Geography and Maps
Introduction
When historians organize our information, we consider chronology (events in historical order), topical analysis (grouping events by type to look for patterns), and geography (how location influenced events, and how events affected different locations in different ways).
Geography is often the least well-developed of the three in historical writing. This is, in part, because it can be difficult to describe, in the form of a linear narrative, events that unfolded in a three-dimensional landscape. But it is also because historical geography itself is difficult. Old maps, where they even exist, may have been inaccurate or lacking in important details even when they were new. Textual sources can be vague or incorrect about locations: writers did not always know where places were. Even when they are not, the landscape is not as static as it seems. Roads may change their routes. Villages can move, or may stay in the same place but change names. The borders of administrative districts may shift or may have been poorly defined. Many of the places named in the Parlamentos are mentioned only as part of the title of a Mapuche leader, such as "Cacique of Lebcoyan", implying a European conception of stable territorial jurisdictions that the Mapuche may not have shared. Frontiers of control between neighboring peoples--such as between the Spaniards and the Mapuche, or among different Mapuche groups--are subject to endless contestation. Even the physical landscape changes: sea coasts erode, meandering rivers change their courses, floods wash land away from one place and pile up the silt in another. All of these changes, and more that could be named, mean that using present-day maps or satellite photography to study the locations of past events presents difficulties.
Being mindful of these challenges, this page is dedicated to presenting information on the locations of Parlamento meetings and the places mentioned in the documents translated on this website.
Links to Historic Maps
Chile, 1768 (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile): https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-86718.html
Chile, 1814 (New York Public Library): https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-cba5-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Chile, 1845 (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile): https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-86720.html
Other historical maps of South America (New York Public Library): https://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/guides/historical-maps-south-america
Interactive Map of Locations Mentioned in the Parlamento of Negrete (1803)
Note: this is under construction!
To view the menu of locations, click the arrow-in-box icon at the top left. Pan and scroll around the map using a mouse. To view the map in a new full tab, click the icon in the upper right corner. Click on any location in the menu to be taken directly there on the map; click on any tagged feature on the map for a short description.