Chapter 1 Shaping the Image of a Continent

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Chapter 1Shaping the Image of a Continent

• Indigenous perceptions
• Early navigators
• In pursuit of the interior images
• The land of fire and the myth of Terra Australis
• The Voyageurs of the enlightenment
• The Age of the Naturalists
• The geographers of the twentieth century
• Images of the arts

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Indigenous perceptions

• Native South Americans
• rich tradition of folklore and religion
• own forms of geography and natural history
• environment was classified in terms of
  temperature
• cold (mountains, grassland, caves and rivers,
  associated with the spirits of mountains, mineral
  deposits and rivers)
• hot (forests and tree spirits meat, chili
  peppers, alcohol and bitter food)
• Diseases were diagnosed
• as hot or cold, according to the excessive
  exposure to one kind of environment, food or
  spirit
• by action of human or supernatural enemies

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Indigenous perceptions - 2

• Native South Americans
• Knowledge of local plants and animals
• Plant and animal domestication
• potatoes, pineapples, manioc, peanuts
• guinea pigs, llamas, alpacas
• Andean natives viewed geo-physiographic features
  with religious significance
• mountain summits, stones, caves
• springs and streams

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Indigenous perceptions - 3

• Inca
• Religion
• worshiped a supreme creator god, who traveled
  through the Andes teaching about life, performing
  miracles, then disappeared walking across the
  Pacific Ocean.
• Viracocha - name given by the spaniards to the
  Incas god
• The servants of Viracocha were
• sun god
• thunder god
• moon god (wife of the sun)
• star and planet gods
• female earth and sea gods

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Indigenous perceptions - Cont 3

• Inca
• Sacred geography, divided the capital,Cusco, and
  the empire in four parts (suyos)
• The whole empire was called Tawantinsuyu
• The communities of the empire were divided into
• anan - upper community
• urin - lower community

6
Replica of the Spanish Caravels Nina and Pinta,
1892 From http//columbus.gl.iit.edu/dreamcity/00
044020.html
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Early navigators

• Christopher Columbus led the European discovery
  of South America mainland - Terra Firme.
  http//www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/kisla
  k/viewers/columbus3.html
• Columbus third trip to the Americas
• 1498 Terra de Gracia, by the mouth of Orinoco R.
• Orinoco River
• Mouth of the Dragon
• Mouth of the Serpent

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Early navigators - 2 Voyages along the Atlantic
Coast

• Amerigo Vespucci
• 1497 might have landed on the coast of the Guiana
• 1501, looked for a passage from the Atlantic to
  the Pacific Ocean at the southern tip of Tierra
  Firme
• his lieutenants discovered the River of January
  (Rio de Janeiro).
• 1504 - Quarta Pars (Fig 1.1)

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Early navigators - 3 Voyages along the Atlantic
Coast

• Pedro Alvares Cabral
• 1500 discovered the northern coast of Brazil

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Quarta Pars

• Amerigo Vespucci reported his discovery (letter
  and chart) to the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de
  Medici, in 1504.
• In 1507, German cartographer Johannes
  Waldseemüller named the New World as Land of
  Amerigo America
• The figure on the left shows the South America
  part of the Schoner Globe published in 1520
  (Caviedes and Knapp,1995).

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Map of South Amerca by Pierre Descilliers,
Arques, France, 1546. Portolan Chart Based on
wind rose using Rhumb line technique From IBGE,
2000.
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Early navigators - 4 Voyages along the Atlantic
Coast

• Vasco Núñez Balboa
• 1515 - expedition across the Isthmus of Panama to
  the shores of the Pacific Ocean
• 1519 - first Spanish settlement on the Pacific
  Ocean, Panamá (Viejo).
• Jumping-off point for further voyages to the
  Pacific side of South America.

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Early navigators - 5 Voyages along the Atlantic
Coast

• Juan Diáz de Solis
• 1520 - Mar Dulce (estuary of the Rio de la Plata)
• Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan)
• November 1520
• discovered the maritime passage from the Atlantic
  Ocean to the Pacific (westward path to the
  Indies),
• revealed the southern limit of South America, and
  
• confirmed the sphericity of the earth.

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Early navigators - 6Voyages along the Pacific
Coast

• Pascual de Andagoya
• 1522 - sailed from Panamá to San Juan River in
  Comlombia
• Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro
  (lieutenants of Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of
  Mexico)
• 1527 - reached the kingdom of the Incas
• 1533 - Cusco fell to the control of Pizarro
• 1534 - Quito was conquered
• 1535 - Lima was founded (Spanish admin. center)

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Early navigators - 7Voyages along the Pacific
Coast

• Diego de Almagro
• 1536 - reached central Chile
• back in Peru, was killed by the Pizarro brothers
• Pedro de Valvidia
• 1551 - founded Santiago
• Juan Ladrillero
• 1558 - sailed from central Chile to the Straight
  of Magellan
• In this way, the outline of the South America
  Continent was traced.

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In pursuit of the interior images

• Motivation
• Search for fabulous kindoms
• White King of the Silver Mountain
• El Dourado http//www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Sho
  res/9253/eldorado.html
• 1526 - Sebastian Cabot
• Reached the Brazilian coast and entered the River
  Plate estuary
• 1530 Pedro Mendoza
• 1535 founded the settlement of Sancta Maria del
  Buen Aire
• Juan Ayolas and Martinez de Irala
• 1537 Irala founded Sancta Maria de la Asuncion

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In pursuit of the interior images - 2

• Francisco Orellana 1538 1541
• For three years drifted eastwards on the river he
  named River of the Amazons.
• Accounts of this trip inspired further
  expeditions in search for the legendary riches
• Political division of South America
• Pedro Teixeira 1637 first trip upstream the
  Amazon River (from Belem to Quito)
• Papals Bull of Demarcation 1493
• Treat of Tordesillas 1994
• Spanish-Portuguese boundary line 370 leagues
  west of Cape Verde Islands

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Map of Spanish-Portuguese Boundary LineTreaty of
Tordesillas
http//geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa112999
a.htm
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The land of fire and the myth of Terra Australis

• Tierra del Fuego was
• interpreted to be the north shore of another
  continent, Terra Australis.
• Many expeditions were
• sent by Spain, British, and Dutch rulers to look
  for the mythical land.
• Myth was broken by James Cook in 1775.

Caviedes and Knapp, 1995
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The Voyageurs of the Enlightenment

• Eighteenth Century - Spanish and French
  cooperation on scientific expeditions to South
  America
• Plant and animal species received their
  taxonomic name by European travelers and
  naturalist
• Charles de La Condamine Amazon River
• Curare poison used for fishing and hunting
• Antonio Ulloa 1758 first report to the King
  of Spain that colonial administration failures
  could lead to rebellion among South American
  subjects.

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The Voyageurs of the Enlightenment - 2

• Abbot Molina 1776 Compendium on plants and
  animals of Chile
• Félix de Azara mapped River Plate region
• José Mutis 1783 referred to quinine and the
  use of medicinal plants in Venezuela and Colombia
• Tadeusz Haencke - physical landscape of Bolivia
• Jean Baptiste Aublet 1775 History of plants
  of French Guiana
• John R. Foster and John Georg Foster described
  Patagonian and Fuegian flora.

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The Age of the Naturalists

• Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland
• 1800 Orinoco River, Casiquiare River and Amazon
  River
• 1801 Northern Andes, described all major
  highland basins and reached top of Chimborazo.
• 1802 Lima to Guayaquil trip ? Humboldt Current
• Charles Darwin 1831-1842
• revolutionized the biological sciences after his
  numerous scientific expeditions to South America
• Tierra del Fuego, Brazil, Argentina, Chile,
  Peru, Galapagos Islands, Venezuela and Guianas
• Observations of surface forms, geological
  features, faunal adaptation and plant species.

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The Geographers of the Twentieth Century

• Theodore Roosevelt
• Bolivia, Peru, Brazilian Amazonia
• Isaiah Bowman
• Andes and Atacama Desert
• Carl Troll
• Andean geo-ecologist
• P. Denis, A. Rochefort Pierre Deffontaines
• Human geography of Brazil
• Preston James
• Leading regional geographer on South America
• Carl Sauer
• Handbook of South American Indians
• James Parsons environmental issues

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Images in the Arts

• Writers
• Thomas More Cabo Frio, Brazil, 1516
• Utopia
• Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
• Garcia Marquez Hundred Years of Solitude
• Jorge Amado appreciation of Afro-Brazilian
  culture
• Frederic Church (Humboldt) American painter
• Roberto Burle Marx landscape architect
• Musicians
• Villa-Lobos, Carmen Miranda, Antonio Carlos Jobim
  Mercedes Sosa.