@CSKA_Moscou said in #18:
> interesting but you will have been able to develop your point a little more: the philosophers of the Enlightenment in France in particular, had a certain knowledge of the world around them, since great explorers like Cook and Bougainville explored the world.
Yes, they were mainly interested in Nature and Geography but got some information about foreign cultures. Just not that much as they were basically explorers.
I think the real knowledge of foreign cultures come from first half of 19th when railways and steam ships made travel viable (until then, travel speed was essentially the same as in Herodotus' time) and European colonialism the main paradigm. Then, Ottomans, Egyptians, Chinese or Hindus stopped to be just "exotic" and became a reachable target... not always for good. That difference can be seen in the way Oriental art influenced European art just after ca. 1825. That would have been impossible in 1725.
You can still argue that Portuguese and Spanish empires were similar, but I think Spanish Empire was a very different idea, and anyway they were two basically Christianity projects, so they would do anything to fit foreign cultures into the Iberian Christendom framework. European 19th colonialism, on the contrary, was a totally Capitalist project (like Dutch or Venetian before) and so nominally secular. I don't know for Dutch, but Venice was indeed heavily influenced by its colonies.
> interesting but you will have been able to develop your point a little more: the philosophers of the Enlightenment in France in particular, had a certain knowledge of the world around them, since great explorers like Cook and Bougainville explored the world.
Yes, they were mainly interested in Nature and Geography but got some information about foreign cultures. Just not that much as they were basically explorers.
I think the real knowledge of foreign cultures come from first half of 19th when railways and steam ships made travel viable (until then, travel speed was essentially the same as in Herodotus' time) and European colonialism the main paradigm. Then, Ottomans, Egyptians, Chinese or Hindus stopped to be just "exotic" and became a reachable target... not always for good. That difference can be seen in the way Oriental art influenced European art just after ca. 1825. That would have been impossible in 1725.
You can still argue that Portuguese and Spanish empires were similar, but I think Spanish Empire was a very different idea, and anyway they were two basically Christianity projects, so they would do anything to fit foreign cultures into the Iberian Christendom framework. European 19th colonialism, on the contrary, was a totally Capitalist project (like Dutch or Venetian before) and so nominally secular. I don't know for Dutch, but Venice was indeed heavily influenced by its colonies.