In contrast to the lack of concern by the British state, France, following
the continental model of dealing with antiquities of the Great Civilizations
which was supported by state intervention, had already paid attention to pre-
Columbian archaeology from the time of the Latin American independence.
This attention was not independent of the French colonial aspirations in the
American continent, including parts of Canada and the United States (Louisi-
ana)inNorthAmerica,duringtheeighteenthcenturywhichhadalready resulted
in the organization of several scientiWc expeditions. As the Spanish Empire
weakened, the French explored and mapped California as well as other parts of
the continent. One of theWrst demonstrations of French interest in Latin
American archaeology was in 1825, when the Geographical Society in Paris
organized a competition for the best contribution to archaeology or geography
or the best account of a journey in Central America (Bernal 1980: 104).
In 1826 the French state also paid a pension to Jean-Fre ́de ́ric de Waldeck, who
by then had visited Toltec and Aztec ruins after having worked as an engineer
in Mexican silver-mines, to study Palenque and Uxmal. He publishedVoyage
arche ́ologique et pittoresque dans la Yucatan(Paris, 1837) and, with Charles
E ́tienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814–74),Monuments anciens du Mexique,
Palenque, et autres ruines de l’ancienne civilisation(1866). The work of Carl
Nebel (1805–55) (born in Germany but often described as French) also belongs
to theWrst years of the newly independent Mexico:Picturesque and Archeo-
logical Journey through the most important part of the Mexican Republic from
1829 to 1834(1836). France’s imperialistic interest in Latin America was
matched by important scholarly attention towards the antiquities of the area.
The Louvre opened a gallery of Latin American antiquities, mainly from Mexico
and Peru, in 1850 (Bernal 1980: 132; Williams 1993: 132), and a catalogue—the
Wrst of its kind—was published in the following year. In it the antiquarian
Adrien de Longpe ́rier explained that the pre-Columbian materials came from
a ‘virtually wholly unknown’ civilization of a highly ‘peculiar character’
(in Williams 1993: 132).
In 1857, France supported an expedition to Mexico and Central America
by the explorer and photographer De ́sire ́de Charnay (1828–1915), that was
directly inspired by that of the US Americans Stephens and Catherwood
(see below). As a resultCite ́s et ruines ame ́ricaines(1863), with information
and photographs of several Mayan sites, was published (Davis 1981). Contrary
to their initial appearance, the aims of such contributions to knowledge
produced by scientiWc commissions went further than science. This was
demonstrated more than ever in 1864, when France invaded Mexico with the
aim of establishing the Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria
as Emperor of Mexico. Together with the army, a commission 5 was organized
5 There is some debate on whether instead of one, two parallel commissions were organized
at the time, one directed from France and another from the French already in Mexico.
174 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism