Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) was a Prussian naturalist, geographer and explorer whose five-year expedition through Spanish America produced one of the most influential bodies of scientific writing of the nineteenth century. [1] He treated the natural world as a single interconnected system shaped by measurable physical forces, an approach that underlies modern physical geography, biogeography and climatology. [2]
Early life and education
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was born on 14 September 1769 in Berlin into a well-connected Prussian family; his elder brother Wilhelm became a celebrated philologist and educational reformer. [1] Privately tutored at the family estate at Tegel, he studied at Frankfurt an der Oder and Göttingen before entering the mining academy at Freiberg in Saxony, where he trained under the geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner, and then served as a Prussian mining inspector.
An inheritance received after his mother's death in 1796 freed him from official employment and allowed him to plan the scientific voyage he had wanted since youth. [3]
The American expedition
With the French botanist Aimé Bonpland, Humboldt obtained rare permission from the Spanish crown to travel in its American territories, sailing in 1799. Over five years the pair covered Venezuela, Cuba, present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, taking constant measurements of temperature, pressure, magnetism and altitude. [2] They traced the Casiquiare canal, confirming that it links the Orinoco and Amazon river systems, and in 1802 climbed high on the volcano Chimborazo, reaching an altitude then unmatched by any recorded ascent.
Humboldt observed the cold ocean current along the Peruvian coast that now carries his name, studied the guano deposits whose fertiliser value he introduced to Europe, and compiled statistical and economic surveys of New Spain. The journey ended with a visit to the United States in 1804 and several weeks of discussion with President Thomas Jefferson. [1] His observations of plantation slavery in Cuba and Venezuela led him to condemn the institution and the colonial exploitation of indigenous peoples in unusually direct terms.
Writings and later career
Humboldt spent more than twenty years and most of his fortune publishing the expedition results in some thirty volumes. The Essay on the Geography of Plants introduced his celebrated cross-section of Chimborazo showing vegetation zones arranged by altitude and climate, a founding image of biogeography. [2] He devised isotherms, lines joining points of equal temperature, which made global climate comparison possible, and organised international cooperation in measuring terrestrial magnetism.
Living in Paris until 1827, he returned to Berlin as chamberlain to the Prussian king and in 1829 undertook a second major journey, across Russia to the Urals, the Altai and the Caspian Sea at the invitation of Tsar Nicholas I. From 1845 he issued Kosmos, an attempt to present the whole of physical knowledge of the universe for a general readership; four volumes appeared in his lifetime and a fifth posthumously. [3] He died in Berlin on 6 May 1859 and was given a state funeral.
Legacy
His work directly shaped Charles Darwin, who carried the Personal Narrative aboard the Beagle, and influenced scientists, writers and artists across Europe and the Americas. More species, features and institutions are named after him than after almost any other individual, among them the Humboldt Current, the Humboldt penguin and numerous towns, counties and universities. [1]
