CONTEXT

One of the characteristics of the 19th was the large attention, given by the State, to Science. The belief was that it would bring about technological progress and economic advances. Funding scientific activity became a deliberate action taken by the major European and American rulers. Scientific expeditions for the recognition and exploration of territories and continents started to be at the top of the political agenda, as they enabled considerable surveys on available natural resources, which had both research and economic value. In the broader context of colonial expansion, the expeditions also fulfilled political and military purposes related to the mapping and domination of lands still unexplored.