Alexander Von Humboldt

By: Jeffrey Lee

Self-portrait

Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the last true generalists in science.  While generally considered a geographer, he contributed to most of the sciences of the natural environment found today.  Born in Berlin, von Humboldt’s father was Chamberlain to the King, a royal advisor, who died when Alexander was nine years old. As a child, he received a private education and was a slow learner and sickly much of the time.  On his own, though, he loved collecting local plants and animals and reading books on foreign travel and adventure.  He also loved to draw, mostly landscapes.  Typical of the time, science was not part of his schooling; Humboldt was generally self taught in that area.  At sixteen, he attended some lectures on physics and philosophy by a local doctor and then he decided to pursue a career in science.

Humboldt attended several universities, but never for very long.  His mother wanted him to get a job with the Prussian Civil Service and to appease her he ended up at the Hamburg School of Commerce.  There he studied intensely for his courses and with equal intensity his other interests in geology, botany and languages.  He developed a liberal approach to politics and a visit to Paris in 1790, while the ideals of the French Revolution were still apparent, confirmed his convictions.

In 1791 he got a position with the Prussian Academy of Industry and Mines, where he was given a thorough education in geology at the Freiberg Mining Academy.  A. G. Werner, one of the leading geologists of the day, was one of his instructors.  His job with the Bureau of Mines gave him ample opportunity to travel and do scientific investigations.  Some of his studies were mining related but his wide interests led him to do research on many topics in his spare time.  (Throughout his life, he typically slept only three or four hours per night.)  He published an exhaustive study on electrical effects on nerves and muscles, though his conclusions were quickly shown to be incorrect by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, namesake of the unit ‘volt’.  His botanical work, however, brought him lasting acclaim in the scientific world.  He became good friends with Goethe, the leading intellectual of Germany.  While best known for his poetry and plays, Goethe was also a statesman and scientist.  The two learned much from each other.

Humboldt’s mother died in 1796 and he was left a respectable fortune.  He resigned his mining job and set out to go exploring.  He was to join a British expedition to the Nile, but Napoleon invaded Egypt.  Then he was set to join a French voyage around the world, but war with Austria broke out and the government withdrew the funds.  While preparing for this voyage, though, he met Aimé Bonpland, a French botanist.  The two became good friends and decided to set out on their own expedition at Humboldt’s expense.  They convinced the King and Queen of Spain to allow them to visit the Spanish American Colonies, where few foreigners were welcome.  The two sailed to the New World with a collection of the best scientific instruments Humboldt could buy.  As he said in a letter, “I shall try to find out how the forces of nature interact upon one another and how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life.  In other words, I must find out about the unity of nature.”

Humboldt and Bonpland spent five years in the New World.  In 1799 they arrived in Venezuela.  They explored the Orinoco and Rio Negro Rivers in that colony, mapping and collecting natural history specimens in the rainforest.  Next they traveled in the Andes Mountains in Columbia, Ecuador and Peru.  They spent several months in the city of Quito, mostly exploring the local volcanoes.  Humboldt and Bonpland climbed Chimborazo, then thought to be the highest mountain in the world at 6300 meters.  Humboldt and Bonpland only reached 5900 meters, but that was far higher than any known human had ever been.  This feat brought international attention to Humboldt as an adventurer.  (Bonpland never received the accolades that Humboldt did, presumably because Humboldt was the leader of the expedition.)  Humboldt’s observations in the volcanic region led him to argue forcefully that volcanic activity is a major force in mountain building, a concept not commonly understood at the time.  He also made the observation that altitude and latitude play similar roles in controlling plant types: at the base of the Andes is tropical rainforest, while at the top is tundra-type vegetation.  They then spent a year in Mexico, traveling and studying the geography, economics and politics of that colony.  While sailing from Peru to Mexico, Humboldt took careful measurements of the ocean current there, now known as the Humboldt Current. 

Before returning to Europe in 1804, they visited the young United States.  In Philadelphia they were treated warmly by the American Philosophical Society, the leading scientific organization in the country.  They also stayed with President Thomas Jefferson in Washington D.C., a small town still under construction.  Humboldt and Jefferson shared a love of science and had similar political philosophies.  Dolly Madison, wife of then Secretary of State James Madison, said of Humboldt: “We have lately had a great treat in the company of a charming Prussian Baron von Humboldt.  All the ladies say they are in love with him….  He is the most polite, modest, well-informed and interesting traveler we have ever met, and is much pleased with America.”

In their five year journey, Humboldt and Bonpland traveled 10000 kilometers through difficult terrain.  They returned with over 60000 plant specimens, along with geological, ethnographic and zoological collections.  In addition, they had a wealth of astronomical, oceanographic, meteorological and magnetic observations and they corrected the latitude and longitude positions of many geographic features.

Humboldt returned as a grand celebrity in Europe, especially Paris where he lived.  He worked on publications and socialized much, and he wrote between one and two thousand letters each year.  Napoleon never trusted the Prussian Humboldt and the secret police watched him and broke into his home often to copy his papers (with quill pen and ink!).  In spite of this, Paris was the intellectual center Humboldt required and he lived there for twenty-five years after his return from the Americas.  Humboldt never married and it is generally assumed that he was homosexual.  This is based on some love letters he wrote as a young man and the many close relationships he had with men throughout his life.

The publications resulting from the American expedition took thirty years to complete.  The thirty volumes of [[Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland ]]are a mix of scientific results, geographic and economic studies, and travel/adventure books.  He often worked with experts in various fields on the scientific volumes.  Humboldt wrote on climatology, geology, ecology, biogeography, economic geography, oceanography, ethnography, and history.  Bringing the books to fruition broke Humboldt financially; he had to pay for the artists who illustrated them along with the engravings and general printing costs.  Sales of the necessarily pricey books never made up for the expenses.

Bonpland participated in some of the botanical work, but while he was a superb field scientist, he was generally incompetent at desk work.  He became superintendent of gardens for Empress Josephine, had a short marriage, and in 1816 he returned to South America.  He worked as a professor in Argentina and while on an expedition to an area disputed by Argentina and Paraguay, the Paraguayans took him prisoner.  They held him for nine years, despite Humboldt’s diplomatic efforts to get his friend released.  Later, Bonpland settled in Uruguay and seems to have led a happy life living in a mud hut, doing botanical work, and raising children until he died at age 85.  After Humboldt and Bonpland returned to France in 1804, the French government awarded Bonpland a 3000 franc pension as thanks for his achievements; each year Humboldt made sure that it was sent to his friend in South America.

In 1827 Humboldt left Paris for Berlin, serving as Chamberlain to the King of Prussia, Frederick William III.  One of his duties was to report on cultural and scientific matters.  Though he got along well with the King, the liberal Humboldt was never truly welcomed at the mostly reactionary Royal Court.  In Berlin, he gave a six month series of university lectures on physical geography.  These proved so popular that he gave another series to the public at a local concert hall.  His main purpose was to show that science was a better way to learn about nature.  The Romantic Movement in Germany led to ‘natural philosophers’ who felt that intuition was the best route to understanding, not cold empiricism.  Humboldt showed that science was the more effective approach to knowledge on empirical matters. 

Humboldt tried for years to make another scientific expedition, preferably to Asia.  In 1829 he was granted permission to travel in Russia for six months.  Tsar Nicholas I paid for the trip, hoping that Humboldt’s assessment of mining in the Ural Mountains would prove valuable.  Zoologist C. G. E. Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, a chemist and minerologist, joined the sixty year old Humboldt on the trip.  They spent a month in the Urals, then moved on to Siberia.  After reaching the Chinese border, they returned to Moscow via the Caspian Sea.  In the six months they traveled over 15000 kilometers within Russia, some by river but most by carriage.  The scholarly work produced by the Siberian Expedition was far less extensive than Humboldt’s American work and he left the writing to Ehrenberg and Rose.  They produced a three volume geography of Central Asia.

Humboldt and his friend, mathematician Karl Gauss, set out to organize a global network of magnetic and meteorological monitoring stations.  He used his new contacts in Russia to set up stations across that country and Gauss convinced European governments to do the same.  Humboldt convinced the British to set up stations throughout their Empire and the United States already had a similar network in operation.  This was the first large scale international scientific collaboration and it resulted in many advances in knowledge of magnetic and meteorological phenomena.

Humboldt’s lectures on physical geography in 1828 inspired him to write a monumental work on nature.  Cosmos, Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe took twenty five years to write.  (Using Humboldt’s notes, the fifth and final volume was finished after he died.)  He used all of the sciences to explain everything from the Milky Way Galaxy to microscopic organisms.  Much of it he could illustrate with his own studies.  More than an encyclopedia, Cosmos showed nature as a whole, not a series of unconnected parts.  It also showed science to be intellectually exciting.  The work was well received throughout Europe and the USA.

In 1859, a few months shy of his ninetieth birthday, Humboldt died.  He was given an elaborate state funeral.

Alexander von Humboldt is sometimes criticized for being too general, not focusing on one discipline.  But few scientists can match his contributions to knowledge in any one of the dozens of phenomena he studied.  Among his pioneering contributions are:

• Anthropology: Insightful observations on Native American ethnography and Inca history.  He was the first to suggest an Asiatic origin of Native Americans.
• Astronomy: He helped show the periodicity of meteor showers.
• Botany: Bonpland and Humboldt identified 3500 new species of American plants.
• Climatology: He was the first to extensively map temperatures across continents.
• History: He made a detailed history of the early exploration of the Americas and discovered how ‘America’ became the name of the two continents.
• Human Geography: He showed the connections between the natural environment and the course of nations.
• Geology: Humboldt showed that volcanic activity is an important factor in mountain building and he suggested that volcanoes can be associated with subterranean fault systems.
• Geophysics: Alone and with mathematician Karl Gauss, he studied variations in Earth’s magnetism across the globe.
• Meteorology: With chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, he measured the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
• Oceanography: Humboldt studied the physical properties of ocean waters.
• Physiology: He studied electrical effects on nerves and muscles and the effects of altitude on humans.
• Plant Geography and Ecology: He pioneered the concepts of environmental influences on plants.  

Perhaps more important than his individual contributions, Humboldt showed, especially in Cosmos, the unity of nature.  Few before or since could view the natural world on such a grand scale.

(Note: this biography was originally published in Focus on Geography, v. 46, no. 3 (2001), p. 29-30 and is reprinted here with permission of the American Geographical Society.)

Von Humboldt, Alexander

Published: March 4, 2009, 9:26 pm

Updated: March 4, 2009, 9:26 pm

Lead Author: Jeffrey Lee

Topics:

Ecology Geography Geology Botany Meteorology Natural Sciences Zoology

Content Source: AGS.focusgeo

This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry

Self portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, 1814. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/article/File:AvHumboldt.jpg])

Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the last true generalists in science.  While generally considered a geographer, he contributed to most of the sciences of the natural environment found today.  Born in Berlin, von Humboldt’s father was Chamberlain to the King, a royal advisor, who died when Alexander was nine years old. As a child, he received a private education and was a slow learner and sickly much of the time.  On his own, though, he loved collecting local plants and animals and reading books on foreign travel and adventure.  He also loved to draw, mostly landscapes.  Typical of the time, science was not part of his schooling; Humboldt was generally self taught in that area.  At sixteen, he attended some lectures on physics and philosophy by a local doctor and then he decided to pursue a career in science.

Humboldt attended several universities, but never for very long.  His mother wanted him to get a job with the Prussian Civil Service and to appease her he ended up at the Hamburg School of Commerce.  There he studied intensely for his courses and with equal intensity his other interests in geology, botany and languages.  He developed a liberal approach to politics and a visit to Paris in 1790, while the ideals of the French Revolution were still apparent, confirmed his convictions.

In 1791 he got a position with the Prussian Academy of Industry and Mines, where he was given a thorough education in geology at the Freiberg Mining Academy.  A. G. Werner, one of the leading geologists of the day, was one of his instructors.  His job with the Bureau of Mines gave him ample opportunity to travel and do scientific investigations.  Some of his studies were mining related but his wide interests led him to do research on many topics in his spare time.  (Throughout his life, he typically slept only three or four hours per night.)  He published an exhaustive study on electrical effects on nerves and muscles, though his conclusions were quickly shown to be incorrect by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, namesake of the unit ‘volt’.  His botanical work, however, brought him lasting acclaim in the scientific world.  He became good friends with Goethe, the leading intellectual of Germany.  While best known for his poetry and plays, Goethe was also a statesman and scientist.  The two learned much from each other.

Humboldt’s mother died in 1796 and he was left a respectable fortune.  He resigned his mining job and set out to go exploring.  He was to join a British expedition to the Nile, but Napoleon invaded Egypt.  Then he was set to join a French voyage around the world, but war with Austria broke out and the government withdrew the funds.  While preparing for this voyage, though, he met Aimé Bonpland, a French botanist.  The two became good friends and decided to set out on their own expedition at Humboldt’s expense.  They convinced the King and Queen of Spain to allow them to visit the Spanish American Colonies, where few foreigners were welcome.  The two sailed to the New World with a collection of the best scientific instruments Humboldt could buy.  As he said in a letter, “I shall try to find out how the forces of nature interact upon one another and how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life.  In other words, I must find out about the unity of nature.”

Humboldt and Bonpland spent five years in the New World.  In 1799 they arrived in Venezuela.  They explored the Orinoco and Rio Negro Rivers in that colony, mapping and collecting natural history specimens in the rainforest.  Next they traveled in the Andes Mountains in Columbia, Ecuador and Peru.  They spent several months in the city of Quito, mostly exploring the local volcanoes.  Humboldt and Bonpland climbed Chimborazo, then thought to be the highest mountain in the world at 6300 meters.  Humboldt and Bonpland only reached 5900 meters, but that was far higher than any known human had ever been.  This feat brought international attention to Humboldt as an adventurer.  (Bonpland never received the accolades that Humboldt did, presumably because Humboldt was the leader of the expedition.)  Humboldt’s observations in the volcanic region led him to argue forcefully that volcanic activity is a major force in mountain building, a concept not commonly understood at the time.  He also made the observation that altitude and latitude play similar roles in controlling plant types: at the base of the Andes is tropical rainforest, while at the top is tundra-type vegetation.  They then spent a year in Mexico, traveling and studying the geography, economics and politics of that colony.  While sailing from Peru to Mexico, Humboldt took careful measurements of the ocean current there, now known as the Humboldt Current.

Before returning to Europe in 1804, they visited the young United States.  In Philadelphia they were treated warmly by the American Philosophical Society, the leading scientific organization in the country.  They also stayed with President Thomas Jefferson in Washington D.C., a small town still under construction.  Humboldt and Jefferson shared a love of science and had similar political philosophies.  Dolly Madison, wife of then Secretary of State James Madison, said of Humboldt: “We have lately had a great treat in the company of a charming Prussian Baron von Humboldt.  All the ladies say they are in love with him….  He is the most polite, modest, well-informed and interesting traveler we have ever met, and is much pleased with America.”

In their five year journey, Humboldt and Bonpland traveled 10000 kilometers through difficult terrain.  They returned with over 60000 plant specimens, along with geological, ethnographic and zoological collections.  In addition, they had a wealth of astronomical, oceanographic, meteorological and magnetic observations and they corrected the latitude and longitude positions of many geographic features.

Humboldt returned as a grand celebrity in Europe, especially Paris where he lived.  He worked on publications and socialized much, and he wrote between one and two thousand letters each year.  Napoleon never trusted the Prussian Humboldt and the secret police watched him and broke into his home often to copy his papers (with quill pen and ink!).  In spite of this, Paris was the intellectual center Humboldt required and he lived there for twenty-five years after his return from the Americas.  Humboldt never married and it is generally assumed that he was homosexual.  This is based on some love letters he wrote as a young man and the many close relationships he had with men throughout his life.

The publications resulting from the American expedition took thirty years to complete.  The thirty volumes of [[Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland ]]are a mix of scientific results, geographic and economic studies, and travel/adventure books.  He often worked with experts in various fields on the scientific volumes.  Humboldt wrote on climatology, geology, ecology, biogeography, economic geography, oceanography, ethnography, and history.  Bringing the books to fruition broke Humboldt financially; he had to pay for the artists who illustrated them along with the engravings and general printing costs.  Sales of the necessarily pricey books never made up for the expenses.

Bonpland participated in some of the botanical work, but while he was a superb field scientist, he was generally incompetent at desk work.  He became superintendent of gardens for Empress Josephine, had a short marriage, and in 1816 he returned to South America.  He worked as a professor in Argentina and while on an expedition to an area disputed by Argentina and Paraguay, the Paraguayans took him prisoner.  They held him for nine years, despite Humboldt’s diplomatic efforts to get his friend released.  Later, Bonpland settled in Uruguay and seems to have led a happy life living in a mud hut, doing botanical work, and raising children until he died at age 85.  After Humboldt and Bonpland returned to France in 1804, the French government awarded Bonpland a 3000 franc pension as thanks for his achievements; each year Humboldt made sure that it was sent to his friend in South America.

In 1827 Humboldt left Paris for Berlin, serving as Chamberlain to the King of Prussia, Frederick William III.  One of his duties was to report on cultural and scientific matters.  Though he got along well with the King, the liberal Humboldt was never truly welcomed at the mostly reactionary Royal Court.  In Berlin, he gave a six month series of university lectures on physical geography.  These proved so popular that he gave another series to the public at a local concert hall.  His main purpose was to show that science was a better way to learn about nature.  The Romantic Movement in Germany led to ‘natural philosophers’ who felt that intuition was the best route to understanding, not cold empiricism.  Humboldt showed that science was the more effective approach to knowledge on empirical matters.

Humboldt tried for years to make another scientific expedition, preferably to Asia.  In 1829 he was granted permission to travel in Russia for six months.  Tsar Nicholas I paid for the trip, hoping that Humboldt’s assessment of mining in the Ural Mountains would prove valuable.  Zoologist C. G. E. Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, a chemist and minerologist, joined the sixty year old Humboldt on the trip.  They spent a month in the Urals, then moved on to Siberia.  After reaching the Chinese border, they returned to Moscow via the Caspian Sea.  In the six months they traveled over 15000 kilometers within Russia, some by river but most by carriage.  The scholarly work produced by the Siberian Expedition was far less extensive than Humboldt’s American work and he left the writing to Ehrenberg and Rose.  They produced a three volume geography of Central Asia.

Humboldt and his friend, mathematician Karl Gauss, set out to organize a global network of magnetic and meteorological monitoring stations.  He used his new contacts in Russia to set up stations across that country and Gauss convinced European governments to do the same.  Humboldt convinced the British to set up stations throughout their Empire and the United States already had a similar network in operation.  This was the first large scale international scientific collaboration and it resulted in many advances in knowledge of magnetic and meteorological phenomena.

Humboldt’s lectures on physical geography in 1828 inspired him to write a monumental work on nature.  Cosmos, Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe took twenty five years to write.  (Using Humboldt’s notes, the fifth and final volume was finished after he died.)  He used all of the sciences to explain everything from the Milky Way Galaxy to microscopic organisms.  Much of it he could illustrate with his own studies.  More than an encyclopedia, Cosmos showed nature as a whole, not a series of unconnected parts.  It also showed science to be intellectually exciting.  The work was well received throughout Europe and the USA.

In 1859, a few months shy of his ninetieth birthday, Humboldt died.  He was given an elaborate state funeral.

Alexander von Humboldt is sometimes criticized for being too general, not focusing on one discipline.  But few scientists can match his contributions to knowledge in any one of the dozens of phenomena he studied.  Among his pioneering contributions are:

• Anthropology: Insightful observations on Native American ethnography and Inca history.  He was the first to suggest an Asiatic origin of Native Americans.
• Astronomy: He helped show the periodicity of meteor showers.
• Botany: Bonpland and Humboldt identified 3500 new species of American plants.
• Climatology: He was the first to extensively map temperatures across continents.
• History: He made a detailed history of the early exploration of the Americas and discovered how ‘America’ became the name of the two continents.
• Human Geography: He showed the connections between the natural environment and the course of nations.
• Geology: Humboldt showed that volcanic activity is an important factor in mountain building and he suggested that volcanoes can be associated with subterranean fault systems.
• Geophysics: Alone and with mathematician Karl Gauss, he studied variations in Earth’s magnetism across the globe.
• Meteorology: With chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, he measured the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
• Oceanography: Humboldt studied the physical properties of ocean waters.
• Physiology: He studied electrical effects on nerves and muscles and the effects of altitude on humans.
• Plant Geography and Ecology: He pioneered the concepts of environmental influences on plants.  

Perhaps more important than his individual contributions, Humboldt showed, especially in Cosmos, the unity of nature.  Few before or since could view the natural world on such a grand scale.

(Note: this biography was originally published in Focus on Geography, v. 46, no. 3 (2001), p. 29-30 and is reprinted here with permission of the American Geographical Society.)

- See more at: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Von_Humboldt,_Alexander#sthash.YxUkb9RE.dpuf

Von Humboldt, Alexander

Published: March 4, 2009, 9:26 pm

Updated: March 4, 2009, 9:26 pm

Lead Author: Jeffrey Lee

Topics:

Ecology Geography Geology Botany Meteorology Natural Sciences Zoology

Content Source: AGS.focusgeo

This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry

Self portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, 1814. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/article/File:AvHumboldt.jpg])

Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the last true generalists in science.  While generally considered a geographer, he contributed to most of the sciences of the natural environment found today.  Born in Berlin, von Humboldt’s father was Chamberlain to the King, a royal advisor, who died when Alexander was nine years old. As a child, he received a private education and was a slow learner and sickly much of the time.  On his own, though, he loved collecting local plants and animals and reading books on foreign travel and adventure.  He also loved to draw, mostly landscapes.  Typical of the time, science was not part of his schooling; Humboldt was generally self taught in that area.  At sixteen, he attended some lectures on physics and philosophy by a local doctor and then he decided to pursue a career in science.

Humboldt attended several universities, but never for very long.  His mother wanted him to get a job with the Prussian Civil Service and to appease her he ended up at the Hamburg School of Commerce.  There he studied intensely for his courses and with equal intensity his other interests in geology, botany and languages.  He developed a liberal approach to politics and a visit to Paris in 1790, while the ideals of the French Revolution were still apparent, confirmed his convictions.

In 1791 he got a position with the Prussian Academy of Industry and Mines, where he was given a thorough education in geology at the Freiberg Mining Academy.  A. G. Werner, one of the leading geologists of the day, was one of his instructors.  His job with the Bureau of Mines gave him ample opportunity to travel and do scientific investigations.  Some of his studies were mining related but his wide interests led him to do research on many topics in his spare time.  (Throughout his life, he typically slept only three or four hours per night.)  He published an exhaustive study on electrical effects on nerves and muscles, though his conclusions were quickly shown to be incorrect by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, namesake of the unit ‘volt’.  His botanical work, however, brought him lasting acclaim in the scientific world.  He became good friends with Goethe, the leading intellectual of Germany.  While best known for his poetry and plays, Goethe was also a statesman and scientist.  The two learned much from each other.

Humboldt’s mother died in 1796 and he was left a respectable fortune.  He resigned his mining job and set out to go exploring.  He was to join a British expedition to the Nile, but Napoleon invaded Egypt.  Then he was set to join a French voyage around the world, but war with Austria broke out and the government withdrew the funds.  While preparing for this voyage, though, he met Aimé Bonpland, a French botanist.  The two became good friends and decided to set out on their own expedition at Humboldt’s expense.  They convinced the King and Queen of Spain to allow them to visit the Spanish American Colonies, where few foreigners were welcome.  The two sailed to the New World with a collection of the best scientific instruments Humboldt could buy.  As he said in a letter, “I shall try to find out how the forces of nature interact upon one another and how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life.  In other words, I must find out about the unity of nature.”

Humboldt and Bonpland spent five years in the New World.  In 1799 they arrived in Venezuela.  They explored the Orinoco and Rio Negro Rivers in that colony, mapping and collecting natural history specimens in the rainforest.  Next they traveled in the Andes Mountains in Columbia, Ecuador and Peru.  They spent several months in the city of Quito, mostly exploring the local volcanoes.  Humboldt and Bonpland climbed Chimborazo, then thought to be the highest mountain in the world at 6300 meters.  Humboldt and Bonpland only reached 5900 meters, but that was far higher than any known human had ever been.  This feat brought international attention to Humboldt as an adventurer.  (Bonpland never received the accolades that Humboldt did, presumably because Humboldt was the leader of the expedition.)  Humboldt’s observations in the volcanic region led him to argue forcefully that volcanic activity is a major force in mountain building, a concept not commonly understood at the time.  He also made the observation that altitude and latitude play similar roles in controlling plant types: at the base of the Andes is tropical rainforest, while at the top is tundra-type vegetation.  They then spent a year in Mexico, traveling and studying the geography, economics and politics of that colony.  While sailing from Peru to Mexico, Humboldt took careful measurements of the ocean current there, now known as the Humboldt Current.

Before returning to Europe in 1804, they visited the young United States.  In Philadelphia they were treated warmly by the American Philosophical Society, the leading scientific organization in the country.  They also stayed with President Thomas Jefferson in Washington D.C., a small town still under construction.  Humboldt and Jefferson shared a love of science and had similar political philosophies.  Dolly Madison, wife of then Secretary of State James Madison, said of Humboldt: “We have lately had a great treat in the company of a charming Prussian Baron von Humboldt.  All the ladies say they are in love with him….  He is the most polite, modest, well-informed and interesting traveler we have ever met, and is much pleased with America.”

In their five year journey, Humboldt and Bonpland traveled 10000 kilometers through difficult terrain.  They returned with over 60000 plant specimens, along with geological, ethnographic and zoological collections.  In addition, they had a wealth of astronomical, oceanographic, meteorological and magnetic observations and they corrected the latitude and longitude positions of many geographic features.

Humboldt returned as a grand celebrity in Europe, especially Paris where he lived.  He worked on publications and socialized much, and he wrote between one and two thousand letters each year.  Napoleon never trusted the Prussian Humboldt and the secret police watched him and broke into his home often to copy his papers (with quill pen and ink!).  In spite of this, Paris was the intellectual center Humboldt required and he lived there for twenty-five years after his return from the Americas.  Humboldt never married and it is generally assumed that he was homosexual.  This is based on some love letters he wrote as a young man and the many close relationships he had with men throughout his life.

The publications resulting from the American expedition took thirty years to complete.  The thirty volumes of [[Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland ]]are a mix of scientific results, geographic and economic studies, and travel/adventure books.  He often worked with experts in various fields on the scientific volumes.  Humboldt wrote on climatology, geology, ecology, biogeography, economic geography, oceanography, ethnography, and history.  Bringing the books to fruition broke Humboldt financially; he had to pay for the artists who illustrated them along with the engravings and general printing costs.  Sales of the necessarily pricey books never made up for the expenses.

Bonpland participated in some of the botanical work, but while he was a superb field scientist, he was generally incompetent at desk work.  He became superintendent of gardens for Empress Josephine, had a short marriage, and in 1816 he returned to South America.  He worked as a professor in Argentina and while on an expedition to an area disputed by Argentina and Paraguay, the Paraguayans took him prisoner.  They held him for nine years, despite Humboldt’s diplomatic efforts to get his friend released.  Later, Bonpland settled in Uruguay and seems to have led a happy life living in a mud hut, doing botanical work, and raising children until he died at age 85.  After Humboldt and Bonpland returned to France in 1804, the French government awarded Bonpland a 3000 franc pension as thanks for his achievements; each year Humboldt made sure that it was sent to his friend in South America.

In 1827 Humboldt left Paris for Berlin, serving as Chamberlain to the King of Prussia, Frederick William III.  One of his duties was to report on cultural and scientific matters.  Though he got along well with the King, the liberal Humboldt was never truly welcomed at the mostly reactionary Royal Court.  In Berlin, he gave a six month series of university lectures on physical geography.  These proved so popular that he gave another series to the public at a local concert hall.  His main purpose was to show that science was a better way to learn about nature.  The Romantic Movement in Germany led to ‘natural philosophers’ who felt that intuition was the best route to understanding, not cold empiricism.  Humboldt showed that science was the more effective approach to knowledge on empirical matters.

Humboldt tried for years to make another scientific expedition, preferably to Asia.  In 1829 he was granted permission to travel in Russia for six months.  Tsar Nicholas I paid for the trip, hoping that Humboldt’s assessment of mining in the Ural Mountains would prove valuable.  Zoologist C. G. E. Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, a chemist and minerologist, joined the sixty year old Humboldt on the trip.  They spent a month in the Urals, then moved on to Siberia.  After reaching the Chinese border, they returned to Moscow via the Caspian Sea.  In the six months they traveled over 15000 kilometers within Russia, some by river but most by carriage.  The scholarly work produced by the Siberian Expedition was far less extensive than Humboldt’s American work and he left the writing to Ehrenberg and Rose.  They produced a three volume geography of Central Asia.

Humboldt and his friend, mathematician Karl Gauss, set out to organize a global network of magnetic and meteorological monitoring stations.  He used his new contacts in Russia to set up stations across that country and Gauss convinced European governments to do the same.  Humboldt convinced the British to set up stations throughout their Empire and the United States already had a similar network in operation.  This was the first large scale international scientific collaboration and it resulted in many advances in knowledge of magnetic and meteorological phenomena.

Humboldt’s lectures on physical geography in 1828 inspired him to write a monumental work on nature.  Cosmos, Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe took twenty five years to write.  (Using Humboldt’s notes, the fifth and final volume was finished after he died.)  He used all of the sciences to explain everything from the Milky Way Galaxy to microscopic organisms.  Much of it he could illustrate with his own studies.  More than an encyclopedia, Cosmos showed nature as a whole, not a series of unconnected parts.  It also showed science to be intellectually exciting.  The work was well received throughout Europe and the USA.

In 1859, a few months shy of his ninetieth birthday, Humboldt died.  He was given an elaborate state funeral.

Alexander von Humboldt is sometimes criticized for being too general, not focusing on one discipline.  But few scientists can match his contributions to knowledge in any one of the dozens of phenomena he studied.  Among his pioneering contributions are:

• Anthropology: Insightful observations on Native American ethnography and Inca history.  He was the first to suggest an Asiatic origin of Native Americans.
• Astronomy: He helped show the periodicity of meteor showers.
• Botany: Bonpland and Humboldt identified 3500 new species of American plants.
• Climatology: He was the first to extensively map temperatures across continents.
• History: He made a detailed history of the early exploration of the Americas and discovered how ‘America’ became the name of the two continents.
• Human Geography: He showed the connections between the natural environment and the course of nations.
• Geology: Humboldt showed that volcanic activity is an important factor in mountain building and he suggested that volcanoes can be associated with subterranean fault systems.
• Geophysics: Alone and with mathematician Karl Gauss, he studied variations in Earth’s magnetism across the globe.
• Meteorology: With chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, he measured the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
• Oceanography: Humboldt studied the physical properties of ocean waters.
• Physiology: He studied electrical effects on nerves and muscles and the effects of altitude on humans.
• Plant Geography and Ecology: He pioneered the concepts of environmental influences on plants.  

Perhaps more important than his individual contributions, Humboldt showed, especially in Cosmos, the unity of nature.  Few before or since could view the natural world on such a grand scale.

(Note: this biography was originally published in Focus on Geography, v. 46, no. 3 (2001), p. 29-30 and is reprinted here with permission of the American Geographical Society.)

- See more at: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Von_Humboldt,_Alexander#sthash.YxUkb9RE.dpuf

Gaspar de Carvajal (Spanish)

Gaspar de Carvajal - Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ven... by

Lope de Aguirre: Letter from to King Philip of Spain, 1561

The following translation is by Tom Holloway, History, Cornell University, from the version published in A. Arellano Moreno (org.), Documentos para la Historia economic de Venezuela, (Caracas: Univ. Central, 1961).

Letter from Lope de Aguirre, rebel, to King Philip of Spain, 1561

To King Philip, the Spaniard, son of Charles the Invincible:

From Lope de Aguirre, your lesser vassal, old Christian, of middling
parents but fortunately of noble blood, native of the Basque country of the kingdom of Spain, citizen of the town of Onate.

In my youth I crossed the sea to the land of Peru to gain fame, lance in hand, and to fulfill the obligation of all good men.In 24 years I have done you great service in Peru, in conquests of the Indians, in founding towns, and especially in battles and encounters fought in your name, always to the best of my power and ability, without requesting of your officials pay nor assistance, as can be seen in your royal records.

I firmly believe, most excellent King and lord, that to me and my companions you have been nothing but cruel and ungrateful.I also believe that those who write to you from this land deceive you, because of the great distance.

I demand of you, King, that you do justice and right by the good vassals you have in this land, even though I and my companions (whose names I will give later), unable to suffer further the cruelties of your judges, viceroy, and governors, have resolved to obey you no longer. Denaturalizing ourselves from our land, Spain, we make the most cruel war against you that our power can sustain and endure.Believe, King and lord, we have done this because we can no longer tolerate the great oppression and unjust punishments of your ministers who, to make places for their sons and dependents have usurped and robbed our fame, life, and honor.It is a pity, King, the bad treatment you have given us.

I am lame in the right leg from the arquebus wounds I received in the battle of Chuquinga, fighting with marshall Alonzo de Alvarado, answering your call against Francisco Hernandez Giron, rebel from your service as I and my companions are presently and will be until death, because we in this land now know how cruel you are, how you break your faith and your word, and thus we in this land give your promises less credence than to the books of Martin Luther.

Your viceroy the marquis of Canete hanged Martin de Robles, a man distinguished in your service; and the brave Tomas Vasquez, conquistador of Peru; and the ill fated Alonso Dias, who worked more in the discoveries of this kingdom than the scouts of Moses in the desert; and Piedrahita, a good captain who fought many battles in your service.In Pucara they gave you victory, and if they had not, Francisco Hernandez would now be the king of Peru.Don't give much credence to the claims your judges make of services performed, because it is a great myth, unless they call having spent 800,000 pesos of your royal treasury for their vices and evil deeds, a service.Punish them as evildoers, as such they certainly are.

Look here, King of Spain!Do not be cruel and ungrateful to your vassals, because while your father and you stayed in Spain without the slightest bother, your vassals, at the price of their blood and fortune, have given you all the kingdoms and holding you have in these parts. Beware, King and lord, that you cannot take, under the title of legitimate king, any benefit from this land where you risked nothing, without first giving due gratification to those who have labored and sweated in it.

I am certain there are few kings in hell because there are few kings, but if there were many none would go to heaven.Even in hell you would be worse than Lucifer, because you all thirst after human blood.But I don't marvel nor make much of you.For certain, I and my 200 arquebus-bearing maranones, conquistadores and noble, swear solemnly to God that we will not leave a minister of yours alive, because I already know how far your clemency reaches.Today we consider ourselves the luckiest men alive, because we are in these parts of the Indies, with faith in God's commandments full and uncorrupted as Christians, maintaining all that is preached by the holy mother church of Rome, and we intend, though sinners in life, to achieve martyrdom through God's commandments.

Upon leaving the Amazon river, called the Maranon, on an island inhabited by Christians called Margarita, I saw some reports from Spain regarding the great schism of Lutherans there, which caused us to be frightened and surprised.In our company there was a German named Monteverde, and I ordered him cut to pieces.Destiny rewards the prudent. Believe this, excellent Prince:Wherever we are we ensure that all live perfectly in the Christian faith.

The dissolution of the priests is so great in these parts that I think it would be well that they feel your wrath and punishment, because there is now none among them who sees himself as less than governor.Look here, King, do not believe what they might tell you, because the tears that they shed before your royal person is so that they can come here to command.If you want to know the life they lead here, it is to deal in merchandise, seek and acquire temporal goods, and sell the Sacraments of the Church for a price.They are enemies of the poor, uncharitable, ambitious, gluttonous, and arrogant, so that even the lowest of the priests tries to command and govern all these lands.Correct this, King and lord, because from these things and bad examples faith is not impressed upon the natives.Furthermore, if this dissolution of the priests is not stopped, there will be no shortage of scandal.

If I and my companions, by the correct position we have taken, are determined to die, for this and for other things that have happened, singular King, you are to blame, for not duly considering the labor of your vassals and for not thinking of what you owe them.If you do not look out for your vassals, and your judges do not take care of this, you certainly will fail in government.Certainly there is no need to present witnesses, but simply to point out that each of your judges has 4,000 pesos of salary, 8,000 pesos in expenses, and after three years in office each has 60,000 pesos saved, along with properties and possessions!Despite all this we would be willing to serve them as we do, except that for our sins they want us to drop to our knees wherever we are and worship them like Nebuchadnezzar.This is insufferable.Just because I am an unfortunate man made lame in your service (and my companions long and weary in the same) I should not fail to advise you never to trust your conscience to these learned persons.It is in your royal interest to watch out for them, as they spend all their time planning the marriages of their children, and care for nothing else.The common refrain among them is:"To the left and to the right, I possess all in my sight."

The friars do not want to bury poor Indians, and they are lodged in the best estates in Peru.The life they lead is bitter and burdensome, as each one has as a penance a dozen young women in his kitchen, and as many boys engaged in fishing, hunting partridges, and bringing fruit!They get a share of everything.In Christian faith I swear, King and lord, that if you do not remedy the evils of this land, divine punishment will come upon you.I tell you this to let you know the truth, even though I and mine neither expect nor want mercy from you.

Oh, how sad that a great Caesar and Emperor, your father, should conquer with the power of Spain the great Germany, and should spend so much money from these Indies discovered by us, and that you should not concern yourself with our old age and weariness enough to provide for our daily bread.

You know that we know in these parts, excellent King and lord, that you conquered Germany with arms, and Germany has conquered Spain with vices.We over here are happier with just corn and water, to be removed from such a bad irony,Let those who suffer such an irony keep their reward.Let wars spread where they may, and where men take them.Never, no matter what adversity might come upon us, will we cease to be subject to the teachings of the Holy Mother Church of Rome.

We cannot believe, excellent King and lord, that you would be so cruel to such good vassals as you have in these parts.Your judges must be acting this way without your consent.I say this, excellent King, because two leagues from the city of Kings [Lima], there was discovered near the sea a lake where there were some fish God permitted to exist there.Your evil judges and officials, to profit from the fish for their pleasures and vices, leased them in your name, giving us to understand, as though we were fools, that this was done by your will.If this is so, master, let us catch some of the fish, because we worked to discover it, and because the King of Castile has no need for the 400 pesos they leased it for. Illustrious King, we do not ask for grants in Cordoba or Valladolid, nor in any part of Spain, which is your patrimony.Deign to feed the weary and poor with the fruits and proceeds from this land.Remember, King and lord, that God is the same for all, and the same justice, reward, heaven, and hell.

In the year 1559 the marquis of Canete entrusted the expedition of the river of the Amazons to Pedro de Ursua, Navarrese, or rather, a Frenchman.He delayed the building of the boats until the year 1560 in the province of the Motilones, in Peru.The Indians are called Motilones because they wear their head shaved.These boats were made in the wet country, and upon launching most of them came to pieces.We made rafts, left the horses and supplies, and took off down the river at great risk to our persons.We then encountered the most powerful rivers of Peru, and it seemed to us to be a fresh water sea.We traveled 300 leagues from the point of launching.

This bad governor was so perverse and vicious and miserable that we could not tolerate it, and it was impossible to put up with his evil ways. Since I have a stake in the matter, excellent King and lord, I will say only that we killed him; certainly a very serious thing.We then raised a young gentleman of Seville named Don Fernando de Guzman to be our king, and we made an oath to him as such, as your royal person will see from the signatures of all those who were in this, who remain in the island of Margarita, in these Indies.They appointed me their field commander, and because I did not consent to their insults and evil deeds they tried to kill me, and I killed the new king, the captain of his guard, the lieutenant-general, his majordomo, his chaplain, a woman in league against me, a knight of Rhodes, an admiral, two ensigns, and six other of his allies.It wasmy intention to carry this war through and die in it, for the cruelties your ministers practice on us, and I again appointed captains and a sergeant major.They tried to kill me, and I hung them all.

We went along our route down the Maranon river while all these killings and bad events were taking place.It took us ten and a half months to reach the mouth of the river, where it enters the sea.We traveled a good hundred days, and traveled 1,500 leagues.It is a large and fearsome river, with 80 leagues of fresh water at the mouth.It is very deep, and for 800 leagues along its banks it is deserted, with no towns, as your majesty will see from the true report we have made.Along the route we took there are more than 6,000 islands.God only knows how we escaped from such a fearsome lake!I advise you, King and lord, not to attempt nor allow a fleet to be sent to this ill-fated river, because in Christian faith I swear, King and lord, that if a hundred thousand men come none will escape, because the stories are false and in this river there is nothing but despair, especially for those newly arrive from Spain.

The captains and officers with me at present, and who promise to die in this demand like pitiful men are:Juan Jeronimo de Espinola Ginoves, admiral; Juan Gomez, Cristobal Garcia, captain of infantry, both Andaluz; mounted captain Diego Tirado, Andaluz, from whom your judges, King and lord, with great injury, took Indians he had earned with his lance; captain of my guard Roberto de Sosaya and his ensign Nuflo Hernandez, Valencian; Juan Lopez de Ayala, from Cuenca, our paymaster; general ensign Blas Gutierrez, conquistador for 27 years; Juan Ponce, ensign, native of Seville; Custodio Hernandez, ensign, Portuguese; Diego de Torres, ensign, Navarre; sergeant Pedro Gutierrez Viso and Diego de Figueroa; Cristobal de Rivas, conquistador, Pedro de Rojas, Andaluz; Juan de Saucedo, mounted ensign; Bartolome Sanchez Paniagua, our lawyer; Diego Sanchez Bilbao, supply; Garcia Navarro, inspector general, and many other hidalgos of this league.We pray to God our Lord that your fortune ever be increased against the Turk and the Frenchman, and all others who wish to make war on you in those parts.In these, God grant that we might obtain with our arms the reward by right due us, but which you have denied.

Son of your loyal Basque vassals, and I, rebel until death against you for your ingratitude.

Lope de Aguirre, the Wanderer

Mamwi - Jacob Wawatie

Scholarship for History students

English Message to Follow

AÉHSA projet d’amélioration de l’expérience étudiante

Valeur: Une bourse de 500$ pour la suggestion gagnante et 300$ pour la deuxième place.

Critères :

Tous les candidats doivent être inscrits à temps plein, avec spécialisation ou une majeure en histoire.

Les candidats doivent soumettre un projet de 500-700 mots détaillant un service, un évènement, une campagne ou toutes autres suggestions que l’AÉHSA pourrait organiser pour tous les étudiants en histoire. Le but du projet doit permettre une amélioration de l’expérience globale des étudiants en histoire, ainsi qu’encourager et promouvoir une bonne communauté d’étudiants en Histoire. L’offre doit inclure une description de la suggestion, une explication des bénéfices que l’idée apportera auprès des étudiants en histoire, des suggestions pour des promotions, une estimation des coûts et tous autres détails que le candidat trouvent pertinent.

Également, les candidats doivent ajouter à leur suggestion 200-250 mots, concernant leur succès académique et/ou leur participation dans la communauté.

Soumission :

S’il vous plait, soumettez votre offre par courriel à hsa.secretary@artsuottawa.ca, et ce, avant le 1^er mars 2013.

AÉHSA Student Experience Improvement Proposal

Value: $500 scholarship for the first place proposal and $300 for the second place proposal.

Criteria:

All applicants must be enrolled in a full time specialization or major in History.

The applicant must complete a 500-750 word proposal for a service, event, campaign or other suggestion that he or she would like the AÉHSA to organize and run for the History student body. The purpose of this suggestion must be to improve the overall student experience of History undergrads and must encourage and foster a strong History student community. This proposal must include a description of the suggestion, an explanation of how the idea will benefit History students, suggestions for promotions, a cost estimate, and any other details the applicant feels are pertinent.

In addition, the applicant must write a 200-250 word description outlining their academic achievement and/or community involvement.

Submission:

Please submit your proposal via e-mail to hsa.secretary@artsuottawa.ca by March 1^st, 2013.

Panel in the Green Week

Green Week wraps up with a high power panel, snacks and wine. We will be presenting awards for our volunteers at In partnership with CUPE 2626 and the campus sustainability office.
Bilingual Event
When: Feb 1st, 5pm-8pm Where: FSS 4007
http://www.facebook.com/events/446228745430608/?context=create

Taken from: https://marcelosaavedra.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/your-personal-bundlemandala/ 


By Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas

 A personal bundle/mandala

Bundles/Mandalas are sacred symbols we are all exposed to and are capable of creating. There are some straightforward guidelines that will allow you to creatively design your bundle/mandala, based on the teachings you acquire by reading the assigned material, attending class lectures and, more importantly, allowing yourself the proper psychological and transformational space. You are supposed to thoroughly enjoy the process of contemplating your existence in the cosmos, while doing your bundle/mandala. This is a very healing exercise.

A Bolivian Quechua bundle with aguayo (tissue)

Getting in touch with our Ancestors

Bundles/Mandalas were designed by our Ancestors, either deliberately, unconsciously or naturally, and we can find them in a host of mature civilizations, as Gary Snyder used to call indigenous peoples. Bundle/Mandalas are ethnotext or metatext. They go beyond the written medium and do not rely on mnemonics (the ability to rationally remember and reproduce) but rather ignite your intuitive perception and interpretation capabilities. In this sense this internal conversation you hold with yourself, by doing your mandala or bundle, is sacred.

Once you begin your process of reflecting and actually doing your bundle or mandala you will find you get mysteriously drawn to this process. This is not surprising. This is a visit you pay to yourself! Enjoy it, fully engage and become an indigenous to this planet.

Past experience and painting talent are not prerequisites to making meaningful bundles/mandalas. They can be quite direct and down-to-earth or very abstract. You just need to open your heart and let flow your intuition.

Some tips to get going with designing yo

• You have to be relaxed and calm. This is why I suggest you give yourself time to do this.
• Connecting:  Perhaps this is the most crucial part of the process. You need to find a suitable psychological space/time and calm your rational mind. Let go past and future events. Inhabit the present. This should express in a relaxed body and creative mind. Imagine yourself or sense yourself (breathing is the best vehicle to go around you). Once you are in touch with yourself gently reflect about what has brought you up to ‘here’ and what is holding and supporting you so you can continue your cosmic journey;
• Sense the colors that express yourself;
• Sense the elements that explain you and what you want to become;
• Sense any patterns, geometric figures or specific objects (if you are drawing, sense the symbols that represent those objects);
• Sense your surroundings past, present and those to come. Include them gently in your bundle/mandala.
• Include any other element that would make sense to you.

These are your ‘raw’ materials. Now you can proceed to creating your bundle/mandala.

Creating your personal bundle/mandala

Since a mandala is a circle (in Sanskrit) I suggest you complete a departing circle (large or small), acknowledging Pachamama, Taqpacha, all other nations, your own nation, your ancestors, your future generations, the sacredness of your relations, and the beauty of your own self. You can then draw the complementary piece of the already drawn circle (inwards or outwards, depending on your pre-disposition). You can also draw a square. Circles and squares  reflect the parity relations of all things, the opposite but complementary forces everything is made of.

If you are doing a bundle, it is meant to be like the womb of your mother, circular (spherical) in nature. Like with the mandala, be careful in complementing it with the content. The tissue (if you have chosen to have a tissue) is the form and the elements that you put in it are the content. They both complement and complete each other perfectly in a parity relationship. There cannot be a form without content and vice versa.

Now you can start including (drawing, painting, pasting, collating) the elements that you had reflected upon in the previous step. Remember that blank or empty spaces are also very meaningful.

Bring to your mind the readings you have been doing and the teachings you have been acquiring. For this specific exercise, you have to include these elements in your mandala/bundle. Gain serenity, lose fear and become truly humble. It is your life; it is your symbolism you are creating. You are safe and peaceful.

 

Enjoy it!

Paschi!

Jallalla!