bolivia is one example, having proclaimed its independence in 1825 and shown on the map with a red outline. The map was drawn by E. Paguenaud and engraved by Young & Delleker. It was issued as sheet number 46 in the 1826 edition of Carey & Lea’s Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas.

This important American publication was issued in six separate editions and three different languages between 1822 and 1827. It was heavily influenced by an earlier European atlas by Emmanuel Las Cases (published under the pseudonym A. Lesage.), which inspired the format of a base map surrounded by blocks of informative text and tables of statistics.

Henry Carey, a political economist and the son of prominent publisher Matthew Carey, and his brother-in-law Isaac Lea incorporated this novel theme into their atlas, which focused entirely on the countries of the Western Hemisphere. It was issued at a time of tremendous political change in both North and South America, and the detailed maps accompanied by extensive text provide a unique, often insightful, perspective on the problems and possibilities of the Americas in the first quarter of the 19th century.

Wheat, C. I. (2004). Mapping the Transmississippi West: 1540-1861. Mansfield Centre (CT): Martino Publishing. #348

Egli, L. G., & Phillips, P. L. (1974). A list of geographical atlases in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress. #1373