Realizações, infortúnios e visões de naturalistas que viajaram pelo Brasil nos séculos XVIII e XIX: o Brasil no desvendar das ideias germinais da ecologia, evolução, biodiversidade e geologia

Abstract

The exploration journeys in the Americas resulting in reports on the environment began as early as the 16th century with the records of circumnavigations. However, it was from the second half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century that explorations with the primary objective of systematically understanding the environment began. Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira was the first naturalist to undertake a scientific journey to Brazil, being one of the pioneers of naturalistic knowledge of the time, especially in the Amazon. He was followed by other naturalists such as Spix, Martius, Natterer, Spruce, von Langsdorff, Wallace, Henry Bates, Louis Agassiz, among others. With the main goal of exploring Brazil's natural resources, these naturalists had a keen interest in the Amazon region, traveling long distances to gather information about the fauna, flora, mineral resources, and ethnographic materials of the region. These expeditions resulted in a wide range of scientific production that supported the construction of knowledge about the Amazonian environment, as well as reports on different scientific aspects of fauna, flora, geology, natural resources in general, ethnology, sociology, economic potential, and general aspects of local society at the time. Among the reports, it is possible to find, in their travel diaries, narrations about the diseases they faced and views on the culture and social life of Brazil at the time, including slavery and the Black population. In this sense, based on documentary research in the field diaries of naturalists, the memoirs they wrote, books, articles, and reports published by them, this study seeks to describe the expeditions through the Brazilian Amazon, the diseases faced during the expeditions, and the views on slavery and on Black people by different naturalists who traveled through Brazilian territory between the 18th and 19th centuries.