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Article ID: CBB001321195

Surveyors of the Promised Land: Hydrographic Engineers and the Techno-Scientific Resurgence of the Portuguese Overseas Empire (C. 1900--1935) (2013)

Raposo, Pedro M. P. (Author)

HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Volume: 7
Pages: 85--119

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Engineering Colonialism Maps; atlases Engineers Hydrography Portugal, colonies Navy (Portugal) Science and politics Textbooks 20th century, early Portugal Ramos, Agosto, da Costa Vasconcellos, Ernesto Julio de Carvalho Lacerda, Hugo de

Hydrographic engineers played an important role in several techno-scientific endeavours, in Portugal and in her colonial empire. However, they have received little attention outside the intellectual circles of the Portuguese War Navy. This paper presents a comparative overview of the life-paths and careers of three hydrographic engineers: Ernesto de Vasconcelos (1852--1930), Augusto Ramos da Costa (1865--1939), and Hugo de Lacerda (1860--1944) and provides a general description of what it meant to be such an engineer in Portugal during the late nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth. The importance of personal agency in mobilizing the resources available to this community is also highlighted. The careers of Vasconcelos, Ramos da Costa and Lacerda are thus analysed in terms of their personal agendas, their relations with the political tapestry of coeval Portugal, and their activities towards production of textbooks, cartography, the constitution of their audiences, and the foundation of astronomical and meteorological observatories. These activities are framed in the broader picture of an ideal of imperial resurgence --- in Vasconcelos' words, a "Promised Land", which was to be conquered by science and technology. Keywords: Hydrography, military engineers, empire, colonialism, textbooks, cartography, popularization of science, observatories

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