Conclusion

Maps played an enormously important role in the European exploration and conquest of the New World.  Three-quarters of a century after Columbus's landfall in the Caribbean, the Spanish had seized control over much of South, Central, and North America.  The Diego Gutiérrez map of 1562 is an artistic  snapshot of Spain's claims in the Western Hemisphere.  It was also an important means of establishing the boundaries of Spain's empires to the encroaching French (in North America) and Portuguese (in South America).  The Library of Congress has published a special presentation on the map on its web site <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gutierrz.html>; clicking on the thumbnail of the map on that page will take you to a dynamic, high resolution version of the map where you may continue to explore the details of the map.  

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