Spanish Jesuits in the Philippines: Geophysical Research and Synergies between Science,Education and Trade, 1865–1898

In 1865, Spanish Jesuits founded the Manila Observatory, the earliest of the Far East centres devoted to typhoon and earthquake studies. Also on Philippine soil and under the direction of the Jesuits, in 1884 the Madrid government inaugurated the first Meteorological Service in the Spanish Kingdom, and most probably in the Far East. Nevertheless, these achievements not only went practically unnoticed in the historiography of science, but neither does the process of geophysical dissemination that unfolded fit in with the two types of transmitter of knowledge identified by historians in the missionary diffusion of the exact sciences in colonial contexts. Rather than regarding science as merely a stimulus to their functionary and missionary tasks, Spanish Jesuits used their overseas posting to produce and publish original research –– a feature that would place them within the typology of the ‘seeker’ rather than the ‘functionary’ (in stark contrast to what the standard typology sustains). This paper also analyses examples of synergies between science, education and trade, which denotes, inter alia, the existence of a broad and solid educational structure in the Manila Mission that sustained the strength of research enterprise.