Article ID: CBB991989271

Advance Agent of Expanding Empires: George F. Becker and Mineral Exploration in South Africa and the Philippines (2019)

unapi

Hendrickson, Mark (Author)


History and Technology
Volume: 35
Issue: 3
Pages: 237-265


Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Special Issue: Empires of Knowledge
Language: English

In the late nineteenth century, American mining engineers and geologists fanned out to potential or existing mines around the world. This paper examines the work of George F. Becker—a forty-year veteran of the United States Geological Survey—in South Africa and the Philippines during the 1890s. Becker’s work on the world above and below ground provided a diverse audience with direct observations of attempted empire building underway and helped to reorganize the world of American imperial imagination in a way that used British experience in South Africa to explain and justify U.S. efforts to displace Spain in the Philippines. He derived his authority both from the knowledge he generated about minerals and geological formations underground and from the experience he garnered as one of the only Americans to observe these two empire building projects underway on two continents in this critical period of economic, political and foreign policy upheaval.

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Article Axel Jansen; John Krige; Jessica Wang (2019) Empires of Knowledge: Introduction. History and Technology (pp. 195-202). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB991989271/

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Authors & Contributors
McCulloch, Jock
Gutiérrez del Arroyo, Isabel Rábano
Nelson, Clifford M.
Clary, Renee M.
Iva Peša
Phimister, Ian
Concepts
Mines and mining
Geology
Spain, colonies
Geological surveys
Museums
Silicosis
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
Enlightenment
21st century
Places
South Africa
Philippines
Canada
United Kingdom
Congo
Nigeria
Institutions
United States. Geological Survey
United States. Department of Agriculture
Great Britain. Geological Survey
Royal School of Mines
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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