1895 Rock Map of Guatemala, Mexico, Belize Border

A rich 1895 Spanish-language map of Guatemala produced by American surveyor Miles Rock. Rock was employed by the Guatemalan government to demarcate the border, which had been disputed with Mexico in the preceding decades, causing a diplomatic crisis that became a model study in international law.

A Closer Look

As is evident here, the boundaries between Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (British Honduras) were highly uncertain in the late 19th century. A legend at bottom-right explains the origin of the various colored lines representing proposed border settlements. Despite wide variation in some places, most of these date from 1882 or after, when Mexico and Guatemala were in the process of negotiating the location of the border. In addition to the proposed borders, rivers, cities, and coastlines are denoted.

The Mexico-Guatemala boundary dispute was a combination of historical complexities (the Spanish had never clearly defined the border region, which consists mostly of dense forests and mountains), nationalist politicians pushing competing claims (especially Guatemalan President Justo Rufino Barrios), and some provocative actions by Mexican businesses (referred to in the 'Advertencia') seeking to effectively annex portions of disputed territory. It began in 1881 when Barrios claimed lands in Soconusco and Chiapas, leading to a crisis between the two countries. Barrios then appealed to the United States to intervene.

Although the U.S. government was wary of getting directly involved, an agreement was struck whereby arbitration between the two countries would be carried out in a court in New York. Arbitration concluded in 1882 and the two countries signed a treaty, however the difficult work of negotiating, surveying, and demarcating the border took twenty years. The dispute and its resolution became a case study in the handling of inter-state boundary disputes and was widely studied in courses on international law in the following decades.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by Miles Rock and appeared in an 1895 booklet titled Cuestiones entre Guatemala y Mejico, which was a collection of articles that had appeared in the Guatemalan newspaper El mensajero de Centro-America. The map itself is cataloged among the holdings of five institutions (Harvard University, Harvard Law School, the University of California Berkeley, Kansas University, and the Universität Mainz) while the entire booklet is somewhat more widely dispersed.