1 Introduction: The Age of Empire, The Making of the Modern Nation and the Advancement of Medical Sciences; Mauro Capocci and Daniele Cozzoli- Part I. Tropical Medicine in the Evolution and the Collapse of Empires -- 2. Tropical Medicine and the “Consolidation” of the Portuguese Empire, 1902-1966; Isabel Amaral -- 3. Dutch Colonial Medicine and Empire-building in the Tropics: The Cases of Leprosy and Drug Use in the Dutch East and West Indies; Stephen Snelders -- Part II. Tropical Medical Institutions and Imperial Commercial and Political Expansion -- 4. The Business of Tropical Medicine: Connections between Anti-malarial Campaigns in Sierra Leone, 1899-1901, and Jamaica, 1908; Juanita De Barros -- 5. Leishmaniases in Brazil: A Historical Approach; Jaime Larry Benchimol -- Part III. Circulation of People, Objects and Ideas -- 6. Tropical Medicine, the Nation, and Colonial Expansion in the View of Italian Royal Navy Physicians at the End of the Nineteenth Century; Mauro Capocci and Daniele Cozzoli -- 7. From Universal Rats to Future Jungle Foci: Actors and Places of Plague in Brazil, 1899-1940s; Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva -- 8. Anti-fascist Medicine and the International Peace Campaign against Urban Raids in Spain and China, 1936-1939; Carles Brasó Broggi.

This book investigates the complex relationship between the development of modern empires, nation, and the history of tropical medicine. Broadening existing historiographical perspectives, it explores imperialism outside of the British Empire, drawing on case studies from other colonial experiences in Africa, Asia, and South America in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Each of these systems adopted different approaches to colonial health and medicine. By studying their diversity, it is possible to obtain a more comprehensive picture of what we now call ‘tropical medicine.’ The authors emphasise that the British model cannot be adapted to all colonial experiences, drawing on relevant cases from both interoceanic and continental empires. The collection comprises three sections. The first examines the role of tropical medicine in the evolution and collapse of empire in countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands. The second part analyses the links between tropical medical institutions and imperial commercial and political expansion in Britain and Brazil. Finally, the authors tackle the crucial interrelated circulation of people, objects, and ideas amongst countries including Brazil, China, Italy, and Spain. Using a medical lens to analyse the inter-connected processes of nation-building and colonial expansion in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, this book provides valuable reading for scholars of imperialism and medical history alike. Chapter 7 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.