During the first half of the nineteenth century, foreign mining experts and entrepreneurs were attracted to invest in Mexico given its legendary mining industry wealth. At the time, the Mexican Government needed to increase foreign investment, especially in the mining industry, to overcome the financial impact of the war of Independence. In this context, collaboration between local and foreign actors, from different backgrounds, and social statuses, greatly assisted the exploration and utilization of Mexico’s extensive mineral resources. Knowledge coproduction in the geological sciences in Mexico was the outcome of such collaboration. This article examines the exchange of knowledge, as documented in scientific works published during those years, between German mining officers, Mexican scholars, and other local actors. We argue that the specific local character of the encounters between the actors determined this collaborative process, which not only prompted the reconfiguration of geological knowledge and practices in both Mexico and Germany, but also disseminated the coproduced geological knowledge throughout global scientific networks.
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