This chapter compares the geographical societies of Madrid, Spain (Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid—SGM) and Lima, Peru (Sociedad Geográfica de Lima—SGL) between their respective founding and World War I. Both were located in the Spanish-speaking world and the (former) Spanish Empire; Peru gained independence, and Spain became a declining colonial power. How did their respective national contexts impact the societies? This chapter analyses their regional and thematic interests, activities, and structures quantitatively and qualitatively, based on their periodicals. The analysis shows that both societies were founded in reaction to a crisis in their country: Spain’s violent loss of its colonies in America and Asia between the early nineteenth century and 1898, and Peru’s defeat in the 1879–1883/1884 war with Chile. As a remedy, the SGM supported an alternative Spanish colonialism in Morocco, Western Sahara, and Spanish Guinea, and the SGL supported the (re-)building of a Peruvian nation-state, notably by exploring and developing the country’s Amazonian east. The SGL was a state institution, and the SGM a colonial lobby organisation. In accordance with their respective contexts, the SGL focused on physical geography (geology, minerology, hydrographic surveying), while the SGM focused on human geography (politics, history, economy). The SGM also sought to establish new relations between Spain and Latin America, but the relations between the SGM and the SGL remained rather ordinary.