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Conrad Malte-Brun (born Malthe Conrad Bruun) was a notable Dano-French geographer and journalist, best known for coining the terms "Oceania" and "Indo-China." His contributions to geography and his political activism left a lasting impact on both fields.
Born in Thisted, Denmark, to an administrator of Danish crown lands, Malte-Brun was initially destined for a career as a pastor. However, he chose to attend the University of Copenhagen, where he became a fervent supporter of the French Revolution and an advocate for freedom of the press. His activism and outspoken criticism of the Danish government, particularly through his pamphlet "Catechism of the Aristocrats" (1795), led to his indictment under the harsh censorship laws instituted by Crown Prince Frederick in September 1799. Facing inevitable exile, Malte-Brun fled Denmark, eventually settling in France in 1799.
In France, Malte-Brun embarked on a prolific career in geography. Collaborating with Edme Mentelle, a professor at the École Normale, he co-authored Géographie mathématique, physique et politique de toutes les parties du monde (6 vols., 1803-1812). His contributions to geography were vast, including his promotion of the term "Manchuria" in an 1804 map of China.
Despite his initial opposition to the consular government, Malte-Brun later became a zealous imperialist under Napoleon and an ardent monarchist after Napoleon's fall. He published Traité de la légitimité considérée comme base du droit public de l'Europe chrétienne (1824), reflecting his political evolution.
Malte-Brun devoted much of his career to geographical studies. He founded Les Annales des Voyages (1807) and Les Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie et de l'Histoire (1819), journals that promoted empirical research in geography. He gained prominence with his treatise Tableau de la Pologne (1807) and served as the first general secretary of the Société de Géographie from 1822 to 1824.
His suggestion to import camels into Australia marked a unique contribution to the continent's agricultural practices. Malte-Brun also made significant contributions to Albanology, mentioning an original Albanian alphabet in his Universal Geography (1826), which spurred further research by scholars like Johann Georg von Hahn and Leopold Geitler.
Conrad Malte-Brun died in Paris in 1826 while drafting the final version of his magnum opus, Précis de Géographie Universelle ou Description de toutes les parties du monde. The work was completed posthumously, with the last two volumes authored by Huot. Malte-Brun's legacy endures, with streets named after him in both Paris and his birthplace, Thisted. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun, continued his father's work in geography, ensuring that the Malte-Brun name remained influential in the field.
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