Plan of the City of Havanah

Fascinating sheet from Gentlemen’s Magazine framing Havana’s 18th century geopolitical strategic position.

The map on this sheet, engraved anonymously and published in the March 1840 issue of the Gentlemen’s Magazine in London, is centered on the city of Havana and the surrounding harbor. Depth soundings are provided in fathoms, and fourteen various points within the map are identified by upper and lower-case letters. These points are focused largely on locations of strategic significance, such as forts and other obstacles preventing the capture of the city.

It’s clear the map has a military purpose, and the corresponding text explains it in further detail. “As Jamaica secures the Windward Passage, and the Havana the Gulph of Florida, the possession of the Havana would not only facilitate our navigation in the W. Indian Seas, but likewise be a severe check upon the Spanish Guarda Costa’s.” Additional information at the bottom of the sheet further justifies the English desire to capture the city, explaining that “the air is more temperate and healthy, than in most of the American islands, and the soil extremely fertile, yielding abundance of all those spice, and other commodities, produced in the West Indian islands.”

The British would ultimately achieve their goal, albeit temporarily, in 1762 during the Seven Year’s War, when they occupied the city before returning it less than a year later after signing the Treaty of Paris.