The rise of the engineering profession in eighteenth century Europe: an introductory overview

Abstract

Much work remains to be done on the role of engineers in Europe in the eighteenth century and we do not, in this short introductory survey, claim to offer an exhaustive historical perspective. Instead, we try to provide a framework within which to capture, by means of examples, the main lines of development. At this stage, it is not possible to cover all the national cases, nor even to provide a fully comparative analysis of those studies that have been undertaken. The aim is more modest: to suggest some hypotheses based on individual research and wide reading. For its initial results and a large bibliography on the question: Vérin and Gouzévitch, Sobre la Institucion y el Desarrollo de la Ingeneria, 2005, 115–64. The century of European enlightenment (1697–1815), characterized by exchanges between scientists and academies, is also that of economic rivalry, technical competition, political conflict, and war. All these factors combine to produce in Europe a new practice of engineering in the midst of transformation. Yet, depending upon the country, we can observe significant differences in the strategies of knowledge appropriation in order to promote the growth of technology, a great variety in the training of engineers as well as in the exercise of their profession, their social status, even their title of engineer. Some common points are: the importance of military engineering which profits from the attentions of governments, the very progressive introduction of sciences in the practice of engineers, and the creation of special schools. But, once again, depending upon the country, these schools are grafted onto particular traditional teachings. Accordingly we propose a typology of the country-specific training and education of engineers in eighteenth century Europe.

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