| Summary: | In its colonial aspect, Enlightenment science was obsessed with measuring a territory with objective observations made by using an ever-increasing arsenal of scientific instruments. In the Spanish Empire, there were a countless number of maritime and overland expeditions tasked with this difficult mission, one upon which other colonial powers, such as England and France, had already embarked. In fact, some of the first scientific missions were undertaken by French explorers, almost always members of the Académie des Sciences de Paris, a prestigious institution with a great deal of experience in the use of scientific instruments. At the turn of the century, Alexander von Humboldt carried on this obsession with the use of scientific instruments in the study of nature, though he also posed more general questions about the natural equilibrium and the relationship between living beings and inanimate nature, as guided by a reasoned empiricism and determined by both measurement and the subjective sensibilities of the observer, which marked one of the key transitional moments between the Enlightenment and the Age of Romanticism.
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