The Science of Useful Nature in Central America

Landscapes, Networks and Practical Enlightenment, 1784–1838

Sophie Brockmann

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108421232
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108373111
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Technology & Engineering Research & Skills
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In this ambitious new study, Sophie Brockmann argues that interactions with landscape and environment were central to the construction of Central American identities in the Age of Enlightenment. She argues that new intellectual connections and novel ways of understanding landscapes had a transformative impact on political culture, as patriotic reformers sought to improve the region's fortunes by applying scientific and 'useful' knowledge gathered from local and global networks to the land. These reformers established networks that extended into the countryside and far beyond Central America's borders. Tracing these networks and following the bureaucrats, priests, labourers, merchants and scholars within them, Brockmann shows how they made a lasting impact by defining a new place for the natural world in narratives of nation and progress.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Translations and Names
• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Introduction: A Kingdom of Vast Extension
• 1 Landscape, Ruins, and Governance
• 2 Networks of Knowledge and Action
• 3 Making Enlightenment Local
• 4 Useful Geography in Practice
• 5 Transforming Environments
• 6 Independence and Useful Nature
• Conclusions
• Glossary of Colonial Administrative Terms
• Bibliography
• Index