Nuevos aportes sobre la cartografía de la costa gallega y la defensa del Imperio a finales del siglo XVIII

Abstract

A collection of maps dating to around 1768 was recently found in the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria. It comprised representations of Galician coastal locations such as Camarinas and Corcubion, the sea estuaries (rías) of Vigo and Bares, and also the Rada de Lagos in the Portuguese Algarve. Maps of American and Asian ports were discovered along with them and seem to have been drawn by the same hand. As well providing documentary evidence of the development of the defences of these areas at a time when there was a likelihood of attack by the British, the collection also appears to provide a backdrop to the global war that pitted Spain and France against Great Britain. In this respect, the collections compiled by navigation schools would have served as the predecessors of the future hydrographic offices that would start appearing across Europe a little later.