In this dissertation chapter, I examine how explorers' knowledge production reshaped the Chilean government's relationship with the Atacama Desert from 1820 to 1880. I argue that explorers such as Claude Gay (1800 – 1873), Ignacy Domeyko (1802 – 1889), Rudolph Philippi (1808 – 1904), Pedro Jose Amadeo Pissis (1812 – 1889), and Francisco Vidal Gormaz (1837 – 1907), developed a robust communication network with the Chilean government making the Atacama part of its national construction. Explorers led the Natural History Museum (1830) and the University of Chile (1842), institutions that produced most of the Atacama expedition reports, travelogues, periodicals, and maps to support the exploitation of its untapped resources such as guano, silver, copper, and nitrate. Nevertheless, the exploration was not a peaceful enterprise. It escalated into a conflict with the neighboring countries Bolivia and Peru. The War of the Pacific (1879 – 1883) was the last major conflict in South America, which mobilized the Chilean government to occupy and annex the desert. The consequences of this war have shaped the Atacama to this day. Recent discoveries demonstrated that Atacama has the largest proven lithium reserves, a promising commodity for the energy revolution prospects, which aim to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. The steady global influence of Atacama reminds us of how the driest desert on earth has contributed to the accelerating pace of global connectivity over the past two hundred years.

Felipe Vilo Muñoz is a PhD candidate in the UT History Department and a 2024 – 2025 Linda Hall Library Fellow. His research concerns transnational knowledge production from the nineteenth-century exploration of the Atacama Desert.

This talk is part of the History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine series (HSTEM talks).