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When King Ferdinand VII abdicated the throne in favor of Napoleon, who had successfully invaded the Iberian Peninsula, the entire Spanish Empire was rocked to its core. Revolutionary movements quickly sprang up in Central and South America, and one of the earliest took place in Buenos Aires in May of 1810. A coalition of provinces emerged from the subsequent Argentine War of Independence as the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata. The often confusing amalgamation of political entities are shown organized by color on this map, drawn by J. Finlayson and engraved by Young & Delleker. Scattered settlements are served by numerous navigable rivers, and only a handful of roads are indicated. The Andes are prominently depicted in the east, as is the Parana River in the west. Surrounding the image are numerous paragraphs providing further information on the climate, geography, political organization and history of the short lived union, which officially dissolved after a series of further wars of intendance in 1831. The map was included as sheet number 49 in the 1827 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 Sheet Width (in) 21.75 Sheet Height (in) 17.6 Condition Description A faint damp stain visible in the center of the upper margin, away from the image, and scattered foxing present elsewhere in the margins. The image exhibits minor discoloration along the vertical centerfold, but is otherwise in very good condition. Clean, with original hand color.
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