Article ID: CBB001421062

Science in the Service of Colonial Agro-Industrialism: The Case of Cinchona Cultivation in the Dutch and British East Indies, 1852--1900 (2014)

unapi

The isolation of quinine from cinchona bark in 1820 opened new possibilities for the mass-production and consumption of a popular medicine that was suitable for the treatment of intermittent (malarial) fevers and other diseases. As the 19th century European empires expanded in Africa and Asia, control of tropical diseases such as malaria was seen as crucial. Consequently, quinine and cinchona became a pivotal tool of British, French, German and Dutch empire-builders. This comparative study shows how the interplay between science, industry and government resulted in different historical trajectories for cinchona and quinine in the Dutch and British Empires during the second half of the 19th century. We argue that in the Dutch case the vectors of assemblage that provided the institutional and physical framework for communication, exchange and control represent an early example of commodification of colonial science. Furthermore, both historical trajectories show how the employment of the laboratory as a new device materialised within the colonial context of agricultural and industrial production of raw materials (cinchona bark), semi-finished product (quinine sulphate) and plant-based medicines like quinine. Hence, illustrating the 19th century transition from `colonial botany' and `green imperialism' to what we conceptualise as `colonial agro-industrialism'.

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Authors & Contributors
Pols, Hans
Goss, Andrew M.
Kerkhoff, Kathinka Sinha
Wingerden, Pieter van
Célia Cabral
Boumediene, Samir
Concepts
Netherlands, colonies
Colonialism
Quinine
Economic botany; plant cultivation; horticulture
Tropical medicine
Botany
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
East Indies
Netherlands
Indonesia
Batavia (Netherlands)
Suriname
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
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