Exploration, Religion and Empire in the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-Atlantic World: A New Perspective on the History of Modern Science

The Iberian conquest of the Atlantic at the beginning of the sixteenth century had a notable impact on the formation of the new world order in which Christian Europe claimed control over most a considerable part of the planet. This was possible thanks to the confluence of different and inseparable factors: the development of new technical capacities and favorable geographical conditions in which to navigate the great oceans; the Christian mandate to extend the faith; the need for new trade routes; and an imperial organization aspiring to global dominance. The author explores new methods for approaching old historiographical problems of the Renaissance--such as the discovery and conquest of America, the birth of modern science, and the problem of Eurocentrism--now in reference to actors and regions scarcely visible in the complex history of modern Europe: the ships, the wind, the navigators, their instruments, their gods, saints, and demons. The book offers convincing evidence to incorporate the Catholic world of early modernity into the history of modern science. The research is supported by the analysis of not widely studied primary sources such as the sixteenth century Iberian nautical manuals. Through the use of theoretical frameworks such as the Actor Network Theory, the book sheds light on the need to incorporate the role of heterogeneous human actors and artifacts (ships, navigation tools, sails, cannons), natural and geographical agents (ocean currents, winds, the sun, the moon and the stars), and divine entities (gods, daemons and saints) into the political history of early modernity.

Mauricio Nieto Olarte has a Doctorate in the History of Science from London University. He is currently titular Professor at the Department of History and Geography as well as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. His research has focused on the relationship between science, technology and politics in imperial and colonial contexts. He has worked on European expeditions to the New World, on natural history, cartography and navigation in order to explain the role of such techno-scientific practices in the political and cultural history of the Hispano-American world from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. He has been teaching courses and seminars in History and Sociology of Science in different universities in Latin America and Colombia for the past 20 years.
His most important publications include Remedios para el imperio: historia natural y la apropiación del nuevo mundo, Bogotá-ICANH, 2000, winner of the Silvio Zavala Award in Colonial History of America, (Mexico) 2001; La Obra Cartográfica de Francisco José de Caldas, Universidad de los Andes, 2006; Orden Natural y Orden Social: ciencia y política en el Semanario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada, Madrid-CSIC, 2007 awarded the Alejandro Ángel Escobar prize in Social Science (Bogotá) 2008; Las máquinas del Imperio y el reino de dios. Reflexiones sobre ciencia, tecnología y religión en el mundo atlántico del siglo XVI, Universidad de los Andes, 2013 and Una historia de la verdad en Occidente, Fondo de Cultura Económico-Universidad de los Andes, 2019.