Background:
The interior of the map is dominated by the large mythical lake Parime Lacus straddling the equator below Venezuela along with an interesting & mythical continental river system. The huge Rio de la Plata river flows south from the conjectural Eupana Lacus in Brazil, while the R. Grande flows north from the same lake, ostensibly making Brazil an island.
The Strait of Magellan is represented, but Tierra del Fuego (Fogo) is named as part of the mythical Great Southern Land instead of an island.
The map is beautifully engraved with a stippled wave pattern Pacific & Atlantic Oceans, filled with Spanish & English ships, sea monsters and native canoe. The continent is flanked by two elaborate Baroque cartouches; title to the right and a large inset plan of the Capital of the Ancient Incan Empire, Cuzco. A sole representation of the conquered Native Americans is engraved as a lone Indian with a bow and arrow in the interior of Patgonia.

Between 1452 and 1493, a series of papal bulls (Dum Diversas, Romanus Pontifex, and Inter caetera) paved the way for the European colonization and Catholic missions in the New World. These authorized the European Christian nations to \"take possession\" of non-Christian lands and encouraged subduing and converting the non-Christian people of Africa and the Americas.
In 1494, Portugal and Spain, the two great maritime powers of that time, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in the expectation of new lands being discovered in the west. Through the treaty they agreed that all the land outside Europe should be an exclusive duopoly between the two countries. The treaty established an imaginary line along a north-south meridian 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands, roughly 46° 37\' W. In terms of the treaty, all land to the west of the line (which is now known to include most of the South American soil), would belong to Spain, and all land to the east, to Portugal. Because accurate measurements of longitude were not possible at that time, the line was not strictly enforced, resulting in a Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian.
In 1498, during his third voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus sailed near the Orinoco Delta and then landed in the Gulf of Paria (Actual Venezuela). Amazed by the great offshore current of freshwater which deflected his course eastward, Columbus expressed in his moving letter to Isabella I and Ferdinand II that he must have reached heaven on Earth (terrestrial paradise):
Great signs are these of the Terrestrial Paradise, for the site conforms to the opinion of the holy and wise theologians whom I have mentioned. And likewise, the [other] signs conform very well, for I have never read or heard of such a large quantity of fresh water being inside and in such close proximity to salt water; the very mild temperateness also corroborates this; and if the water of which I speak does not proceed from Paradise then it is an even greater marvel, because I do not believe such a large and deep river has ever been known to exist in this world.
Beginning in 1499, the people and natural resources of South America were repeatedly exploited by foreign conquistadors, first from Spain and later from Portugal. These competing colonial nations claimed the land and resources as their own and divided it into colonies.
European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus) to which the native populations had no resistance were the overwhelming cause of the depopulation of the Native American population. Cruel systems of forced labor (such as encomiendas and mining industry\'s mita) under Spanish control also contributed to depopulation. Lower bound estimates speak of a decline in the population of around 20–50 per cent, whereas high estimates arrive at 90 per cent.[42] Following this, African slaves, who had developed immunity to these diseases, were quickly brought in to replace them.
The Spaniards were committed to converting their American subjects to Christianity and were quick to purge any native cultural practices that hindered this end. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful; American groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. The Spaniards did not impose their language to the degree they did their religion. In fact, the missionary work of the Roman Catholic Church in Quechua, Nahuatl, and Guarani actually contributed to the expansion of these American languages, equipping them with writing systems.
Eventually the natives and the Spaniards interbred, forming a Mestizo class. Mestizos and the Native Americans were often forced to pay unfair taxes to the Spanish government (although all subjects paid taxes) and were punished harshly for disobeying their laws. Many native artworks were considered pagan idols and destroyed by Spanish explorers. This included a great number of gold and silver sculptures, which were melted down before transport to Europe.
In 1616, the Dutch, attracted by the legend of El Dorado, founded a fort in Guayana and established three colonies: Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo.
In 1624 France attempted to settle in the area of modern-day French Guiana, but was forced to abandon it in the face of hostility from the Portuguese, who viewed it as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. However French settlers returned in 1630 and in 1643 managed to establish a settlement at Cayenne along with some small-scale plantations.
Since the sixteenth century there were some movements of discontent to Spanish and Portuguese colonial system. Among these movements, the most famous being that of the Maroons, slaves who escaped their masters and in the shelter of the forest communities organized free communities. Attempts to subject them by the royal army was unsuccessful, because the Maroons had learned to master the South American jungles. In a royal decree of 1713, the king gave legality to the first free population of the continent: Palenque de San Basilio in Colombia today, led by Benkos Bioho. Brazil saw the formation of a genuine African kingdom on their soil, with the Quilombo of Palmares.
Between 1721 and 1735, the Revolt of the Comuneros of Paraguay arose, because of clashes between the Paraguayan settlers and the Jesuits, who ran the large and prosperous Jesuit Reductions and controlled a large number of Christianized Indians.
Between 1742 and 1756, was the insurrection of Juan Santos Atahualpa in the central jungle of Peru. In 1780, the Viceroyalty of Peru was met with the insurrection of curaca Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru II, which would be continued by Tupac Catari in Upper Peru.
In 1763, the African Cuffy led a revolt in Guyana which was bloodily suppressed by the Dutch. In 1781, the Revolt of the Comuneros (New Granada), an insurrection of the villagers in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, was a popular revolution that united indigenous people and mestizos. The villagers tried to be the colonial power and despite the capitulation were signed, the Viceroy Manuel Antonio Flores did not comply, and instead ran to the main leaders José Antonio Galán. In 1796, Essequibo (colony) of the Dutch was taken by the British, who had previously begun a massive introduction of slaves.
During the eighteenth century, the figure of the priest, mathematician and botanist José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808), was delegated by the Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Gongora to conduct an inventory of the nature of the Nueva Granada, which became known as the Botanical Expedition, which classified plants, wildlife and founded the first astronomical observatory in the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá.
On August 15, 1801, the Prussian scientist Alexander von Humboldt reached Fontibón where Mutis, and began his expedition to New Granada, Quito. The meeting between the two scholars are considered the brightest spot of the botanical expedition. Humboldt also visited Venezuela, Mexico, United States, Chile, and Peru. Through his observations of temperature differences between the Pacific Ocean between Chile and Peru in different periods of the year, he discovered cold currents moving from south to north up the coast of Peru, which was named the Humboldt Current in his honour.
Between 1806 and 1807, British military forces tried to invade the area of the Rio de la Plata, at the command of Home Riggs Popham and William Carr Beresford, and John Whitelocke. The invasions were repelled, but powerfully affected the Spanish authority

Hondius, Henricus 1587-1638
Jodocus Hondius, one of the most notable engravers of his time. Hi is known for his work in association with many of the cartographers and publishers prominent at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. A native of Flanders, he grew up in Ghent, apprenticed as an instrument and globe maker and map engraver. In 1584, to escape the religious troubles sweeping the Low Countries at that time, he fled to London where he spent some years before finally settling in Amsterdam about 1593. In the London period he came into contact with the leading scientists and geographers of the day and engraved maps in The Mariner\'s Mirrour, the English edition of Waghenaer\'s Sea Atlas, as well as others with Pieter van den Keere, his brother-in-law. No doubt his temporary exile in London stood him in good stead, earning him an international reputation, for it could have been no accident that Speed chose Hondius to engrave the plates for the maps in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine in the years between 1605 and 1610. In 1604 Hondius bought the plates of Mercator\'s Atlas which, in spite of its excellence, had not competed successfully with the continuing demand for the Ortelius Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. To meet this competition Hondius added about 40 maps to Mercator\'s original number and from 1606 published enlarged editions in many languages, still under Mercator\'s name but with his own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The following year the maps were reengraved in miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor. After the death of Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1612, work on the two atlases, folio and miniature, was carried on by his widow and sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and eventually in conjunction with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam. In all, from 1606 onwards, nearly 50 editions with increasing numbers of maps with texts in the main European languages were printed. Summaries of these issues are given under the entry for Gerard Mercator. Jodocus Hondius the Elder * 1588 Maps in The Mariner\'s Mirrour (Waghenaer/Ashley) * 1590 World Map in two hemispheres illustrating Drake\'s circumnavigation * c. 1591-92 Hiberniae novissima descrzptio: Boazio\'s map of Ireland: Engraved by Pieter van den Keere * 1595 Europe (wall map): with Pieter van den Keere * 1598 World and the Continents * 1599 Maps for Caert Thresoor (Langenesi Cornelis Claesz), with Pieter van den Keere * 1602-03 - 12 English County maps for William Smith (\'anonymous maps\') * 1605 Ptolemy\'s Geographia (Mercator) 1618-19 Re-issued * 1605-10 Maps for The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (Speed) * 1606 World Atlas (Mercator/Hondius series) (see under \'Gerard Mercator\' for further detail) * 1607 Atlas Minor (Mercator/Hondius series) (see under \'Gerard Mercator\' for further detail) * 1608 World Map on Mercator\'s projection Jodocus Hondius II * 1612-21 (Mercator) Atlas Minor 5 editions published in co-operation with Jan Jansson the Elder (see under Gerard Mercator (Atlas Minor) for further detail) * 1613 Map of Scandinavia * 1616 View of London (Cl. J. Visscher) * 1616 Tabularum geographicarum (Petrus Bertius) Miniature world atlas (8vo): edition (with new maps) of the Caert Thresoor published in 1598-99 1618 Re-issued in Latin and French * 1617-18 World Map: double hemisphere The first map to show Tierra del Fuego as an island as a result of the discoveries made on the Schouten/Le Maire voyage of 1615-17. * c. 1624 World Map on Mercator\'s projection * 1629 Atlas (without title or text) 42 maps, mostly by Hondius, not included in the Mercator/Hondius editions Henricus Hondius * (1606) Mercator\'s Atlas (Mercator/Hondius/Jansson) 1613, 1619 Editions published by the widow of Jodocus Hondius the Elder, and Jodocus II and Henricus. 1623-335 editions published by Henricus alone. 1633-41 5 editions in conjunction with Jan Jansson.