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Alexander von Humboldt - Socio-political Views of the Americas Ingo Schwarz Alexander-von-Humboldt-Forschungsstelle Jägerstraße 22-23 D-10117 Berlin When in August 1844 the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin celebrated the 40th anniversary of Alexander on Humboldt's and Aimé Bonpland's return from America, the geographer Carl Ritter called the travels in South and Central America the "scientific rediscovery of the New World." In a similar way, Simón Bolívar had called Humboldt the discoverer of the New World whose wisdom has done more good to America than all the conquistadors put together. The Alexander von Humboldt statue in Berlin bears the Spanish inscription "to the Second discoverer of Cuba" dedicated by the University of Havana in 1939 which goes back to the Cuban historian José de la Luz y Caballero. This characterization has long been seen as an expression of the high esteem which was felt both in Europe and in America. The year 1992 marked not only the 500th anniversary of Columbus's navigation to a New Continent, it called Humboldt's travels - the second discovery - to public attention as well. Some contributions to conferences and publications which appeared on this side of the Atlantic, focused on the fact that Humboldt's fame as the benefactor of Latino-America, particularly of Mexico, has been a topic of a controversial discussion in America. For example José Ortega y Medina, a Mexican expert in Latin American history, pointed out, that Humboldt's information on nature, economy, population etc. which he published in his "Political essay on New Spain" was based on data which Mexican scholars had already researched and unselfishly supplied to the European traveler. Ortega y Medina stated that Humboldt on his arrival in Mexico found a high standard of scientific knowledge and discussion. He had access to important archives so that he was able to paint a comprehensive picture of Mexico in his own publications which in the long run overshadowed the achievements of the Mexicans. But even worse, immediately after leaving the country, Humboldt carelessly gave his knowledge to the US government. Thus he paved the way for the North American expansion into the South and for the economic conquest of the Southern parts of America. Of course Humboldt has found defenders in Mexico as well. I think it is worthwhile to take this discussion seriously and to evaluate Humboldt's attitudes and actions against this background. What I would like to do here is to present some examples that illustrate how Humboldt saw the socio-political situation in the Americas in the first half of the 19th century and in particular the hopes he had in relation to the US. Humboldt visited the Spanish colonies with a clear purpose: "I shall," he wrote before leaving the European continent, "collect plants and fossils and make astronomic observations. But that is not the main purpose of my expedition. 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." Nature included to Humboldt human beings in their history as well as in their present situation. All the demographic and economic data which he compiled and compared, the analysis of colonialism as well as that of the slave system, but also his investigations into world trade are not only part of Humboldt's desire to establish knowledge. In these ways, he also wanted to promote social progress. Humboldt's carte blanche, granted to him by the Spanish King Charles IV. was unprecedented. Mary Louise Pratt has assumed that the Spanish King "hoped that Humboldt and Bonpland would help him regain control of his restless colonies. Certainly he was eager to make use of Humboldt's mining expertise, and asked him to report back in particular on mineralogical findings." Humboldt saw the colonies on the eve of their struggle for independence. It is therefore not surprising that one central aspect in his evaluation of the political situation was a critical analysis of the Spanish colonial system. In 1803 Humboldt entered a short essay on colonialism into his travel journal. His central point was that it would be difficult under colonial circumstances to create mild, friendly and social subjects, because the concept of a colony was an immoral idea in itself. The interests of the mother-country would keep industry, wealth and enlightenment of the population to a mediocre level. If the farmers, workers and craftsmen were free, they could develop their skills and abilities and would soon look for independence from Spain. Humboldt understood that the colonial authorities did everything to make use of the division of the population into various strata or classes. The basic dividing line was between white and colored people. The white population on the one hand was subdivided into Europeans, that is to say, people who were born in Europe (chaperones or gachupines) and Creoles, people born in the colonies. Since the authorities mistrusted the Creoles, they put the key-positions into the hands of Europeans. This caused mistrust and jealousy among the whites. The non-white population on the other hand basically consisted of Indians, free people of color and slaves. The majority of the colored people were integrated into the economic process only as forced laborers and had thus no interest in their social progress. Where climate and natural conditions allowed it, some groups lived on the edge of civilization and produced only for their own support. Humboldt understood that such a divided society would have to undergo drastic reforms in order to become a free working society in which all the classes could develop their abilities. Only if the various classes could overcome their isolation, their hatred against one another, if they could cooperate as free, equal individuals, could the society improve. Humboldt was hesitant in welcoming the revolution in Latin America for he knew how difficult it would be to overcome the differences among the various social classes. On the other hand, the organization of the Spanish colonies into independent republics was to him necessarily a natural process. He hoped for moderate rulers who were wise enough not to abuse their powers. The word "moderation" therefore plays an important role in Humboldt's correspondence with Simón Bolívar. A central concept in Humboldt's analysis of the social situation in the colonies was that of gregariousness versus isolation. We find a similar distinction in his Essay on plant Geography, where he distinguished between species which occur as isolated individuals and gregarious species which dominate as plant associations wide areas of land. Humboldt pointed out that the pre-Revolutionary situation in North America had been advantageous as compared with that in the Spanish colonies: The families there had been less isolated from one another, they had had more of a political culture. Thus the population could easier be revolutionized and educated to be friendly, generous, social human beings. Humboldt witnessed the growing importance of the North American example in the Spanish colonies. We can assume that he hoped for close contacts between independent states in South and Central America with the North which would enhance social progress in all parts. By "close contacts" he understood in the first place the free exchange of goods and knowledge. How far he took territorial changes in the border regions between the US and Mexico into consideration will have to be examined in more detail. It is a fact that Humboldt had no problems in supplying the US government with the latest geographical and statistical information on Mexico. When he visited Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., the US had just bought the Louisiana Territory from France. For some time the President did not know what the Western border of this territory was: the Sabine River, as the Spanish King claimed, or the Rio Grande. Humboldt was in a lucky position. Not only had he sketched a map of New Spain; he had a short memorandum which contained detailed information on the population, trade, agriculture, even the military strength of the provinces of New Spain. Humboldt allowed his map to be copied. He had prepared the memorandum, the so-called "Tablas Geográfico políticas del Reyno de Nueva España" (1803) for the Viceroy of New Spain, José de Iturrigaray. When Jefferson wanted information about Mexico, Humboldt translated the "Tablas" into French, added a two page summary particularly on the Mexican border region of the Louisiana Territory and gave it to the President. This summary characterized the area which is now basically the State of Texas, as almost deserted and useless before a possible unification with the United States. It is quite obvious that Humboldt did not have the least doubt about his doing the right thing. The "Tablas" were first given to the Mexican Viceroy and all the materials were to be published soon. Humboldt was convinced that the sciences should be free and that the exchange of scientific information should not be limited. Thus, we find in a letter to Secretary of state, James Madison, dated June 27, 1804 the promise that Humboldt would also communicate to the US government all the details about the possibilities to build an interoceanic canal. We will come back to this topic later on. As I have mentioned, Humboldt left the copy of a map of New Spain with the US government. In 1811 he complained in a letter to Jefferson: " Mr. Arrowsmith [a cartographer] in London has stolen my large map of Mexico, and Mr. Pike has taken, rather ungraciously, my report which he undoubtedly obtained in Washington with the copy of this map, and besides be also extracted from it all the names. I am sorry over my cause for complaint about a citizen of the United States who otherwise showed such fine courage. I do not find my name in his book and a quick glance at Mr. Pike's map may prove to you from where he got it." Humboldt was so angry about this "theft" that he mentioned it in the introduction to his Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. But what did Humboldt complain about? It was not that Pike had used his material during his expeditions into areas which still belonged to Mexico. The Prussian scientist was not prepared to tolerate the fact that Pike had published Humboldt's map without mentioning the source. In 1813 Jefferson explained to Humboldt in a letter why he believed America and Europe should be separated. The following lines were written under the impression of the War of 1812 with England: "America has a hemisphere to itself: it must have it's separate new system of interest, which must not be subordinated to those of Europe. The insulated state in which nature has placed the American continent should so far avail it that no spark of war kindled in the other quarters of the globe should be wafted across the wide oceans which separate us from them." We do not know if Humboldt ever replied to this. It is clear, though, that he envisioned for the future a "noble competition" in trade, in the arts, in civilization between the Old Continent and the New World. Such a peaceful contest would make both sides richer. If we look at Alexander von Humboldt's correspondence and conversations with North Americans it appears that there were three topics which aroused his interest most. 1. The question of slavery. 2. The production of gold in the US as compared with Russia. 3. The possibilities to build an interoceanic canal. There is no doubt that Humboldt's criticism of the political situation in the US grew with the sharpening of the slave question. Particularly in his essay on Cuba Humboldt had characterized slavery not only as unnatural and immoral, but also as less profitable than the work of free laborers. The slave system divided the population, on racist grounds, into workers who were legally free and those who were deprived of major human rights, in particular their personal freedom. But the slave system not only divided the population; it separated human beings from their native country, and in many cases it tore families apart. Humboldt found it particularly disgusting that in the southern states of the US the law allowed the selling of slave children. Such an institution was against the human nature. Therefore the Prussian traveler had many reasons to see slavery as "the greatest of all the evils which have afflicted mankind". When he visited the US in 1804 he hoped that slavery would gradually disappear in this part of America. But it was the former Spanish colonies which abolished slavery long before the southern states of the US. In his Essay on Cuba Humboldt wrote: "We can never enough praise the wisdom of the legislation in the new republics of Spanish America, which since their birth, has been seriously occupied with the total extinction of slavery. That vast portion of the earth has, in this respect, an immense advantage over the southern part of the United States, where the whites, during the struggle with England, established liberty for their own profit, and where the slave population, to the number of six hundred thousand, augments still more rapidly than the white [...] Let us hope that the generous principles which have so long animated the legislatures in the northern parts of the United States, will extend by degrees towards the south, and towards those western regions, where by the effect of an imprudent and fatal law, slavery and its iniquities have passed the chain of the Alleghanys and the banks of the Mississippi." At about the same time (1825) Humboldt wrote to the German geographer Heinrich Berghaus: "Should the question of slavery break out one day, I entirely share your opinion that the maintenance of the North American Union as a state is in danger. I do not wish to see this happen. I think highly, very highly of the United States because it is the shelter of a reasonable freedom." Again, Humboldt saw that slavery not only divided social classes, it could even divide a whole nation, which it actually did. In 1847 Humboldt expressed an opinion to George Bancroft, at that time the US Envoy to London, about the Mexican-American War: "For us to come down and take all Mexico he deemed impossible or rather an unwise design, but all the north to latitude 35 he thought we ought certainly have. Such opinions so strongly expressed he could not publish, for he holds a situation at the Prussian court and is, moreover, a Mexican.[...] Besides he detests slavery and holds the very strongest opinion against its extension. For all this, he regards Cuba as the natural extension of Florida, and that, therefore, one day it must come to the power, of which Florida is a possession..." We do not know if Bancroft cited Humboldt absolutely correctly, for in personal letters, for example to the Prussian envoy to London, he was much more critical about the conquests of the US in tropical Mexico. When in 1856 an English translation of his Essay on Cuba appeared in New York without the chapter on slavery, Humboldt protested publicly against the mutilation of his work. He found it intolerable that "in the free States of the Continent of America, [it] should [not] be allowed to read what has been permitted to circulate, from the first year of its appearance, in the Spanish translation." It is remarkable that Humboldt here protested only on the grounds that the translator withheld certain parts of the Essay on Cuba from the American readers. We know, however, that Humboldt was against an annexation of Cuba by the US. He called the Ostend Manifesto the "most outrageous political document ever published." But again, it was the spread of slavery which Humboldt did not want to see happen. Humboldt's correspondence with North Americans between 1836 and 1849 has one prevailing topic: the production of gold in the United States. In letters to Albert Gallatin, the director of the Bank of New York, and to American diplomats the German naturalist kept inquiring about the value of the North American gold production. In addition he wanted to know about the biggest lump of gold that had ever been found in the US, and whether or not platinum occurred together with gold. This set of questions illustrates Humboldt's method of research. His interest included economics, politics, geography and geology at the same time. Already in his Essay on Mexico he had examined the production of gold and silver in this part of the world and the ways in which the metals wandered between the continents. A map which depicts theses routes was included in the Mexican Atlas. With these investigations Humboldt pioneered the field of scientific statistics of precious metals. The revived interest in this field is explained by Humboldt in a letter to Henry Wheaton, dated June 10, 1837: "Since my expedition to the Ural mountains and to Siberia, undertaken in 1829 at the command of the emperor of Russia, I have the strongest desire to collect numerical statements, approximative of the quantity of gold, which the Southern States [of the US] have furnished during the most abundant years. I am sorry to find that all my researches, so far, have been fruitless [...] This subject is of great interest, as relating to political economy, particularly concerning the variable proportions of gold to silver, since the working of the mines in Brazil has declined, and that the washings of gold of Russia and the United States, have replaced it." In his essay "The Fluctuations of Gold", published in German in 1838, Humboldt presented statistical material on the gold production in America and Russia. In this work Humboldt made an effort to determine the laws which govern the flow of precious metals between the continents. Humboldt received the geological information which he needed in order to compare certain conditions in the Ural mountains with those in the Alleghenies only in 1850. This is not only an example of Humboldts global perspective, it illustrates his persistence in obtaining empirical facts on which he based his research. A final aspect of Humboldts interest in America has to do with world trade as well. We can be sure that Humboldt and Jefferson discussed the possibilities of a canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, for Humboldt promised to send him all the information he had been able to obtain in the Mexican archives. In volume VI of his Personal Narrative, Humboldt explained "the five points that present the practicability of a communication from sea to sea." In the same work he developed ideas how such a tremendous project could be carried out. He abstained from discussing the question whether the ground into which a canal could be dug "should form a separate republic by the name of Junctiana, dependant on the confederation of the United States [...] Whatever government may claim the soil on which the great junction canal of the Ocean shall be established", Humboldt wrote, "the benefit of this hydraulic work ought to belong to every nation of both worlds who have contributed to its execution by taking shares." It is remarkable with what high hopes Humboldt developed this project: "The junction company would find funds from governments and enlightened citizens, who, insensible to the allurements of gain and yielding to noble impulses, would be proud of the idea of having contributed to a work worthy of modern civilization." Humboldt never lost the project out of sight. In June 1850, "after the recent acquisitions of the western Coast of the New Continent by the United States and the fame of the golden treasures of Upper California" he made a effort to have a passage from his Aspects of Nature published in the United States under the title "Humboldt's last opinion on the Isthmus of Panama". He pointed out that the canal would revolutionize international trade. With the help of American friends Humboldt's view on the project was brought to the attention of the public in the US: "I here repeat the opinion I have often before expressed: viz., that the assertion is groundless and altogether premature, that the Isthmus of Panama is unsuited to the formation of an Oceanic Canal." Humboldt had long been proposing a complete comprehensive survey of the Isthmus. With some resignation he stated: "For upwards of twenty years I have been repeatedly consulted on the problem of the Isthmus of Panama, by companies having ample pecuniary means at their disposal; but in no instance has the simple advice I have given been followed." Obviously, Humboldt hoped that under the new circumstances US companies would be interested in tackling the project which had been one of Humboldt's favorites. This is somewhat surprising for at this time he expressed serious doubts that the US was still the shelter of freedom. In letters to personal friends he said regretfully that in the US "freedom was nothing but a mechanism in the element of utility and thus not ennobling the people." He compared the country with a Cartesian vortex which tore everything with it. Such a critical attitude toward the US had grown with the observation that slavery would spread into the new territories instead of disappearing. On the other hand Humboldt never stopped watching the nations scientific progress, in particular in astronomy, hydrography, geography, education etc. with interest and sympathy. As we have seen, Humboldt attitude towards the Americas was not without contradictions. He hoped that the US would offer an example to other peoples in terms of personal freedom and "gregariousness" of its citizens. This, and his global perspective on the human race which one day could be united in peaceful competition among the various peoples, should be taken into account when Humboldt's historic role in the second conquest of South America is evaluated.
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