Mapping the Tolderías’ Mansion

This chapter follows the mapping expeditions commissioned under the treaties of Madrid (1750) and San Ildefonso (1777) and compares the detailed diaries of demarcation officers to the maps they produced. Whereas treaty maps demonstrated stable landscapes and served as templates for future settlement initiatives, the events of the boundary demarcations reveal the continued dominance of tolderías over regional lands. As mapping teams traversed the region to claim territorial possession for their imperial patrons, they found themselves paying tribute to Charrúa and Minuán caciques in exchange for safe passage. The chapter also provides a new reading of the Guarani War – in which Guarani mission-dwellers allied with neighboring tolderías to challenge the location of the borderline and stymied demarcation efforts for five years – by demonstrating how tolderías’ actions shaped its outcome.