• 
• 
• 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• 
• 
• 

by the same hand; single plans 29, 30, 31 and series 32 and 33; 34 and 35; 36 and 37; 38 and 39. Similar examples are also detected in Portugal (40, 41, 42 and 43).

Together with these manuscript documents drawn up for the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies, the Military Archives of Stockholm also contains maps commissioned by foreign governments to obtain the military information required at times of war. An important number of French plans refer to Spanish cities, towns and regions; the geographical proximity and political rivalry between the two countries created considerable interest among the engineers and geographers of the French army in areas of confluence and border regions. Particularly significant is the attention paid to Catalonia, a region with considerable presence in the Military Archives of Sweden, with some single plans and small series with reference to Catalan towns.

2.b.- The monarchy’s interest in cartography.

The few Spanish and Portuguese specialists in peninsular cartography contrast strikingly with the interest shown by the Spanish Hapsburgs when it came to sponsoring ambitious cartographic projects, aware of the utility of such initiatives for developing their policies and preserving their territories. The creation of the Academy of Mathematics and Civilian and Military Architecture in Madrid in 1582 responds to this interest in training professionals and fostering descriptive and cartographic studies of the Spanish monarchy’s possessions. Our monarchs were aware of the value of cartography as an element of power and they therefore showed interest in