Mapmaking by the last Fleet of New Spain (1776-1778):

production and dissemination of cartographic and Geographic knowledge about the eastern Novo-Hispanic coast

Abstract

During the Enlightenment, the idea of scientific and political progress was closely related to geographic knowledge. In this context, in the second half of the 18th century, significant cartographic and geographic advances were made in Hispanic America, especially regarding its coasts. As a geo-historically dated social construction, this cartography reflects the political, military, economic and religious powers then active in the American territory. Indeed, military engineers and officers in the Spanish Royal Navy contributed to those cartographic advances through their practical experience and surveys, which were used, together with Creole knowledge, to improve previous work, to make later smaller-scale maps, to support shipbuilding projects and facilitate communications by sea across vast portions of Hispanic territories. With an eminently practical purpose and subjected to colonial political and economic interests, they succeeded in producing and disseminating geographic knowledge. This article studies the specific case of the Atlantic coast of New Spain during the stay of Antonio de Ulloa and members of the last Spanish Fleet of the Indies to connect the ports of Cadiz and Veracruz, between July 1776 and January 1778.