Analysis and comparison of maps made in the 18th century of the Amazon River

Abstract

Some of the main obstacles to the conquest and colonization of America by European powers were the scarce knowledge of the territory and the hostility of indigenous ethnic groups to its presence. Over the years, remarkable characters played the role of explorers and applying empirical methods began the survey of the territory, using the data collected and with the methods available on that time the first maps were delineated. Nearly two centuries passed and maps of South America with the Amazon River and its hydrographic basin as one of the centrals elements began to be produced by religious and scientific personalities. The purposes were totally different, but the expected result was a reliable representation of the area. Through the use of geographic information system programs and specialized software in map comparison, a temporal and comparative analysis of five old maps of the region published in the eighteenth century was carried out, with which in a graphical way the reader can visualize the updates of the mapped geographic elements and the accuracy of the work. Likewise, the selected area was digitalized and the basic cartography of each map with its respective database was created. In order to visualize the information generated through a virtual environment, a Story Map Journal in ArcGIS Online was created, it includes a summary about the life of each author, a description and the bibliographic reference of the map made, and the map compared to current data.

Keywords

• Amazon River
• old maps
• eighteenth century
• maps comparison
• MapAnalyst