The paper presents aspects of the scientific production of three ilustrados who worked in South America: José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838), José Hipólito Unanúe (1755-1833), and Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (1771-1848). These naturalists, whose trajectories, territories and beliefs were different, built their particular version of Nature in America and contributed with their scientific work to the construction of American geohistory. They were chosen in this research by criteria of territorial dispersion and by different approaches about specific aspects of Earth Sciences - themes that up to now have not received full attention among Latin-American historians of sciences. This paper contends that these personalities built their own knowledge about 'temperament' (climate) and territories, and also used their scientific knowledge to implement political agenda for their respectives countries that were being conformed.
History of Sciences; Latin America History; Mineralogy; Earthquakes; Geohistory