The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century (original) (raw)
Related papers
On Diplomacy and Botanical Gifts. France, Mysore and Mauritius in 1788
Yota Batsaki, Sarah Burke Cahalan and Anatole Tchikine (eds.), The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century, 2016
This chapter discusses the botanical dimensions of a diplomatic exchange between the Tipu Sultan of Mysore and the French king Louis XIV in 1788. On being visited by three ambassadors from Mysore, Louis XVI sent a range of gifts to the Tipu, which included a substantial consignment of live plants. The chapter examines the geopolitical and economic motivations that underpinned this botanical exchange, and then discusses the challenging conditions that the plants and their custodians (two French gardeners) faced during their transit from Paris to the Île de France (Mauritius), and then onwards towards Mysore. State ambitions, enlightenment science and the personal aspirations of certain powerful individuals came into conflict during the journey - resulting in a diplomatic impasse when the mission reached the Île de France.
Portuguese Journal of Social Science, 2017
Plant circulation in Portuguese America and Independent Brazil was significantly indebted to the French colonial network, during the Napoleonic wars as well as from 1815. French Guiana, that share borders with Brazil, was under many circumstances a strategic element for the transfer and the acclimatization of exotic plants in Americas. Exchanges of seeds and natural products could be spontaneous or intentional. From the last decades of the eighteenth century, the role of botany became more evident in regard to plant transfers. The French naturalist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire collaborated to establish a type of botanical knowledge that, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, became a requirement for anyone who would identify, classify or acclimatize plants.
Electronic Melbourne Art Journal (emaj), 2017
The article examines the role of botany in diplomatic relationships between Britain and Russia around the turn of the nineteenth century by looking at three gifts of exotic seeds and plants sent by different British diplomats and officials to the Russian Empress Maria Fedorovna, wife of Tsar Paul I. Gifts of live plants were a new category of diplomatic presents fuelled by the rapidly growing popularity of botany across Europe. These gifts represented British imperial ambitions and desire to build a self-sufficient economy. They also indicated an element of Britain’s anxiety about its navy’s dependence on Russian natural resources and later on about Russia’s successes in the exploration of the Antarctic regions. Empress Maria Fedorovna displayed these plants in a prominent part of her garden at Pavlovsk, next to the plants from North America that she had procured independently. This was a deliberate strategy that worked to boost her prestige at court by showcasing her international relationships.
Centaurus, 2018
In this paper, private gardens are portrayed as spaces and tools of aristocratic passion for plant collecting, of contention within the gentry, as well as of scientific professionalisation for botanists. Focusing on the Russian Empire, this paper traces the early history of a botanical collection as part of the Russian elite’s culture that encouraged amateur patrons to invest in expeditions, gardens, and professionals to manage these projects. Young graduates of the European universities, who started working at private botanical institutions, could later successfully apply for academic positions. Circulation of specimens had developed as a key element of the botanical collection, and the basis for networking of professionals and amateurs around the world. This paper argues that collecting of plant objects became an important means of ‘power games’ and even ‘plant diplomacy’. These new responsibilities tremendously increased the botanists’ status as experts. A diverse group of personalities, such as the Empress Catherine II, the King of England George III, mine industrialist Prokophy Demidov, aristocrat Alexei Razumovsky, president of the Royal Society Joseph Banks, academician Peter Pallas - all shared the passion for botanical collecting and were engaged in power games at different levels, using botany as an instrument of influence.