# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/william-desborough-cooley
# Generated: 2026-08-13T23:38:36.270Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/william-desborough-cooley"
name: "William Desborough Cooley"
slug: "william-desborough-cooley"
description: "William Desborough Cooley was an Irish geographer. Discoveries by European explorers gradually showed that a number of his theories about Central Africa, though strongly held, were incorrect. In other controversies his position is now considered to have had some justification. His major contributions are now seen as relating to source criticism of historical records, the understanding of West Africa, and as a perceptive historian of globalisation."
tagline: "Irish geographer (c. 1795–1883)"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "1795-03-16"
deathDate: "1883-03-01"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           36.67
  momentum:             0.9574468085106385
  historical:           4.803708
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     30
  profileCompleteness:  45
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Desborough_Cooley"
    title: "William Desborough Cooley"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Desborough_Cooley"
    title: "William Desborough Cooley"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Desborough_Cooley"
    title: "William Desborough Cooley"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cooley_(g%C3%A9ographe)"
    title: "William Cooley (géographe)"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Desborough_Cooley"
    title: "William Desborough Cooley"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6167602"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump