In the 1780s, South America was primarily under Spanish and Portuguese colonial control, with Spain dominating most of the region except Brazil. The continent was rich in natural resources, and the Iberian powers exploited its mines, plantations, and trade routes to fuel their imperial economies. That’s the situation depicted on this map of South America, designed by French cartographer Rigobert Bonne and published around 1787. Missions, mining towns, and fortified cities dot the landscape, which is divided into political units according to the European style. Numerous distance scales are provided in the lower right – a possible reflection of wider Western interest in the sugar, silver, and slaves of South America.
