1939 Romer Pictorial Resource Map of South America

This is a 1939 Jack Romer pictorial resource map of South America eight months before World War II. Depicting the continent from Panama to Tierra del Fuego and from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, Romer and the Sunday News highlight the natural riches of South America and their implied strategic importance to Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Trade and the Coming War

Icons scattered from Colombia and Venezuela to Chile mark everything from tobacco, cotton, and coffee, to sheep, cattle, and goats, to petroleum, rubber, copper, and iron. Every country in South America has something of value on offer. The text box in the lower left corner states that trade between the Americas increased between 1933 and 1937, as did trade between Germany and many nations in South America. Trade between South American countries and Great Britain, however, decreased dramatically over the same period, making South America an important theater in the ensuing struggle between the Axis and the Allies, even if most of the physical fighting happened an ocean away. These numbers are illustrated by a series of graphs included in the lower right corner.

On the Map

South American countries are shaded different colors to allow for easy differentiation. Each country's area, population, exports, and imports are provided, giving more hard numbers to support the argument made here. Shipping routes between various ports in South America and New York and Liverpool are illustrated by dashed lines, with the distance between the two ports given in miles.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Jack Romer and published by the New York Sunday News on January 29, 1939. The only other known example is part of the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University.