1869 Candido Mendes Map of the Theater of the Paraguayan War

Theater of the War of the Triple Alliance.

This is a rare 1869 map of the theater of the Paraguayan War, or the War of the Triple Alliance, drafted by Brazilian statesman and historian Candido Mendes de Almeida in the first years of the war. Its geography reflects the situation in 1865, when an increasingly militaristic and aggressive Paraguay, under the disastrous reign of Francisco Solano López Carrillo (1827 - 1870), inspired the unlikely alliance of traditional enemies, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic. The war, a year old when this map was composed, would by 1870 result in Paraguay's virtual annihilation. This Paris edition of the map was printed as a supplement to the 1869 Revue Martime et Coloniale, published by the French Ministere de la Marine et des Colonies. France had, from the dawn of Uruguay's independence, maintained a political and trade interest there, and so the turmoil of the Plata region during the 1860s would have been of pressing interest.

A Closer Look

The map presents the region surrounding the Rio de la Plata, and is centered on Paraguay; the Republic of Uruguay and the neighboring regions of the Empire of Brazil dominate the right of the map; the Argentine Republic appears in the southwestern parts of the map, including the Chaco del Norte west of Paraguay and the Misiones region extending between Paraguay and the Brazilian province of S. Pedro do Sul. Paraguay is shown occupying territory in the Misiones across the Parana River, and likewise the broad 'Chaco Paraguayo' between the Rio Paraguay and the Argentinian Chaco del Norte. The Rio Apa forms Paraguay's northern border with Brazil. Mountain ranges are shown pictorially. The map focuses primarily on the region's all-important river systems, the main means of transportation. Few roads are indicated, notably the northern route from Goyaz to Cuyaba, which was Brazil's main communication with the Paraguay River. One railway is marked: the Paraguayan railroad from Asuncion to Villa Rica via Paraguary. This railway - built by British engineers - was opened in 1861 and completed in 1864. By the end of the war, it was destroyed.

In the upper left is an inset map of Montevideo Bay with a plan of the city, whose grid fills the peninsula enclosing the Bay. The inset is a reduction of the 1846 Pedro Pico plan of Montevideo, produced during the famous siege of the city (1843 - 1851).

French Edition of a Brazilian Map

Candido Mendes de Almeida initially produced this map for publication on March 10, 1865 as a supplement to the Anglo-Brazilian Times. That map was printed by Lith. de Forel, in Rio de Janeiro and bore the Portuguese title, Mappa do Theatro da Guerra do Urucuay e Paraguay Organisado por Candido Mendes de Almeida. (It is apparently extremely rare - we see a sole example in the Biblioteca Fluminense.) The present map, intended for a French audience interested in maritime affairs and the effects of the ruinous Paraguayan War on French trade in South America, was copied to a new stone and printed in Paris to supplement the 1869 Revue Martime et Coloniale. Its geographical information is identical to the 1865 map, but here the title is in French, and there are several typographical changes. One notable difference is in the name for Uruguay: the Brazilian edition names it 'Estado Oriental' while the Paris edition uses the name 'Republique de L'Uruguay.'

Publication History and Census

This edition of the map was printed by Impr. de Bry as a supplement to the 1869 edition of Revue Martime et Coloniale, the journal of the French Ministere de la Marine et des Colonies. We see only one example of this edition recorded, in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It is very scarce on the market.

Cartographers

Candido Mendes de Almeida (October 14, 1818 - March 1, 1881) was a Brazilian author, historian, lawyer, and senator. He published mainly on the subject of law, but also edited a series of memoirs of the history of the indigenous population of the Maranhão region of the Amazon, which were published between 1860 and 1874. The journal of the Historical, Geographical and Ethnographic Institute of Brazil published his December 10, 1875, presentation to the Institute, 'O nome de América será americano?' (Will the name America be American?) regarding the naming of the Americas by Vespucci. Though not prolific as a mapmaker, he did produce the first atlas of Brazil (Atlas do Império do Brasil, 1868) and at least one separately-issued map: a c. 1865 pertaining to the beginning of the1864-1870 War of the Triple Alliance. He served as a Brazilian senator between 1871 and 1881, and received honors during his lifetime.   Further Details...

Pedro Pico (1810 - 1886) was an Argentine surveyor. Born in Buenos Aires, he was educated as an engineer in England. Returning to America, he became a surveyor for Uruguay. By 1837, he was employed in that capacity by the Department of Mines; some manuscripts of his have survived from that period. With the advent of the Uruguayan Civil War, he moved to Montevideo and joined the forces holding the city against Rosas. He produced a plan of the city in 1845 during the course of the siege, marking the positions of the opposing forces. In its first edition, it is one of the earliest maps printed in Uruguay. Following the war, Pico returned home to Buenos Aires where he taught classes at the University and joined the Topographic Department. He also produced geographical map of the province of Entre Ríos, during the period in which it was governed by General Urquiza. He retired to Rivadavia in Argentina, and died in 1886.   Further Details...

Condition

Excellent. Visible fold lines. Original wash color.

References

OCLC 494918787 (BNF)