ABSTRACT
The Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt had close contacts with the enlightened elites of Spanish America, but he was also an extremely sharp observer and analyst of demographic patterns, cultural conflicts, economies and social hierarchies. Until 1792 he was a strong supporter of the French Revolution, and thereafter, though he opposed what he viewed as its excesses, he continued to believe in the humanism and human rights which it proclaimed. He knew what a revolution involved. Humboldt travelled in 1799 to Spanish America, using his connections with Spanish enlightened intellectuals and court elites. He moved from Venezuela and Western Cuba, the booming new agricultural zones of the Spanish empire which relied heavily on slavery (1799–early 1801), to more conservative centres like Bogotá, Lima, New Spain and the city of México. His observations, written down in his diaries, are filled with his reflections on race and class conflicts, on the social and economic problems of Indians, blacks and slaves, on rebellions, exploitation, injustice and oppression, whether by monks and the Church or by colonial bureaucrats. But a close reading of Humboldt’s texts makes it clear that, based on his observations, he rejected the possibility of a revolution in Spanish America, led by the local elites, whether or not it was influenced by revolution elsewhere. So, he did not claim there was any direct link between the Spanish American elites and the French Revolution. Humboldt writes in 1803 that
European governments have been so successful in spreading hatred and dis-unity in the Colonies that the pleasures of society are unknown. Hence the inconceivable confusion of ideas and emotions, a general tendency to revolution. But this desire is restricted to chasing out the Europeans and then making war among themselves.’1
