A selection of papers from the International Colloquium "Sciences and Empires - Comparative History of Scientific Exchanges European Expansion and Scientific Development of Asia, Africa, America and Oceania", held in UNESCO, Paris, April 1990. It raises some historical and epistemological problems related to the integration between classical science and modern science in countries with ancient scientific traditions; to the way modern science crossed cultural borders and took roots outside Europe; to the political strategies followed by European powers for their scientific expansion; and to the possibility of drawing a fruitful general frame for scientific development under colonial and imperial domination. It raises crucial issues about science in its imperial context. Scientific expansion has been a dimension of the sharing of the new world undertaken by European countries since the 19th century after the industrial revolution: which consequences such a context had on the way science was organized and developed outside Europe and which constraints this imperial system laid upon scientific activities and exchanges.
This work explores a wide diversity of national situations as well as a variety of disciplines and institutions. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of contemporary problems of scientific development in the light of history of science.