Mapa de la Republica de Nicaragua.

1858 Sonnenstern Map of Nicaragua - first scientific map of that nation!

Publication Date: 1858

About this Item

Very good. Dissected and mounted on linen in 32 panels as issued. Light toning and offsetting. Size 23.5 x 29.75 Inches. This is Maximilian Sonnenstern's 1858 map of Nicaragua, the first official map of that state, here in its first edition. The map represents the first scientific survey of Nicaragua during a period when that nation held center stage as the most likely route for an interoceanic canal. It, moreover, is the earliest of Sonnenstern's seminal maps of the newly independent Central American republics. This map was followed by similarly significant maps of Guatemala and El Salvador. A Closer Look Depicting the western three-fifths of modern-day Nicaragua, the map illustrates from the Gulf of Fonseca to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Honduran border and the 'depopulated' area of Nicaragua (the Mosquito Coast) to the Pacific and Costa Rica. Nicaragua's topography appears in detail with cities, villages, and connecting roads noted. Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua appear in detail, with islands and ferry routes illustrated. Four elevation profiles in the lower left emphasize Nicaragua's daunting terrain. Inset maps of León, Granada, and Old León appear in the upper right, with locations numerically indexed. Historical Context: The Filibuster War or Walker Affair Nicaragua gained its independence several times over the course of the first half of the 19th century. First from Spain in 1821, then from the First Mexican Empire in 1823. That same year Nicaragua joined the United Provinces of Central America, which lasted until 1838, when it split off and became an independent republic. During this entire time, warfare within Nicaragua was constant, with conflicts between Liberals in León and Conservatives in Granada degenerating into periodic civil war. Enter, in 1855, an American expansionist mercenary named William Walker (1824 - 1860). Walker was born in Nashville and was an ardent supporter American expansionism and Manifest Destiny. After failed attempts to seize control of and establish unofficial U.S. colonies in Baja California and Sonoroa, Walker arrived in Nicaragua to 'help' Liberal president Francisco Castellón defeat the Conservatives. Leading an army of approximately 160 Americans and 170 locals, Walker defeated the Conservatives (Legitimists) and declared himself president of Nicaragua. He claimed to support progressive values and wanted to modernize the country in order to entice immigration from the United States - essentially to displace or enslave the local populace. He also saw such colonies as refuges for the Southern plantation elite in the face of abolitionist movements in the United States. To such ends, he re-instituted slavery and made English Nicaragua's official language. Although supportive of the Nicaragua Canal project (which would have made him even more powerful), he railed against any foreign influence other than his own. This made him powerful enemies including English investors in the Nicaragua Canal, and American business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose Accessory Transit Company provided overland transport between the Caribbean and the Pacific through the isthmus of Rivas. More regionally, Walker's coup also destabilized and antagonized other independent Central American states. Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala signed a mutual defense treaty and, under Costa Rican leadership with support from Vanderbilt, declared personal war on Walker. Under pressure from all sides, Walker surrendered on May 1, 1857, and four days later, left Nicaragua for the United States. Undaunted, Walker, returned to Central America in 1860, where he was arrested by the Royal Navy and handed over to the Honduran government, who summarily executed him. Sonnenstern in Nicaragua Maximilian Sonnenstern arrived in Nicaragua near the beginning of Walker's regime. As a Forty-Eighter (refugee of the failed German Revolutions of 1848), he may have shared Walker's professed goals of modernizing and colonizing Nica.

Seller Inventory # Nicaragua-sonnenstern-1858

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mapa de la Republica de Nicaragua.
• Publication Date: 1858
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • MEXICO-CENTRALAMERICA