Exploring the Brazilian Tropics: The Scientific Journey of Spix and Martius

Here we offer an overview of the expedition undertaken by the naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich von Martius. Both traveled over 10,000 km across Brazilian lands in the early 19th century and left a significant scientific and literary body of work about the country.

On the brink of the invasion by Napoleonic troops in Portugal, the Portuguese royal family and their entourage fled under British protection to Rio de Janeiro. One significant consequence was the opening of the ports in 1808, which meant the end of the colonial monopoly.

Dona Leopoldina’s move to Rio de Janeiro in 1817 was the opportunity for the Vienna Museum of Natural History to organize a major scientific expedition to Brazil, made up of 14 science and arts professionals including the landscape painter Thomas Ender.

Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria had already planned a mission to Latin America. Given the family relationships that linked the courts of Vienna and Munich, the opportunity was taken to include two members of the Academy of Sciences in the Austrian expedition.

In the early 19th century, the Academy of Sciences was nationalized. The aim was to make it a leading scientific center in Munich, diversifying its fields of research, updating its methods, and expanding the collections of natural objects.

The plan to carry out a scientific mission to Latin America under the mandate of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences can be understood as one of the results of the modernizing reforms that took place in the institution itself.

Scientific exploration trips were linked to economic and political interests in the context of industrialization in Europe, the expansion of consumer markets, the acceleration of globalization, and the neo-colonial/imperialist disputes among the most powerful nations.