The Quindío Mountain and the Pereira region: two maps for the territorial history of central-western Colombia

Abstract

The Complete Atlas of Colombian Geography, published by Francisco Javier Vergara y Velasco between 1906 and 1910, is one of the most significant milestones in national cartography in the early 20th century. Its creation was motivated both by scientific and educational interests and by the need to modernize and consolidate geographical knowledge of the country in a context marked by the devastation of the Thousand Days' War and the national reconstruction policy promoted by the government of Rafael Reyes. Vergara, a geographer, military man, and historian, had devoted much of his life to systematizing Colombia's territorial knowledge. His international prestige was recognized with the Charles Maunoir Medal from the Paris Geographical Society in 1908, demonstrating the resonance his work achieved in the Spanish-American scientific community. In this context, the Atlas became a monumental synthesis that brought together a century of cartographic efforts, from Agustín Codazzi's Corographic Commission to the surveys of boundaries, roads, and railways at the end of the 19th century.