“Mexican historian and geographer, Antonio García Cubas, was born in Mexico City on July 24, 1832 and died on February 9, 1912. His studies include those taught in elementary schools, but he also attended the French School where he learned the French language. It was in that institution where he fixed his attention on the maps of various parts of the world that hung on the wall in that school. In 1851, shortly after the war between the United States and Mexico was over, García Cubas began geography, geodesy and triangulation studies at the Mining College, where he was named a geographer with honors. From 1856 he was a member of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics (SMGE) and under the protection of the Ministry of Public Works published his first work, the Geographical, Statistical and Historical Atlas of the Mexican Republic. In 1861 he published the General Charter of the Mexican Republic with the support of Ignacio Ramírez “El Nigromante”.” (The above was extracted from gob.mx.)
Meanwhile, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, informs us of the following:
“In itself the treaty was based on the colonial demarcation of 1787 where between Yucatan and Guatemala the parallel 17° 49′ North was defined as the border line, which was not well received by the Guatemalans; This arrangement was taken because at that time Belize was in fact a British colony, which prevented it from becoming that territory and the line at 17° gave some diplomatic way out by dividing Belize between the two states.”
Like myself, I believe that there ought to be many who are thankful to Mr. Lindsay Belisle, former Boundary Commissioner of Belize, for enlightening us through his essay that was published in the Amandala on Friday, January 25, 2019 on the front page under the heading “Cabinet says Yes, Lindsay says No!” His explanation on the 17Ú 49’ was crystal clear, which shows us the danger in what the Belizean diplomats had done by signing such a compromis in 2008 with Guatemala.
I thank Mr. Belisle for sharing with me the following map which he has already presented to the public.
I have not been able to get ahold of the 1794 map that was reported by Alcalá Galeano to the Spanish government which was thereafter published in Madrid in 1802. However, I have come across an interesting map which can be found in the book British Honduras: Invention of a Colonial Territory, Mapping and Spatial Knowledge in the 19th Century, page 23, by Odile Hoffmann published by Cubola Productions which can also be googled as a PDF.
My article which was published on Friday, January 11, 2019, under the heading “BELIZE, Its Historical Background” highlighted the original map of the three rivers which can be observed on the above map, whereby the Province of Yucatan’s southern border was the Rio Hondo, thereafter, the Province of Petén Itza and on the east the Spanish Concession to the British on 1783 and 1786, shortly after, the Province of Guatemala.
[email protected]
February 1, 2019
Finca Solana
Corozal Town