What is the significance of Potosi and Cerro Rico?
What is the significance of Potosi and Cerro Rico?
Near the mountain city of Potosi in the southern highlands of Bolivia, the cone-shaped peak of Cerro Rico stands as a 15,800-foot monument to the tragedies of Spanish conquest. For centuries, Indian slaves mined the mountain’s silver in brutal conditions to bankroll the Spanish empire.
What is Cerro Rico primarily known for?
Cerro Rico, which is popularly conceived of as being “made of” silver ore, is famous for providing vast quantities of silver for the Spanish Empire, most of which was shipped to metropolitan Spain. …
What resource does Cerro Rico contain?
The mountain has been mined for silver since the Spanish conquest in the 16th Century, Cerro Rico contained the world’s largest silver deposits and to date over 60,000 tonnes of silver have been mined from the mountain, with still more unmined silver remaining.
How was Potosi ruined?
Modern Potosí is a shell of its former self. The mountain still towers over the city but it is crumbling inside, made unstable by the hundreds of miles of mine shafts constructed over the 500 years it has been exploited. “For many miners, their fathers also died of silicosis, and they entered the mine at an early age.
Why is the city of Potosi in danger?
The World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha (Qatar) today inscribed the City of Potosi (Plurinational State of Bolivia) on the List of World Heritage in Danger, because of continued and uncontrolled mining operations in the Cerro Rico Mountain that risk degrading the site.
Is there still silver in Potosi?
Geology. Located in the Bolivian Tin Belt, Cerro Rico de Potosí is the world’s largest silver deposit and has been mined since the sixteenth century, producing up to 60,000 tonnes by 1996. Estimates are that much silver still remains in the mines.
How much silver was taken from Potosi?
Potosí was founded as a mining town in 1546, while Bolivia was still part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Over the next 200 years, more than 40,000 tons of silver were shipped out of the town, making the Spanish Empire one of the richest the world had ever seen.
How did Silver change society?
“The effects of the global trade in silver were worldwide and linked the world in new and unprecedented ways. Eventually, this trade had profound effects on West African society: It reoriented trade routes toward the coast rather than across the Sahara, which led to the decline of interior states.
How many died Potosi?
eight million people
Who owns the mines in Bolivia?
The constitution states that all mines should operate as joint ventures with COMIBOL, but legislation has not yet been approved to make this effective. COMIBOL could form joint ventures, 55-45 percent sharing, with the state owning the majority share.
Why was silver mining such a dangerous job?
The miners had to use unsafe equipment and the tunnels were so poorly lit and had such little oxygen that candles couldn’t burn. Miners also developed serious lung problems because of dust from drilling. Mining was probably the most or one of the most dangerous jobs in the country because of so many hazards.
Why is Potosi important?
On the Bolivian Altiplano, at more than 4000 meters above sea level, lies South America’s most elevated town. Potosí is a mining town famous for the incredible riches that have been cut out of the Cerro Rico Mountain ever since 1545, when the Spaniards began with large-scale excavation.
What does Potosi mean in English?
Potosí in British English (Spanish potoˈsi) a city in S Bolivia, at an altitude of 4066 m (13 340 ft): one of the highest cities in the world; developed with the discovery of local silver in 1545; tin mining; university (1571).
How high is Potosi?
4,067 m
Did African slaves work in silver mines?
Few enslaved Africans were used in the silver mines in Peru. The men were obliged to work for so many weeks or months at the mines, but were paid a daily rate based on how much silver they produced. Enslaved Africans were used in the gold workings in New Granada (the country now called Colombia in South America).
What cash crops were slaves forced to harvest on plantations?
Most favoured by slave owners were commercial crops such as olives, grapes, sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee, and certain forms of rice that demanded intense labour to plant, considerable tending throughout the growing season, and significant labour for harvesting.
What impact did the Potosi silver mine have on the world?
During the sixteenth century the population of Potosi grew to over 200,000 and its silver mine became the source of 60% of the world’s silver. Between 1545 and 1810 Potosi’s silver contributed nearly 20% of all known silver produced in the world across 265 years. It was at the core of the Spanish Empire’s great wealth.
Why did Spain want silver?
The Spanish, along with other European nations, had a great desire for Chinese goods such as silk and porcelain. The Europeans did not have any goods or commodities which China desired, so they traded silver to make up for their trade deficit.
How did Silver affect China?
The inflow of a large quantity of silver into China since the mid-Ming dynasty indeed expanded the capacity of the Chinese economic system, boosted production and trade, and revitalized the already dormant social economy. However, this was achieved at the cost of natural and human resources.
Are there silver mines in Spain?
Pozo Rico Silver Mine, Guadalcanal, Sierra Norte It soon became one of the most important Silver mines in Spain, perhaps Europe and it was probably named after the world’s biggest, the Cerro Rico mine of Potosi, Bolivia.
What was the silver drain?
“silver drain”: Term often used, along with “specie drain”, to describe the siphoning of money from Europe to pay for the luxury products of the East, a process exacerbated by the fact that Europe had few trade goods that were desirable in Eastern markets; eventually, the bulk of the world’s silver supply made its way …
What factors contributed to the silver drain?
The major factors that contributed to the global silver trade between 1550 and 1800 were competition for power, increasing demand for Asian goods, and prevalence of currency.
Where is silver drain?
China
When did the number of slaves shipped from Africa to the Americas peaked?
By 1750, an average of 10,000 Africans were involuntarily transported across the Atlantic every year. By the time the slave trade reached its peak in the 18th century, the number was up to 60,000 per year.