Ignacy Domeyko | |
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Born | 31 July 1802 |
Died | 23 January 1889 (aged 86) |
Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko, pseudonym: Żegota (Spanish: Ignacio Domeyko, Spanish pronunciation: [iɣˈnasjo ðoˈmeiko]; born near Nieśwież, now Karelichy District , Belarus, 31 July 1802 – 23 January 1889, Santiago de Chile) was a Polish geologist, mineralogist and educator. Domeyko spent most of his life, and died, in his adopted country, Chile.
After a youth passed in partitioned Poland, Domeyko participated in the Polish November 1830 Uprising against the Russian Empire. Upon its suppression, he was forced into exile and spent part of his life in France (where he had gone with fellow Philomath, Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz) before eventually settling in Chile, of which he became a citizen.
He lived some 50 years in Chile and made major contributions to the study of that country's geography, geology and mineralogy. His observations on the circumstances of poverty-stricken miners and of their wealthy exploiters had a profound influence on those who would go on to shape Chile's labor movement.