fuck yeah cartography!

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Kaart van het eiland Curaçao, 1836

Nineteenth century map of the Caribbean island of Curaçao, currently at the library of the University of Amsterdam. First sighted by the Spanish in the early 16th century, who enslaved many of the native Arawak population and transported them to other parts of Spain’s New World colonies, the island was taken over by the Dutch West India Company during the first half of the 17th century, when it became a hub of commerce and shipping in the Caribbean. Curaçao later became a major player in the transatlantic slave trade as the Dutch and the Spanish collaborated in the transport and sale of enslaved Africans to the Americas. 

(via fylatinamericanhistory)