Alexander von Humboldt:
Was born in Berlin (Germany) on September 14, 1769 in a family of the Prussian nobility. He was a geographer, naturalist and explorer, specializing in various areas of science such as ethnography, anthropology, physics, geography, geology, mineralogy, botany volcanology and humanism. He is considered the "Father of the Universal Modern Geography".
He trained intellectually in Berlin, Frankfurt-Oder and Göttingen. During his adolescence he wished to dedicate himself to the military career, but his family distanced him from this inclination. He made his first formative trip in the spring of 1790 and took him along the Rhine River to the Netherlands and from there to England, whereupon he began to dream of sailing to other continents. He returned to his country in the framework of the French Revolution, which contributed to the strengthening of his liberal ideas.
In 1793, Humboldt is appointed Superintendent of Mines, after having studied for two years at the Freiberg Mining Academy. In that same year he published his first work on Underground Flora. In 1795, he collected plants in the Alps and a year later withdrew from the Prussian Administration, inheriting a fortune from his mother.
During the year of 1797 he studied Astronomy with von Zach and Kohler and traveled to France, eager to use his heritage in research trips and publications.
In Paris, meet the notable scientists Cuvier, Laplace, Berthollet and Delambre. He also makes friends with a young and talented French botanist and surgeon: Aimé Bonpland, with whom he associates in his travel plans.
Travel around America
The story tells that Humboldt and Bonpland, after seeing frustrated several projects, decide to travel to Spain in March of 1799, in order to ask permission to King Carlos IV to travel to the Spanish colonies in America. The Court of Aranjuez grants Humboldt a broad passport and, on June 5, 1799, the corvette "Pizarro" sails from the port of La Coruña (Spain), leading the later famous naturalists.
Both traveled ten thousand kilometers. The first stage of the trip had as its destination the Island of Cuba, but due to an epidemic on board it forces the Captain of the ship to go to Cumaná (Venezuela), nearest port in Tierra Firme, where they arrive on July 16, 1799. Fascinated by the beauties of the coasts of Venezuela, they decided to enter the country and almost two months after remaining in Cumana and its surroundings.
The Cave of the Guácharo
the cave of the Guácharo
It was explored by Humboldt
They had to fight against a hostile nature and made the trip through the Eastern Massif on mules or on foot in laborious conditions, taking into account that they had to collect and study plants, animals, rocks and other samples, in addition to transporting heavy and delicate instruments measurement.
In Caripe (Monagas State-Venezuela), they stay in a convent of Aragonese friars for a week and on September 28, 1799, explore the famous Guácharo Cave in 472 meters depth, thus becoming Humboldt in the precursor of scientific caving from Latin America. Also for the Ornithology, Humboldt contributes there a valuable contribution, when discovering a new sort and species of bird: Steatornis caripensis, popularly called "Guácharo". Humboldt made excellent drawings of this animal when leaving the grotto, using two guácharos that Bonpland had killed.
The second great crossing started from Bogotá to Quito through the Andes. He visited Bogotá with the main objective of meeting with the botanist José Celestino Mutis, which meant having to go up the Magdalena River and ascend the roads of the Andes.
In Ecuador, they explored several volcanoes, among them the famous Chimborazo, which at that time was believed to be the highest on the planet. Humboldt's studies in Peru on the development of indigenous cultures and Hispanic influence are of great value to Cultural Anthropology.
Physical Oceanography has also been enriched with the observations and measurements made by Humboldt on the waters of the Pacific Ocean, discovering the marine current that, later, was baptized with his name (Humboldt Current).
On February 15, 1803, they went by sea to Acapulco, Mexico, a country they visited until March 7, 1804. In Mexico, Humboldt displayed a great activity and his main studies there referred to Geopolitics, General Anthropology, Cartography , etc.
Humboldt ended his travels in America with a visit to the United States, where he was guest of President Thomas Jefferson, an amateur of geographic studies, especially on New Spain, shortly after Mexico, thanks to which the United States obtained strategic information from the wealth of his neighbor and the state of inner weakness that afflicted him. Diverse biographies of Humboldt indicate that the services of the German, contributed naively, were crucial to stoke the North American desire to seize of the Mexican territories, as it happened later.
Your great legacy
Humboldt resided in Paris for little more than twenty years and there he met in 1804 a young Simón Bolívar, with whom he was united by a great friendship, which he maintained until the death of the Liberator. In 1805 he began to write his work dedicated to Mexico. From 1807 to 1834, his work relating to travel through America appeared in thirty volumes. Finally his fortune disappeared due to his travels and the financing of his publications.
In 1827 he returned to Berlin where the King of Prussia appointed him his advisor. It dictates important conferences, that grouped a public of the most diverse intellectual, social and economic strata. These conferences became so popular that, every time, you had to look for larger classrooms due to the number of attendees.
He worked hard for Science for 70 years and used his personal fortune in his travels, publications, and helping other young and resource-poor scientists.
The thought of Alejandro de Humboldt also deepened social problems. His biography confirms that he was an open enemy of slavery and fought all forms of oppression and discrimination. Bolívar used to say of Humboldt: "Scientific discoverer of the New World whose study has given America something better than all the Conquistadores together".
On May 6, 1859, Humboldt died and his remains were buried in the pantheon of Tegel (Berlin).
Currently, several countries have associations dedicated to preserving the environment, schools, institutions that bear his name paying tribute to the geographer and naturalist who contributed so much "to the new world".
Source of information:
http://www.geoinstitutos.com/quien_fue/f_heinrich.asp
