Introduction: The Age of Empire, the Making of the Modern Nation, and the Advancement of Medical Sciences

This introductory essay focusses on the concepts of empire, colonies, and the nation, and how they intersect with medicine. Historiography in these domains have mostly explored British and French colonial experiences. However, the perspective shall be broadened in order to encompass the diverse imperial rulings and colonial enterprises, and how the imperial-colonial attitude aligned with the idea of nation in the imperialist countries. Medicine was deeply involved: it concurred to the creation of the colonial subject—often construed as naturally different from the Imperial ruler—by looking at the peculiar nature of the humans living in the colonies and their ‘diseased’ environment. Furthermore, empires interacted, often by means of élites such as physicians—acting as informal diplomats and observers. The ‘age of empires’ witnessed the birth of Tropical medicine, as the result of the interaction between a colony and its motherland, and of the multiple connections among empires and nations. Therefore, we propose to observe tropical medicine as a complex domain, resulting both from the tropical environment of the diseases, and on the diverse ‘not tropical’ conditions of the imperial nations.