User:Brennan24/Alexander von Humboldt

Biography
Statue of Alexander von Humboldt in Mexico Alexander Von Humboldt was born in September 14th 1796 and died May 6th 1859. He was born in Prussia Berlin. His Father was Alexander Georg Von Humboldt, with a younger brother by the name of Linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt. His brother was born June 22nd, 1767 and pursued his career as a Prussian minister. In 1791 he would marry Caroline Von Darcheroden, they would go on to have eight children. One of his greatest achievements was his book The Limits of State Action. He would later die in the year 1835. His dad was a major in the Prussian Army. His dad would later die while Alexander was 3 years old in 1779. Alexander's mom was Maria Elisabeth. She had three kids during her time. The first one was a daughter who died at a young age unexpectedly, the other one is his half brother who was never around very much was very distant from the family. Alexander went on to study finance at the University of Frankfurt for six months. Then in 1789 he went back to college at the University of Göttingen where is brother Wilhelm was already a student at. Soon after in 1790, Humboldt set off for his first voyage to the France and the Netherlands. He sailed along side his friend a man who went by the name of Foster. Exploration is the act of searching for purpose of discovery or information or resources. Alexander would go on to explore the rest of Europe until 1797 where he would stop for two years to start his plan to sail to the "foreign lands".

Voyage Authorization
In 1799 Humboldt and Bonpland set off on a voyage to what is now known as Venezuela. But first he had to get authority to do so from Spanish rule. He first had to go through the Bourbon monarch and to Humboldt's surprise, he was open to his proposal and passed him through to the Spanish Foreign Minister to get it finalized. What really helped him with this was his own personal finances. In March of 1799 Humboldt was granted permission to continue on his voyage. Humboldt and Bonpland would soon after that leave from Madrid and set sail to the Americas.

Venezuela
With Authority from the King of Spain, Humboldt and Bonpland started their voyage to the Americas on June 5th 1799, they would end up taking the Pizarro on the voyage. They landed in Venezuela on July 16th 1799. During their voyage of Venezuela they encountered two canones each carrying 18 indians. Humboldt would go on to hire one of the indian to serve as a pilot through the Orinoco River. Humboldt would go on to start his research in the valley of Aragua where he would harvest sugar, coffee, cacao, and cotton for his homeland. During his time here he developed the idea of climate change during his research. On the nights of November 11th through the 12th he was able to see a meteor shower. In February of 1800 Humboldt and Bonpland left the coast of Venezuela and sailed down the coast where he would go on to discover electric eels as his last finding of Venezuela.

The Andes
In 1801 after a short stop in Cuba, the voyage took a stop in the mainland of South America. They arrived in Bogota on July 6th. He would spend two months in the city before he would dig deep into the Andes Mountains. He would get through the Andes and arrive to a broken down Quito in january of 1802. The down was in a broken down state because of a massive earthquake that just went through the city. He would go on to spend eight months here measuring and exploring the mountains before he decided to climb the mountain Chimborazo. Later in the month of September Humboldt would go on to make a dream a reality when he saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in his life. After that he went back up the coast to Mexico. During his voyage to Mexico he took detailed notes on the cold current moving up the coast with them and the impact the cool water made on the land and animals.

The Return of Humboldt
Humboldt and Bonpland returned to Spain with a huge about of information for the Spanish. During his voyage he was able to get a collect of new plants, and also the latitude and longitudes of of all the lands. During his voyage he was able to compose temperatures, pressures, ans statistical data on the and economic conditions of the Americas. During his time in the Americas he would send data collections to his brother Wilhelm. But unfortunately the British blockade prevented a lot of his mail from reaching his brother during his explorations of Americas.