1831 Dower / Teesdale Map of Gran Colombia

This is a beautiful 1831 John Dower and Henry Teesdale map of Gran Colombia, published in their A New General Atlas of the World. It depicts the state of Gran Colombia, which dissolved the same year this map was published, resulting in the creation of Venezuela, Ecuador, and a rump Republic of New Granada.

A Closer Look

This map illustrates the provinces of the tenuously-established state of Gran Colombia, which formed in 1819 and disbanded the same year as this map's publication. The polity included today's Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and portions of Brazil and Peru. Aside from cities and political divisions, mountains are also indicated with hachure, while rivers and coastal features (bays, bars, islands) are assiduously noted. In the Amazon, the names of local indigenous groups are also indicated. Scales are provided in both British miles and Spanish leagues.

The inset map at bottom-right highlights proposed communication routes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, the result of a study commissioned in 1827 by Simón Bolívar to find the best means to connect Charges, on the Atlantic, with Panama (City), on the Pacific. As Gran Colombia dissolved, the plan was never implemented, but it did suggest that such a scheme was possible. This concept was only realized nearly thirty years later with the opening of the Panama Railroad.

Bolívar's Vision

In the process of leading a large portion of Spanish America through struggles for independence, Simón Bolívar also developed a vision for a united polity including much of northern and western South America, with Venezuela and New Granada (Columbia) at its core. Doubting the feasibility of a federal system along the lines of the United States, Bolívar envisioned a strong central state with a powerful executive to hold together disparate regional forces, which he feared would result in weak and anarchic governments. Through the 1820s, he struggled to bring this version of Gran Colombia to fruition but was never able to convince or cajole enough other elites, who had contrasting regional and ideological commitments. In April 1830, Bolívar resigned the Presidency of Gran Colombia and died several months later. The Republic broke up into Venezuela, Ecuador, and New Granada (today's Columbia and Panama, with portions of other countries).

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by John Dower for the 1831 edition of A New General Atlas of the World, published by Henry Teesdale. This appears to be an especially rare presentation of this map, as most examples from this or other editions of A New General Atlas do not show such vivid and full hand-coloring, only the outlines of territories. The 1831 edition of this map is only independently cataloged in the holdings of six institutions, while the entire atlas is held by roughly a dozen institutions, though as stated above the present map may be distinct from those examples in coloration.