L'empire de la nature : une histoire des jardins botaniques coloniaux

Botanical gardens established in the European colonies of the Caribbean, Asia and Africa were immediately set up as tools of colonial domination. Reflecting the image of a tamed tropical nature, they became part of a global economy with plant nurseries, the use of near-free labour, the cultivation of the most profitable species for the mainland or the importation of new products (tea, coffee, cocoa, spices, gum, cinchona, etc.).

From the late 18th century to the 1930s, how did they contribute, alongside other colonial institutions, to the exploitation of natural resources? How were they administered on a daily basis? How did they promote a controlled and magnified nature?

What was their political function? Hélène Blais, Professor of Contemporary History at the École normale supérieure-PSL, member of the Institut d'histoire moderne et contemporaine and the Institut Universitaire de France, will lead this lecture.

She wrote L'empire de la nature : une histoire des jardins botaniques coloniaux (fin XVIIIe siècle-années 1930) (Champ Vallon, 2023), for which she received the City of Paris Augustin Thierry prize.