The Science of Imperialism and the New York Academy of Sciences’ Puerto Rican Survey

In 1898 the United States intervened in the Caribbean beginning the Spanish–American War.  After the war, Cuba became a virtual protectorate of the U.S., but the islands of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were annexed outright.  This new manifest military destiny, has directed U.S. foreign policy to date.  In the case of Puerto Rico the metropolis has unilaterally determined the island’s destiny for more than a century and has exacted of its inhabitants numerous notorious colonial taxes. Sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), the Scientific Survey of Puerto Rico (1913-1934) remains one of the most complete multidisciplinary descriptions of the natural history of any tropical area ever attempted, and the only significant attempt of North American science before 1940 to go beyond its continental boundaries.  Covering a wide diversity of disciplines, the Survey remains an indispensable reference for scientific research and environmental education for Puerto Rico.  However, because of the origin and background of the scientific community of the time, coupled with the nascent imperialist objectives of the U.S. government, the Survey also served the needs of the U.S. Empire. The Survey thus had a determining role in preparing the stage for numerous future scientific projects carried out in Puerto Rico (and on Puerto Ricans), such as birth control drugs, the Viet Nam War defoliant Agent Orange, and decades of target practice with live ordinance.