User:Mpffnkver1996/sandbox

Early Life

Thunberg was born and grew up in Jönköping, Sweden. At the age of XXX, he entred the Swedish Uppsala University where he was taught by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linaeus who was mainly known for his work ''Philosophia Botanica'' (1751). Thunberg graduated in XXX in 1767. In order to deepen his knowledge in botany, medicine and natural history, he was encouraged by Linnaeus in 1770 to travel to Paris and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam and Leiden where he stayed to study the city's collection of plants and musea, Thunberg met the Dutch botanist and physician, Johannes Burman and his son Nicolaas Burman who himself had been a disciple of Linnaeus.

Having heard of Thunberg's inqusitive mind, his great skills in botany and medicine and Linnaeus' high esteem of his Swedish pupil, Johannes Burmann and the mayor of the city of Leiden, XXX, convinced Thunberg to travel to either the Western or the East Indies to collect plants and animal specimen for the botanic garden in Leiden which was still lacking exoctic exhibits. Thunberg who had ever since been fascinated by the secretive and mainly unkown East Indies was eager to travel to the Cape of Good Hope and thus become one of the famous Apostles of Linnaeus.

With the help of Burmann and XXX, Thunberg entred the Dutch East India Companie (Vereinigde Oost-Indische Companie, V.O.C.) as a surgeon on board of the XXX. As with the Treaty of XX of XXX the East Indies where taken over by the Dutch, the only way to enter the colonies was via the V.O.C. Hence, equipped with the mayor's commission to collect specimen in the East Indies and send them back to Leiden in regular intervals, Thunberg debarked in December 1771. In March 1772, he reached Cape Town in South Afrika.