)5(1&+9(5686*(50$1$6752120,&$/,167580(176,1$)(:1,1(7((17+ &(1785<6287+$0(5,&$11$7,21$/2%6(59$725,(6$),567$66(660(17 )/H*XHW7XOO\a63DRODQWRQLRb-'DYRLJQHDXc-&DSODQd aLaboratoire LISE du Collège de France, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, BP4229, Nice, 06300 cedex 4, France bObservatorio Astronómico, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Laprida 854, Córdoba, X5000BGR, Argentina cDirection générale des Patrimoines, Ministère de la Culture, 182 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, 75001, France dLaboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Université d’Aix-Marseille, 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Marseille, 13388 cedex 13, France | [email protected] .H\ZRUGV$VWURQRPLFDOLQVWUXPHQWV6RXWK$PHULFDQREVHUYDWRULHV(XURSHDQLQVWUXPHQWPDNHUV $EVWUDFW In 1852 the Chilean government took over the temporary observatory that the United States Navy had installed in Santiago three years earlier in an attempt to determine the solar parallax by observing Venus and Mars; the German astronomer Carl Moesta was appointed director. In 1871, the president of the young Argentine republic, Domingo F. Sarmiento, created a National Observatory in the university town of Córdoba at the request of the American astronomer Benjamin Gould, who was named director. The same year, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil named the French astronomer Emmanuel Liais to head the Observatory of Rio de Janeiro. At about the same time a large meridian circle, ordered in Paris by the Peruvian government in the late 1860s, arrived in Lima. About ten years later, in 1882, the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Dardo Rocha, decided that his new provincial capital, the utopian city RI/D3ODWDZRXOGKDYHDQREVHUYDWRU\ZKRVHGLUHFWLRQZDVHQWUXVWHGWRWKH)UHQFKQDYDORIÀFHU François Beuf. We shall attempt to place the foundations of these establishments in their political and VFLHQWLÀFFRQWH[WVDQGJLYHDGHVFULSWLRQRIWKHLULQLWLDOLQVWUXPHQWDWLRQ7KHQZHVKDOOWU\WRDVVHVV the role of German science and the effects of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 on the purchase of European instruments for these South American observatories. )UDQoRLVH/H*XHW7XOO\LVDKLVWRULDQRIDVWURQRP\ZKRVHPDLQÀHOGVRILQWHUHVWDUHWKHLQVWLWXWLRQDOKLVWRU\RI)UHQFK REVHUYDWRULHVDQGRIREVHUYDWRULHVUHODWHGWR)UDQFHDQGWKDWRILQVLWXVFLHQWLÀFLQVWUXPHQWV 6DQWLDJR3DRODQWRQLR is an Engineer with a Master degree in Educational Administration and a Postgraduate degree in Astronomy Education and Communication. He works at the National University of Córdoba and is a member of the Research Group in Education, Outreach and History of astronomy of the Astronomical Observatory. His main research interests are on the history of astronomy, astrophysics, science disclosure and education. -DPHV&DSODQ studied physics at the University of Chicago and earned a PhD in astronomy from Northwestern University. At the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (formerly the Observatoire de Marseille), where he is now astronome émérite, he developed Fabry-Perot interferometer instrumentation to observe the interstellar medium. He has been working to conserve, study and display the observatory's heritage. -HDQ'DYRLJQHDXLVDWWDFKHGDWWKH0LVVLRQGHO ,QYHQWDLUHJpQpUDOGX3DWULPRLQHFXOWXUHORIWKH'LUHFWLRQ*pQpUDOH GHV3DWULPRLQHV)UHQFK0LQLVWU\RI&XOWXUH+HLVUHIHUHQWIRUVFLHQWLÀFDQGWHFKQLFDO+HULWDJHZRUNVRQTXHVWLRQV RI PHWKRGRORJ\ WKHVDXUXV DQG GDWDEDVHV DQG SDUWLFLSDWHV WR (XURSHDQ DQG LQWHUQDWLRQDO SURMHFWV ,Q LQ FROODERUDWLRQZLWK)UDQoRLVH/H*XHW7XOO\KHODXQFKHGWKHQDWLRQDOLQYHQWRU\RIDVWURQRPLFDOKHULWDJH 39.