The Bolivian Silver Frontier: Case Study

The book "Silver and Entrepreneurship in Seventeenth-Century Potosi" show us that men who exploited silver mines used to be ordinary Spaniard that came to Potosi in the early stages. For example Antonio Lopez was an ordinary male, familiar and with not that much education, but he became a silver trader at Potosi. Lopez's experience as a silver trader brought him into contact with the processes of silver making in knowledge, and especially seems likely to have provided him with an education in the capital structure and operations of the industry. Potosi gives to Antonio Lopez the opportunity to grow economically and change him into an important person that delineates the economic and social history of Potosi .

In the Columbian Exchange, ecology became destiny. Powerful environmental forces, understood by no one alive at the time and by very few people even today, determined who would thrive and who would die. And that may be the most shocking truth revealed to those who take the time to understand the Columbian Exchange: we, as humans, cannot always control our own destinies. The most important historical actors in this story are not Christopher Columbus or Moctezuma or Hernán Cortés. They are the smallpox virus, the pig, the potato, and the kernel of

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

lands and sometimes on building projects or in mining.” (World of the Inca). Thus the Inca expected

The Forbidden Lands challenges the common notions of “the frontier” in the lives of Indians, settlers, empires, and nations alike. Langfur offers a nuanced picture of the frontier in Minas Gerais, the hub of Brazil's eighteenth-century gold and diamond boom and addresses a myth of Brazilian historiography regarding the centrality of the bandeiras, bands of settlers, colonizers, slaves, mixed-race people, and even Indians, that “opened” up the interior and made Brazil into a continent-spanning country. The “teleological conventions” of frontier histories tend to be

Miguel Leon-Portilla author of Broken Spears- The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, tells the story of the Spanish conquest over the Aztecs from the Aztec point of view. It is more familiar in history that the Spanish led by Hernan Cortez defeated the Aztecs with a powerful army and established an easy victory all while having intentions to gain power and greed. However, Leon-Portilla focuses on the Aztec Empire and their story. Leon-Portilla does a great job giving readers the real occurrences and events from Aztec members. This paper argues that history must be told from all sides. It is more common to hear about the Spanish conquest

Virtually every aspect of life was affected by the Andes Mountain Range. The steep slopes, climate and altitude, forced the development of resilient breeds of crops such as potatoes, quinoa and corn. (Graber, 2011). The mountains were worshipped as gods and stone from the mountains were carved with great precision to create large cites and temples right into the sides of the mountains. For all of the reasons, The Andes Mountains are certainly one of the greatest contributors to the development of the ancient people of South American.

There have been many instances throughout history in which indigenous people have unwillingly suffered the consequences of foreigners’ interaction with their culture. In the case of the Huaorani two foreign groups, the oil companies and the missionaries, invaded their land and gravely affected the life they led in the Ecuadorian amazon. In the book Savages Joe Kane gives a firsthand account at how the Huaorani fight to preserve their land and traditional way of life.

The geography of Bolivia is unique among the nations of South America. Bolivia is one of two landlocked countries on the continent (the other being Paraguay), and Bolivia is more urban (67%) than rural (23%). The main features of Bolivia's geography include the Altiplano, a highland plateau of the Andes, and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake on Earth, which is shared with Peru.

In her book, “A Plague of Sheep,” Elinor Melville argues that it was not environmental inevitability, but human choice that caused the ecological degradation of the Valle del Mezquital. She outlines the environmental characteristics of the valley in Mexico before and after the colonial conquest of the region. Melville furthers her argument through the analysis of another region in Australia and the stratification of the conquest process. The study is focused on the decades between 1500 and 1600. A cogent book, “A Plague of Sheep” does well to deliver information pertinent, but sometimes irrelevant, to Melville’s argument.

During Colonial Latin America, the major production of silver and mercury as benefited Spaniards, while Indians worked for hours in the mines. Miners during this time were exposed to dangerous conditions in which many died of diseases, contamination/poisoning and injuries and all for low payments. In Mercury, Mining, and Empire, Nicholas A. Robins incorporates the labor system and the processes behind the production of mercury and silver. Also, the pollution that surged as consequence and the conditions through which each indigenous citizen underwent during this period of time, as well as how it has affected modern days. Robins also researched the countless deaths of the indigenous population due to the abusive labor system on the mercury and silver mines.

Peru gain minerals, as well as New Spain, gain gold and silver, “cochineal (little insects like flies), from which crimson dye is made, leather, cotton, sugar” and more. The King gets one fourth of the millions of pounds, tenth-part of the gold and silver which is minted to coins, in all he gets a fifth of what was formed. In the past years, there’s been an abundance of gold and silver on the earth surface but now, the million pounds of gold and silver is unlikely to be the same. To get much more gold and silver, they would have to dig deep into the earth surface, which requires special training and guidelines. But, the Spaniards was not willing to do the digging, nor was the Indians going to do it either because they were freed by the Emperor

Cordillera de Guaniguanico is a low, isolated, steep-sided, ancient mountain chain that makes up the east-west backbone to the center of Pinar del Río province, which is the country’s most western province. Spreading out to about 40 miles northeast from Mantua and reaching its highest peak, Pan de Guajaibón which is close to 700 meters at the Sierra de Rosario Biosphere Reserve. The chain that it makes up is divided into two different mountain ranges, which are the Sierra del Rosario in the east and the Sierra de los Órganos. Interesting fact about Sierra de los Órganos is that Viñales Valley is located there and that is a cultural landscape amplified by the local worker architectural looking farms and villages. The valley was known for its flat plains to grow

Even from our own cultural perspective of the last half of the 20th Century, we have cast a different light on some artifacts of our progress such as the long-term effect of the imposition of the United Fruit Company in the region described in the book or the encounter between Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor Athualpa in the Andean highlands.

Illegal mining in the Peruvian Amazon has led to crime, deforestation and mercury poisoning in local villages and has further weakened the economy. Peru is the largest producer of gold in South America, the sixth largest in the world and in recent years Peru’s remote Amazon rainforest has become a hotspot for illegal mining. An estimated ten to thirty-thousand illegal miners work day in and day out to remove flecks of gold from Amazonian soil using cyanide, mercury, lead and arsenic which has in turn contaminated water sources and poisoned many in rural villages. Mining camps run rampant with crime, including sex trafficking and slave labor, poaching is common and litter is scattered everywhere. These miners have come from cities across Peru