EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

As pointed out in the discussion on Santo Tomas, maps played a significant role
in enticing immigrants and creating the aura of empire. The map used and credited by
Van Lede was an excellent map of impressive quality (5.1). 324 The map of the
village of Itajahi, however, was certainly not of the quality as those produced by Dorn
in Santo Tomas which is actually a sketch (5.2). 325 It was actually comparable in its
simplicity to the maps produced for Rio Nunez. The effort to influence both king and
populace did not exist in Santa Catarina. Maps were simply maps.
Santa Catarina can then be seen as a reasonable colonial attempt by the
commercial sector to increase Belgian trade while at the same time perhaps easing the
population problem at home. It did attract the attention of Leopold and but came at a
time in Belgian affairs when the whole question of emigration was under review. More
than the other three efforts, its failure was perhaps attributable to bad timing.
324 Charles Maximilien Louis van Lede, De La Colonisation Au Brésil. Mémoire
Historique, Descriptif, Statistique Et Commercial Sur La Province De Sainte-Catherine, (Brussels, n p,
1843).
325 Ficker, 29.
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