Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden

by Lucile H. Brockway

This widely acclaimed book analyzes the political effects of scientific research as exemplified by one field, economic botany, during one epoch, the nineteenth century, when Great Britain was the world’s most powerful nation. Lucile Brockway examines how the British botanic garden network developed and transferred economically important plants to different parts of the world to promote the prosperity of the Empire.

In this classic work, available once again after many years out of print, Brockway examines in detail three cases in which British scientists transferred important crop plants―cinchona (a source of quinine), rubber and sisal―to new continents. Weaving together botanical, historical, economic, political, and ethnographic findings, the author illuminates the remarkable social role of botany and the entwined relation between science and politics in an imperial era.

Genres: Plants, History, Science

215 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Emma Roulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was left desiring a stronger theoretical context with this book. It seemed like just a big organized list of facts. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot. I’m starting to see how the Age of Exploration coincided with a new interest and proliferation of biologies. I’m learning how expansionist principles have shaped so much of our scientific knowledge today. But if it weren’t for my own personal biases I would be totally unconvinced by Brockway’s thesis. She claims that the founding of botany as a discipline was motivated by the imperialist impulses of the time. I definitely see how this generally works, because with a more detailed knowledge of plant biology and ecology comes better methods to increase agricultural yield. But a lot of Brockway’s work focuses on the massive scale of agriculture and trade, and not so much on science-specific practices. For example, how did the transition from apothecarial classification to Linnaean classification help further the colonial agenda? What kinds of research was being done on the inside of the botanical gardens at the time of their founding that wasn’t done by mere geographical exploration? And what role did indigenous knowledge play in Western discoveries?

I think Brockway has naturalized science too much to even see its own practices as non-universals. She writes: “Without classification there is chaos. The taxonomist’s work is valuable in establishing the true relationships between the world’s plants, both spatially and temporally…” In what sense are taxonomist’s schemas of categorization true? How are they any more true than those of an Arawakan from the present-day Bahammas, or an Aché from eastern Paraguay? What about their specialized and local knowledges of their biological world, don’t those count as true?

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

The essential thesis of this book is that Kew Gardens acted to convert scientific knowledge into profit and power for the British Empire.

The book focuses on three case studies, where a plant was extracted from its indigenous country for development as a plantation crop in European/British possession: Rubber, Sisal and cinchona from which quinine is derived.”Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia each lost a native industry as a result of these transfers, but Asia acquired them only in a geographical sense, the real benefits going to Europe.”

Beyond being an interesting documentation of historical events, there are huge implications for today. “In the postcolonial era this system continues to drain money, talent, and energy from the undeveloped countries in the form of information monopolies, patents, licenses, fees and other rents on technology, gross inequalities between buyer and seller in the tropical commodities markets and unpaid Labour.”

Also speaks about science as a social equalizer for the established Society and new money in the 1850s and 1860s. Also about how closely knit the power structures around Kew Gardens were and the extreme privilege given to Darwin and why he was able to gather so much evidence to go along with his theory due to privilege (p.56).

The book is a little dry, but very interesting and the numerous summary and introduction sections really help reiterate the points and make the argument clear. Stood the test of time and is just as relevant now as it was when published in1979.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers an invaluable analysis of the ways in which plants and knowledge about them have been employed towards the expansion of the British empire. Amateur and later professional botanists associated with the Kew Botanical Gardens made relocating plants from one continent to the next possible through innovation and enhanced understanding of the plants' systems, taxonomy and ecology. This knowledge and related inventions for transporting plants made it possible for the British to grow rubber in SE Asia, tea in Ceylon, coffee in Latin America, sugar in Brazil, etc. This movement of plants around the world were further aided by the valuable discovery of quinine for curing fevers and malaria which meant that the cinchona tree from Peru and Bolivia facilitated the penetration of colonial empire further into the African and Asian continents. This book is carefully researched and beautifully narrated.