Predictions of the End of the World: Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in Chilean Cultural Magazines from a Global-Local Perspective (1890-1920)

During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two of the twentieth, theories that predicted the end-of-the-world circulated internationally and were linked to astronomers. The imminence of the end-of-the-world surpassed the fin-de-siècle atmosphere, and it remained until after the passing of Halley´s Comet in 1910, which in the case of Chile was heightened by the 1906 earthquake. Our work studies the end-of-the-world predictions associated with astronomical phenomena - specifically with the passage of comets- that circulated internationally in this period, and analyzes how they were received, re-signified, amplified or counteracted in the main Chilean cultural journals between 1890 and 1920. These theories, disseminated by the press in peripheral areas such as Chile, greatly motivated the generation of local astronomical knowledge, since the inexperienced scientific reading public interpellated and demanded local experts to explain, support or criticize these predictions. The circulation of end-of-the-world forecasts from an astronomical perspective established communication networks between regional and foreign institutions, especially between astronomical observatories and journalistic companies, which read each others works and generated an exchange of knowledge in a global manner that took into account local meanings. Our main questions are: How were the interpretations, representations and national re-significations of these theories related to the versions that circulated in global networks? What role did the local communities and institutions (observatories, government agencies, amateurs, journalistic companies, etc.) play in these global networks of circulation of end-of-the-world theories?