The Invention of Nature

Wherever Humboldt went, he sparked frenzied activity. The French Board of Longitude used his exact geographical measurements, others copied his maps, engravers worked on his illustrations and the Jardin des Plantes opened an exhibition displaying his botanical specimens. The rock samples from Chimborazo caused an excitement similar to that afforded to the rocks that would be brought back from the moon in the twentieth century. Humboldt was not planning to keep his specimens, but was instead sending them to scientists across Europe because he believed that to share was the path to new and greater discoveries. As a gesture of gratitude to his faithful friend Aimé Bonpland, Humboldt also used his contacts to secure him a yearly pension of 3,000 francs from the French government. Bonpland, Humboldt said, had greatly contributed to the success of the expedition and he had also described most of the botanical specimens.

Although Humboldt enjoyed being fêted in Paris, he also felt like a stranger and dreaded the first European winter – and so perhaps it was no surprise that he gravitated towards a group of young South Americans living in Paris at that time whom he probably met through Montúfar. One was twenty-one-year-old Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan who would later become the leader of the revolutions in South America.²

Born in 1783, Bolívar was the son of one of Caracas’s wealthiest creole families. They could trace their lineage back to another Simón de Bolívar who had arrived in Venezuela at the end of the sixteenth century. The family had flourished since then and now owned several plantations, mines and elegant town houses. Bolívar had left Caracas following his young wife’s death from yellow fever only a few months after their wedding. He had loved her passionately, and to drown his grief he had embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. He had arrived in Paris around the same time as Humboldt and threw himself into a round of drinking, gambling, sex and late night discussions about Enlightenment philosophy. Dark, with long black curly hair and beautiful white teeth (which he particularly cared for), Bolívar dressed in the latest fashion. He adored dancing, and women found him immensely attractive.

When Bolívar visited Humboldt in his lodgings, which were filled with books, journals and drawings from South America, he discovered a man who was enchanted with his country, a man who couldn’t stop talking about the riches of a continent unknown to most Europeans. As Humboldt spoke of the great rapids of the Orinoco and of the soaring peaks of the Andes, of towering palms and electric eels, Bolívar realized that no European had ever painted South America in such vivid colours before.

They talked about politics and revolutions too. Both men were in Paris when Napoleon crowned himself emperor that winter. Bolívar was shocked to see how his hero had transformed himself into a despot and a ‘hypocritical tyrant’. But at the same time, Bolívar also saw how Spain struggled to withstand Napoleon’s military ambitions and began to think what this changing shift in power in Europe could mean for the Spanish colonies. As they discussed South America’s future, Humboldt argued that while the colonies might be ripe for a revolution, there was no one to lead them. Bolívar, though, told him that the people would be as ‘strong as God’ once they had decided to fight. Bolívar was beginning to think about the possibility of a revolution in the colonies.

Both men had a deep-seated desire to see the Spanish driven out of South America. Humboldt had been impressed by the ideals of the American and French revolutions, and also espoused emancipation in Latin America. The very idea of a colony, Humboldt argued, was an immoral concept and a colonial government was a ‘government of distrust’. When he had travelled through South America, Humboldt had been astonished to hear people enthuse about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The colonists had told him that the American Revolution gave them hope for their own future, but at the same time he had also seen the racial mistrust that plagued South American society.

For three centuries the Spanish had stoked suspicions among classes and races in their colonies. The wealthy creoles, Humboldt was convinced, preferred to be ruled by Spain rather than share power with the mestizos, slaves and indigenous people. If anything, he feared, they would only create a ‘white republic’ based on slavery. To Humboldt’s mind these racial differences were so deeply ingrained in the social make-up of the Spanish colonies that they were not ready for a revolution. Bonpland, though, was more certain and encouraged Bolívar in his emerging ideas; so much so that Humboldt believed Bonpland was as deluded as the impetuous young creole. Years later, though, Humboldt would fondly remember his encounter with Bolívar as ‘a time when we were making vows for the independence and freedom of the New Continent’.