Thread by @husnayn_

Western Scientific Enlightenment - a direct birth child of Colonialism | a super-thread🧵

This thread explains the impossibility of imagining the western scientific revolution without its contingency upon colonial ventures.

Even tho the west would like to believe that modern science is simply a product of the intrinsic genius of the west, this idea couldn't be far from the truth when its scrutinised through historical narratives.

To begin, the WSR began with the natural sciences - which were developed solely due to the Spanish discovery and colonisation of "The New World" i.e. American continents. Where exploration of new plants and animal species and their behaviours/natural makeup necessitated

developing a new understanding of the natural world. This new understanding then, was constructed on the knowledge of the indigenous people of the colonised lands. Studies in the New World were then funded by the Spanish government for economical gains.

Even though the european understanding of the natural world was being aided by the knowledge of the indigenous inca & aztec communities, the Spanish still thought of the indigenous as barbaric and uncivilised, who needed to be civilised (therefore justifying colonisation)

Such racist rhetoric against the people of the New World sparked the curiosities of the "civilised western people" about these newly discovered "anomalous things" - which were then brought by force to europe, in order to study them as lab subjects.

which shows that the origination of modern "Human Sciences" in the WSR was not a result of intellectual or religious change in europe, but their racist attitudes coupled with colonialism.

To learn the medical usage of american plants, and use them for economical/trading purposes and to map the new geographic territories, the primary institutionalisation of modern science in europe was done not in any academic institution, by the state to conquer the new world.

With this type of colonial institutionalisation of modern science in Europe as a starting point, almost every "scientific venture"
that followed was based on an understanding of science that was fused with the establishment of the empire.

The European states even imposed sanctions and legal restrictions on the development of science of the indigenous people (through whom they themselves learned) .

Moving to the example of the greatest scientist, one of the fathers of WSR, Issac Newton, who himself was aware of his debt to colonial voyages - all his major theories were based on the observations made by astronomers of the slave-trade and territory conquering voyages

Most of the data Newton worked on was collected by EIC officers on expansion missions. Moreover his connections to the Royal (state) academic institutions allowed him access to information that was amassed due to imperial purposes.

In fact, the most important of newton's theories i.e. gravity was not a result of apple falling on his head but a fully intended theory built on the data and observations of a French Astronomer Jean Richer, who travelled the globe for the purpose of imperial territory markings...

by the french military as well as slave trade voyages, not to miss the collection of most of this data was impossible without the assistance of indigenous people who were being colonised and exploited for their knowledge and skills.

Once Newton laid the foundations of Modern Astronomy theoretically, testing out his theories with practical measurements and observations and building on them, was another task, which was once again carried out in the culture of colonial expansion and exploitation.

The European states used Newton's astronomical data to advance their geographical understanding for territory expansion (naval navigation). Data which was developed and proved through experiments that were conducted through exploitation of "slavish/lowly" indigenous people.

A major western scientific advancement regarding the size of the solar system (done for navigation purposes) was done through a forceful military mission in the region of Tahiti (which was the best place to conduct the observations) by Captain James Cook.

Not only that but the local indigenous skill and knowledge of sea navigation was used by Captain Cook, to map new regions for empire expansion. Knowledge of Indigenous people of colonised territories were being used to colonise new areas.

Biological sciences and particularly the samples and specimens used for the development of the theory of evolution was unsurprisingly also a direct result of racist social darwinism fused with colonial attitudes.

One of the most significant fossil hunter of the 19th cent. was only able to collect fossils (of indigenous) for the development of evolutionary theory, because the indigenous population was massacred by the military colonisers (with whom he entered the region). Who were...

massacred due to the colonial darwinistic mindset of replacing the primitive/barbaric civilisations with the civilised Europeans.

Conclusion: The WSR is rooted in the ambition of empire expansion, exploitation of indigenous knowledge/labour and coercive military action for "scientific research" - where science only served the purpose of exploitation. Making WSR, in no way, a revolution of western genius.

[Based on: Horizons, A Global History of Science by James Poskett.]