Science During the Independence of the American Continent. The Fundamental Role of Alexander von Humboldt

Abstract

This essay studies the intersections of science and politics in the journey and writings of Humboldt on the American continent. Following Bruno Latour’s theory on the way in which science interacts with multiple aspects of social life, an interaction that in turn influences the definition of its object of study, this essay proposes that Humboldt played a fundamental role in American and World politics of the first decades of the nineteenth century. It analyzes the transfer and mobilization of objects, the debate on the inferiority of American man, and the study of mines carried out by Humboldt not only as a scientific treatise but also political and economic.