Map of Tenochtitlan and Gulf of Mexico

How different were the mapping traditions of Europe and America? What effect did the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas have upon native cartography? And did the encounter — between two ostensibly different systems of cartographical and geographical representation — produce a hybrid form of city view, something new, something peculiarly American?

Many agrarian and militaristic states have responded in similar ways to the fundamental economic and ideological necessities that confront them. Their responses stem from the particular ways in which they comprehend the universe around them. People depend on nature, and, in their endeavors as productive beings, they actively transform the natural world. At the same time, they also construct a pantheon of gods to whom they ascribe the creative power of all that exists. It is these gods who …