Linnaean botany and spanish imperial biopolitics

Abstract

Our aim is to show how the discussion about the most suitable scale for imperial scientific policies conditioned the type of botany that was to spread throughout the colonies. Thus we want to explore the shift between two conflicting types of biopolitics: the botanical policy of the Metropolis and the political botany in the colonies. This is a distinction that refers to the shift from an organizational model based on the production of data towards one that assigns and redistributes values. They both emanate from the plant world. The first biopolicy seeks to take advantage of the domain through its floristic resources; the second, in contrast, tries to ensure that the qualities of the plants, by digestion, should improve the moral stature of the community. The Empire demands a policy to organize plants, while in the colonies they need a type of botany to create the polis.