History of science and technology in Mexico

The history of science and technology in Mexico spans many years.

Indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations developed mathematics, astronomy, and calendrics, and solved technological problems of water management for agriculture and flood control in Central Mexico.

Following the Spanish conquest in 1521, New Spain (colonial Mexico) was brought into the European sphere of science and technology. The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, established in 1551, was a hub of intellectual and religious development in colonial Mexico for over a century. During the Spanish American Enlightenment in Mexico, the colony made considerable progress in science, but following the war of independence and political instability in the early nineteenth century, progress stalled.

During the late 19th century under the regime of Porfirio Díaz, the process of industrialization began in Mexico. Following the Mexican Revolution, a ten-year civil war, Mexico made significant progress in science and technology. During the 20th century, new universities, such as the National Polytechnical Institute, Monterrey Institute of Technology and research institutes, such as those at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, were established in Mexico.

According to the World Bank, Mexico is Latin America's largest exporter of high-technology goods (High-technology exports are manufactured goods that involve high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery) with $40.7 billion worth of high-technology goods exports in 2012. Mexican high-technology exports accounted for 17% of all manufactured goods in the country in 2012 according to the World Bank.

Indigenous civilizations

The Olmec, a Pre-Columbian civilization living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, calendar system required an advanced understanding of mathematics. The Olmec number system was based on 20 instead of decimal and used three symbols- a dot for one, a bar for five, and a shell-like symbol for zero. The concept of zero is one of the Olmecs' greatest achievements. It permitted numbers to be written by position and allowed for complex calculations. Although the invention of zero is often attributed to the Mayans, it was originally conceived by the Olmecs.

To predict planting and harvesting times, early peoples studied the movements of the sun, stars, and planets. They used this information to make calendars. The Aztecs created two calendars- one for farming, and one for religion. The farming calendar let them know when to plant and to harvest crops. An Aztec calendar stone dug up in Mexico City in 1790 includes information about the months of the year and pictures of the sun god at the center.

Colonial era

After the Viceroyalty of New Spain was founded, the Spanish brought the scientific culture that dominated Spain to the Viceroyalty of New Spain.Fortes & Lomnitz (1990), p. 13

The Franciscan order founded the first school of higher learning in the Americas, the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco in 1536, at the site of an Aztec school.Where Is the Oldest University in the New World? Donald D. Brand. New Mexico Anthropologist Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1940), pp. 61-63

The municipal government (cabildo) of Mexico City formally requested the Spanish crown to establish a university in 1539.Levy (1986), p. 116 The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico () was established in 1551. The university was administered by the clergy and it was the official university of the empire. It provided quality education for the people, and it was a hub of intellectual and religious development in the region. It taught subjects such as physics and mathematics from the perspective of Aristotelian philosophy. Augustinian philosopher Alonso Gutiérrez in 1553 he became the first professor of the University of Mexico. He wrote Physical speculation, the first scientific text in the Americas, in 1557. By the late 18th century, the university had trained 1,162 doctors, 29,882 bachelors, and many lawyers.

Pedro Lopez, a physician to King Philip II was sent to New Spain in order to write a medical history of the nation. He spent seven years on his work. He made descriptions and drawings of Novhispanic flora and fauna, and experimented with Indigenous remedies. He returned to Spain with the results of his work in 1577. The book was bound and stored in the archives of the Escorial only to be mostly lost when fire afflicted the palace in 1671. An abridged version however was saved and was published by Federico Cesi. Back in Mexico a Dominican lay brother named Francisco Jiménez translated the abridgement from Latin to Spanish. It was composed of four books: the first three relating to plants, and the fourth relating to animals and minerals.

Alonso López de Hinojosos, the physician at the Royal Hospital of Indians conducted many autopsies during the epidemic of 1576 in order to understand more the nature of the Cocoliztli disease. He also wrote textbooks on surgery. During that same epidemic, Juan de la Fuente, professor of medicine at the University of Mexico convoked all of the local physicians in order to further understand the disease.

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora was a Mexican Jesuit poet, a philosopher, a mathematician, a historian, and antiquarian. He studied astronomy, physics, and mathematics at Tepotzotlán College. He was at one point invited to visit the court of Louis XIV. He abandoned Aristotelianism and adopted Cartesianism. He also advocated a naturalistic explanation for comets, free from superstition.

In 1693 Viceory Galve nominated Sigüenza to form part of a scientific expedition tasked with exploring the Gulf of Mexico. Siguena accepted and published his findings in a treatise. He also wrote treatises on astronomy and geometry.

Bourbon Reforms

In the early 18th century, the War of Spanish Succession ended with the rule of Spain passing over from the House of Habsburg over to the French House of Bourbon. The new ruling family inaugurated a program of government improvements known as the Bourbon Reforms which also affected the colonies and inaugurated the era of Spanish American Enlightenment. Regardless, the 1767 expulsion of Jesuits, who had been key in the fields of Mexican science and education, helped to antagonize the Creoles.Fortes & Lomnitz (1990), p. 15Fortes & Lomnitz (1990), p. 14 In 1792 the Seminary of Mining was established. Later it became the College of Mining, in which the first modern physics laboratory in Mexico was established. Andrés Manuel del Río and Fausto Elhuyar arrived from Spain to join the faculty. It taught courses on topography, geodesy, mineralogy, and other sciences. Shortly before a botanical garden had also been established which also taught a course on botany.

Notable scientists during this era included José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez and Andrés Manuel del Río. Río discovered the chemical element vanadium in 1801.

During this era Francisco Xavier Gamboa was a jurist who also expressed interest in science. After being tasked with compiling reports for the government of New Spain he studied mathematics and mining and wrote a treatise on mining engineering.

Antonio de León y Gama wrote reports on the moons of Jupiter, the climate of New Spain, and helped to precisely calculate the longitude of Mexico. He also wrote a report on the Aztec sun stone.

Joaquín Velázquez de León's scientific reputation earned the praise of Alexander von Humboldt. He studied the works of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton and specialized in mathematics, geodesy, and astronomy.

Velázquez de León built scientific instruments not available in New Spain and accompanied José de Gálvez on his expedition to Sonora. He also made expeditions into the Californias where the clear skies of those regions allowed him to make many astronomical observations, including a transit of Venus in 1769, which allowed him to measure the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Accompanying him on that occasion was Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche, the French priest and geometer. While in the Californias he precisely calculated their longitudes and latitudes. In 1773, he also precisely calculated the longitude and latitude of Mexico City.

Through triangulation between Peñón de los Baños, to Huehuetoca, Velázquez de León drew up topographical charts for the region. He was also commissioned to work on projects related to mining by the government of New Spain.

José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez conducted many experiments, regarding electricity and meteorology. In 1789, he recorded observations regarding a rare occurrence of the aurora borealis in Mexico. He was also an avid naturalist, cataloging many Mexican plants and animals, and studying the migration patterns of birds. He however has also been criticized for not using the nascent Linnaean taxonomy.

During the reign of Charles III, Alejandro Malaspina and Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán were tasked with carrying out expeditions to explore the northwest coast of New Spain.

José Mariano Mociño studied at the Botanic Garden in 1789. Mociño had accompanied Martín Sessé y Lacasta in the scientific expedition ordered by Charles IV in 1795 tasked with surveying New Spain's plant life. The expedition lasted eight years. Mociño traveled over three thousand leagues ultimately producing a report titled Mexican Flora which was then sent to the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid. The Swiss naturalist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was an admirer of the work, and when Mociño travelled to Spain to access his volume, a copy had to be made so that DeCandolle would not have to part with it.

Early years of independence

In 1833, President Valentín Gómez Farías, himself a physician decreed the establishment of a School of Medical Sciences. It was ultimately not built due to the Gomez Farias administration being overthrown by a coup shortly afterward, but in 1854 a private medical college was established in Mexico City. Gómez Farías also closed the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico in 1833 as part of his anti-clerical measures.

Certain Mexican presidents in this era had come from a background in the sciences. President Anastasio Bustamante had been a physician and during a temporary exile in Europe, he had spent some of his time visiting the anatomical collections of Montpellier and Vienna. President Valentín Gómez Farías had started out his professional career practicing medicine in Guadalajara. President Manuel Robles Pezuela was a military engineer who had engaged in important geodesic and topographic projects in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. He was also a member of the Mexican Society of Statistics and of the Paris Geographical Society.

The statesman Lucas Alamán who served under multiple administrations had come from a background of mining engineering, and in his youth he had studied in Europe under René Just Haüy, Jean-Baptiste Biot, and Louis Jacques Thénard. He had also sought to bring to Mexico the technique of separating silver and gold through the use of sulfuric acid in contrast to the old technique of using nitric acid.

General Pedro García Conde studied mathematics, chemistry, and mineralogy, at the Mining College in Mexico, and joined the military as an engineer. In 1834, he was named geometer of the boundary commission. In 1838 he was named director of the Military College.

Conde passed sweeping reforms for the military college, establishing courses on descriptive geometry, applied mechanics, astronomy and geodesy. He was Secretary of War in the years leading up to the Mexican American War. He was tasked by a government commission to map the boundary established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and made the effort to try to save as much territory as he could for Mexico.