A new and exact map of Spain & Portugal

Title

A new and exact map of Spain & Portugal

Description

Map shows total Spain and Portugal.

dated 1711

Artist

Moll (1654-1732)

Hermann Moll (1654- 1732) London was a cartographer, engraver, and publisher. Moll produced his earliest maps from studying cartographers such as John Senex and Emanuel Bowen.‪ In the 1690s, Moll worked mainly as an engraver for Christopher Browne, Robert Morden and Lea, in whose business he was also involved. During this time he also published his first major independent work, the Thesaurus Geographicus. The success of this work likely influenced his decision to start publishing his own maps. For the production of his maps Moll relied on the most accurate geographical information possible from first hand. Moll benefited from his acquaintance with circumnavigator and privateer William Dampier, who returned to London in 1691 from his first circumnavigation of the world. Dampier wrote a report about the experiences of his twelve-year trip, which appeared in London in 1698 and had its fourth edition just a year later. Moll produced most of the maps and illustrations for the story, which was titled A New Voyage round the World. While Moll's cartographic material increased the clarity of Dampier's descriptions for the reader enormously, Dampier's geographical knowledge was extremely important for the accuracy of Moll's maps. At a time when cartographers relied on the local knowledge of merchants and captains, the acquaintance of a man like Dampier was decisive for the economic success of a cartographer like Moll. The growing public interest in travel literature and the enormous success of Dampier in turn stimulated other authors such as Daniel Defoe or Jonathan Swift to write similar works. They too would later fall back on Moll's artistic abilities to illustrate their works.

Historical Description

In prehistoric and prehistoric times, Iberians, Celts and Basques settled on the Iberian peninsula named after the former. In the 11th century BC The Phoenicians settled on the south coast; the most famous of their colonies was Cadiz. The name Spain is derived from the Roman name Hispania (from Phoenician ishapan "land of the rock hyrax". In the early 8th century, the Moors destroyed the Visigoth Empire and conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula. Their centuries of rule shaped the country. The Arabic heritage was reflected in both the architecture and the language. However, the Moors were unable to establish themselves permanently in the northern outskirts of the peninsula. From there the "Reconquest" (Reconquista) started. In this process, which spanned several centuries (722–1492) and was not continuous, the Muslim empires were gradually pushed back by the Christian empires until the fall of Granada in 1492, the last Moorish state structure on the peninsula also disappeared. In the 15th century, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united. Aragon was an important maritime power in the Mediterranean at that time. The Spanish colonial empire extended around 1600 across large parts of South and Central America, the southern part of today's USA and the Philippines. As the English and French also intensified their colonial efforts, Spain gradually lost its supremacy. The liberation wars of the American states, particularly the Mexican and South American wars of independence in the early 19th century, brought independence to most of the colonies. In 1898, the last major properties were lost to the United States during the Spanish-American War, which meant the end of the colonial empire. The African colonies that followed later (Spanish-Morocco, Spanish-Sahara and Equatorial Guinea) finally became independent in the 20th century.