Map of Cuba by Juan Lopez (1765-1830), the son of the famous Spanish cartographer Tomas Lopez. Cuba was one of Spain’s most important territories in the West Indies, providing a crucial base for the slave and bullion trade. The British held the island for just under a year during the Seven Years War, before returning the island to Spain in the Treaty of Paris in return for Florida. Whereas the economy of most colonies was built on slaves and the production of raw materials, Cuba’s economy was urbanised and supported the empire.

Tomas Lopez de Vargas Machuca (1731-1802) was a Spanish publisher and the leading cartographer of the age. He studied with Jean-Baptiste Bouguignon d’Anville in Paris, before returning to his native Madrid in 1760, when he established the only independent cartographic publishing house in Spain in 1760. He began making maps for the Bourbon kings and became Royal Geographer to King Carlos III in 1780. He was even authorised to create a geographic agency for the secretary of state in 1795.