Description
During the latter part of the Nicaraguan Civil War of 1854-8, President Tomás Martínez Guerrero (in office, 1857-67) realized the urgent need to create a broadly accurate official national map that focused upon the populated western part of the country, as nothing approximating this existed. He was most fortunate that a recent German immigrant to his country possessed a peerless ability to deliver on this imperative.
Maximilian von Sonnenstern (1819 – 1895) would become a towering figure in civil engineering and the modern mapping of Central America. He was born in Stuttgart, allegedly the illegitimate son of a member of the royal family of Württemberg, although it seems that great efforts were made to cover up this ‘scandalous’ detail. After excellent training, he served as a military engineer in his native country but, in 1855, he decided to leave the stifling formality of Germany to find his fame and fortune in Central America. While rife with civil unrest and corruption, men of Sonnenstern’s abilities were immensely valued in the region, and he was only one of a succession of German engineers who attained great prominence in Latin America during the 19th century.
Based in Nicaragua, Sonnenstern quickly managed to set himself up as a high-priced engineering and surveying consultant, whereupon he was responsible for introducing the highest standards of German precision and technical excellence to Central America. The rise of national identity, the advent of a period of relative peace, and an infrastructure boom, necessitated the creation of official accurate national maps in a region where such projects had never been seriously endeavoured.
In 1856, President Martínez duly commissioned Sonnenstern to map western and southern Nicaragua. Over the next two years, Sonnenstern conducted itinerary surveys of the major transport routes of these regions, as well as making skilled renderings of the surrounding topography.
These efforts resulted in the Mapa de la Republica de Nicaragua levantado por orden del gobierno 1858 (New York: J. Rau for G. Kraetzer, 1858, with another edition following in 1859), which showcases western and southern Nicaragua in great detail and to high degree of planimetric accuracy for the first time. President Martínez rightly hailed the map as a triumph. However, the mapping of Nicaragua was far from complete.
Please see an example of this map, courtesy of the Library of Congress:
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668654/
Sonnenstern’s achievements in Nicaragua were recognized across Central America, and he was soon appointed by both the Guatemalan and Salvadorian governments to make what would be their first official national maps, the Mapa general de la Republica de Salvador (New York: J. Rau for G. Kraetzer, 1859) and the Mapa General de la República de Guatemala (New York: J. Rau for G. Kraetzer, 1859).
There was one glaring omission on Sonnenstern’s 1858 map of Nicaragua, in that it did not depict the central and northeastern half of the country. Much of this vast and sparsely populated region was known as the Mosquito Coast. While Nicaragua had long claimed ownership of the area, its presence there was weak, while the coast had been traditionally claimed by Britain as thier zone of influence.
There were two factors that made the mapping the Mosquito Coast, and integrating it into Sonnenstern’s existing cartography of Nicaragua, an urgent imperative. First, seeking to win hearts and minds in Central America, Britain changed tack from its traditionally hardline stance towards Nicaragua, and agreed to the Treaty of Managua (1860), whereby Whitehall recognized Nicaragua’s sovereignty over the Mosquito Coast, which was to be officially known as the ‘Mosquito Reserve’. In return, Nicaragua was to respect the autonomy of the local indigenous people, who were traditional allies and trading partners of Britain.
While aspects of the littoral of the Mosquito Coast had been ably charted (by Britain’s Royal Navy), the interior remained a near terra incognita to virtually everyone save the indigenous peoples. As such, President Tomás Martínez realized that to shore up Nicaragua’s claims, the mapping the Mosquito Reserve and the areas between it and the Lake Nicaragua-Managua region was of great importance.
Second, Nicaragua was traditionally considered to be the ideal location to build the long-dreamed of interoceanic canal, connecting the Caribbean with the Pacific. As of late, the charismatic French journalist and con-artist, Félix Belly (1816-86) had been in Managua wining and dining Martínez, who was promised that the realization of an interoceanic canal would make Nicaragua, and the President personally, very rich. Belly’s claims were legitimized by his association with the internationally esteemed civil engineer Thomé de Gamond, who shared an exuberance for the project.
Belly orchestrated the Cañas-Jerez Treaty (April 15, 1858), between Nicaragua and Costa Rica (represented by Belly’s other new best friend, President Juan Rafael Mora). This compact not only committed the two nations to cooperate fully in realizing the canal, but to grant Belly’s company exclusive rights to build and manage the canal. Thus, creating a map of all Nicaragua that provided the complete picture, showing all possible routes for a possible interoceanic canal, as well as associated development opportunities along the Mosquito Coast, was a key priority.
Sonnenstern, who was an ardent advocate of a Nicaraguan inter-oceanic canal in his own right, became deeply involved in Martínez, Belly and Gamond’s deliberations.
The Present Map in Focus
The present work is the first printing of the much anticipated first official complete national map of Nicaragua. Unlike Sonnenstern’s other major maps, which were published in New York, this work was issued in Paris by the boutique publisher Broise et Tiheffry, almost certainly due to the ongoing Franco-Nicaraguan connections regarding Belly’s designs for an interoceanic canal. While perhaps a subject for future research, it is quite likely that the map was, at least in part, sponsored by French canal interests.
The attractively rendered map embraces all Nicaragua, including the Mosquito Coast, and it is predicated upon recent route surveys, which in the interior and northeast of the country tended to follow the major rivers. The depiction of the western and southern areas of the country is excellent, continuing the progress made by Sonnenstern’s 1858 map, while the central and northeastern parts of Nicaragua are revealed in their broadly accurate form for the first time. Highlands are expressed by hachures of an elegant form, while the rivers and lakes are carefully delineated.
The map features a wealth of information as described in the ‘Explicación’, upper left, which identifies the symbols used throughout in four languages (Spanish, English, German and French) to locate cities, towns, villages, hamlets, haciendas (rural estates), indigenous ranches, ruins, mines, national and departmental boundaries, the camino real, secondary roads, projected rail lines, bridges, canals, as well as various topographical terms.
Notably, the map charts one of the many proposed routes for a canal running from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific, labeled as ‘Canal projectado’, cutting across the isthmus to enter the sea at Brito.
The map also shows the route of a proposed railway that was to run from León Viejo, on Lake Managua, to the Corinto area, on the Pacific (this line would never be built).
Importantly, the map features 13 topographic cross-sections, critical for discussing roads, railways and interoceanic canals, all projects that were of great interest to Sonnenstern and President Martínez.
Additionally, there are three cartographic insets, with the one near the top detailing the Corinto area, on the Pacific coast (regarding the projected railway), while those in the lower right depict the ports of San Juan del Sur (on the Pacific) and San Juan del Norte (on the Atlantic), both of which were critical to the matter of the proposed interoceanic canal.
The excellent map was highly regarded, not in Nicaragua but also internationally, serving as the authoritative map of the country for 25 years, and being the blueprint for diplomatic negotiations, infrastructure planning, interoceanic canal proposals, commercial affairs, and military and resource allocation.
Epilogue
As the present map was coming to press in Paris, Belly’s operations were imploding – spectacularly! Belly was a confidence man, who freely made bold promises and happily took investors’ money, building what was essentially a Ponzi scheme. He was also a terrifically incompetent administrator and leader of men, and his designs ultimately collapsed when he entrusted its operations to a fixer on the ground who was even more crooked and inept than he was! Thus, Monsieur Félix’s designs went “Belly up”, leaving Nicaragua’s canal dreams in flux.
Importantly, Sonnenstern kept Nicaragua’s bid for an interoceanic canal alive. Specifically, he advocated creating a canal along a route that ran from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific, via Charco Muerto Bay, the Río Ochomogo, and then the Río Escalante to its mouth on the sea (this route roughly followed the boundary between the departments of Grenada and Rivas).
Fortunately, in 1872, the U.S. administration of President Grant showed a keen interest in sponsoring an interoceanic canal project in Nicaragua, inviting Managua to make representations. Consequently, Sonnenstern, whose advocacy lent great credibility to Nicaragua’s bid, represented his adopted country during high-profile deliberations in Washington in 1874.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Sonnenstern, as the Surveyor General of Nicaragua, oversaw an unprecedented infrastructure boom, which resulted in the building of numerous roads, bridges, port facilities and railways.
Sonnenstern served in office until his death, at the age of 76, whereupon he was eulogized as one of the greatest Nicaraguans. It is thought that his passing was one of the key factors that led Nicaragua to lose the ‘canal race’ to Panama. However, his legacy lives on in his first official maps of three Central American nations.
A Note on Rarity
The present map is rare. We can trace 5 institutional examples, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection; Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; British Library; Harvard University Library; and the Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley:
It is worth mentioning that the present example is marquis, as it features beautiful original outline hand colour, an unusual attribute for this map.
References: David Rumsey Map Collection: 11644.000; Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: XBOD: G7 (102); British Library: Maps 8.b.34.; Harvard University Library: G4850 1863 .S6; Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley: Map F1526 1865 .S7; OCLC: 1151544834, 1372401498.
