Wilkommen in "New Spain" (Formerly Venezuela)

From Strange Maps comes a map, apparently created by British Intelligence, of the Nazis' plans for South America. The German title is: "Air-Transport Network of the United States of South America":

Strange Maps headlines it "Who put the Gau in Gaucho?" 

For my part, it seems as if the Brits left a lot of propaganda value on the table, to use a rather dopey cliche. Granted, the Nazis apparently plan to melt Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and a few other countries into a new entity called "New Spain." I doubt that would go over too well. 

But to the rest of the continent, the message seems to be: "A Nazi dictatorship will bring fast, efficient air transportation!" I wonder why the Brits didn't add some, you know, slave labor camps or monstrance-melting plants.

Perhaps it's their legendary understatement.

Comments

[Max]

The map seems to be a mixture of several historic things. 'Neuspanien' is pretty much that what Gran Colombia once has been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Colombia

[Don]

The Brits sometimes believe in a light hand.

The implicit message here is that the Nazis intend to rul all of South America. I doubt that would go over well with anyone on the continent, except for a few Germans perhaps.

[joanna]

You might enjoy this volume:
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Dorking-William-Popular-Fiction/dp/0192832859

[matajari]

Dear Andrew,

I know that I was in for a little bit of subtle criticism because of my question about how many users you had in 2008. Risking another raising of eyebrows I will use this post to report anotherone of these market news, in a completely off topic way to you.

I am just reading the current "bei einer Zigarette"-Interview in Die Zeit magazine and was delighted to read that the Zeit has reached a circulation of 500000 in the last quarter of 2008.

http://satundkabel.magnus.de/wirtschaft/artikel/zeit-verlag-mit-rekordumsatz-2008-zeit-auflage-ueber-500-000.html

Because I know that you have put a lot of thought into the demise of the printed newspaper and the rise of the blogosphere in the USA compared with Germany, I thought Id share that piece of news with you.

I for one happen to think that it is good news no matter whether or not you like the Zeit.

m

[Junger Gott]

Whoever did the map didn't know their history: There once was in fact a vice-kingdom of roughly the same as Neuspanien above, but it was called "Nueva Granada". "Nueva Espana" was today's Mexico and all those small countries below it.