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consider what the new emphasis on natural history meant for aspiring naturalists on the margins of empire. Chapter 4 assesses the problems encountered by men of science in late colonial Spanish America and examines how these impediments impacted upon the scholarly self-confidence of American-based savants. Chapter 5 looks at the strategies deployed by creole naturalists to counter European
So far we have outlined the problems that creole naturalists faced. We have emphasised the disadvantages under which they operated and the insecurities that these engendered, suggesting a need for European acceptance and vindication. This, however, is only part of the story, for whilst many creole naturalists did often feel isolated and ill-informed, they were not entirely
As the British and French empires expanded, constructing new imperial dimensions through growing commerce and the relationships of industrialisation, the bases of Spanish power were being undermined. Nationalism, revolt, the pursuit of forms of decolonisation (often aided by Spain's rivals) became the prime characteristic of Central and South American politics. This book examines the study of natural history in the Spanish empire in the years 1750-1850, explaining how the Spanish authorities collected specimens for the
intellectual difficulties well into the nineteenth century. Indeed, it is arguable that political independence, far from accelerating the progress of the natural sciences, actually retarded it, since it curtailed existing projects, claimed the lives of established creole naturalists and cut others off from the support infrastructure that operated in the colonial era. Caldas, the zoologist Jorge Tadeo Lozano
number of creole naturalists may have been limited, even by Caldas’ admission, those Spanish Americans who did embrace natural history were just as dedicated as their European brethren. These pioneering students of the natural sciences seem to have modelled themselves carefully upon their European counterparts, whose sufferings they identified as a source of inspiration. Spanish Americans often