Atlas

This map is in honor of windridden, who asked for a map of South American countries and their independence dates. This includes South America as well as Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Several aspects of this map stand out to me. First is the fact that the vast majority of boxes containing independence dates are blue, which indicates Spain’s colonial dominance in the region. Second is that the latest date of independence is 1830 (for Venezuela). This surprised me because I know that many African and Asian colonies did not gain their independence until the early to mid-1900s. Third is the fact that Portugal had only one colony (according to the map) in the region, yet this single colony, Brazil, occupied a large portion of South America. Sometimes, less really is more. Finally, I’d like to give a “shout-out” to my sister, who wrote an essay about Simón Bolívar. Without him, many of these countries may never have been liberated.