The May Revolution and the southern orientation of the Buenos Aires map

Abstract

At the dawn of the national organization process, the Buenos Aires maps integrated Patagonia and Malvinas under the jurisdiction of the Patagonian Party. This was from the year 1864, with the edition of the Graphic Register of the Properties of the Province of Buenos Aires made by the provincial Topographic Department. In particular, these planes were characterized by being oriented to the South; that is to say, with the southernmost point at the top of the map. In this work we will analyze the origin of this South / North arrangement presented by the River Plate plans of the 19th century, as well as the influence that some protagonists of the revolutionary process of May 1810 exerted on this composition, such as Vicente López y Planes and Manuel Moreno, when The first Buenos Aires Topographic Commission was created in 1824.