Atlas Historic-Geografico de los Limites del Ecuador

Atlas of Ecuador published under a military junta.

This ‘Historical Geographic Atlas of the Limits of Ecuador’ was compiled by General Luis T. Paz y Mino and published in Quito by the Talleres del Servicio Geografico Militar (Military Geographic Service Workshops) in July of 1936. The year prior, a coup d’etat supported by the military overthrew President José María Velasco Ibarra and installed Federico Páez. The author, Mino (1884-1962), was a historian and geologist but also served in a variety of political roles for the Army and the governments it supported.

The atlas contains sixteen maps outlining the evolving borders of Ecuador and its predecessor states, beginning with the limits of the Audiencia of Quito in 1563. As only the first part, it concludes with the national limits as established by a treaty with Columbia in 1916.

The volume was likely issued in conjunction with the Ulloa-Viteri Accord, signed in July 1936 with between Ecuador and Peru that established a ‘status quo’ line for the international border. Further violence over the disputed territory would erupt just a few years after publication, with the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941.