Increasingly global and networked science - Yokohama as a stage for Western science in the early 1870s world

摘要

In all, Yokohama's new position as a part of the Western cultural network, the establishment and activity of the Asiatic Society of Japan, and the scientific lectures that were given are an excellent example of how Western scientific hegemony advanced and spread its network in the 1800s, in this case with the British Royal Asiatic Society functioning as its center. Western science was used to first take over the new, unknown culture by linking it to the global scientific network. After that it was used as a fresh scientific viewpoint, field, and material in the promotion and application of scientific knowledge. In this way it produced additional resources for the Western world. At the same time it also communicated the transcendence and universal applicability of the Western conception of science in somewhat the same spirit as the uniqueness of Christianity was emphasized in the rapidly expanding Christian mission work also visible in Yokohama at the time.