Minted in 1792, our anthropogenic artifact is the silver Spanish Reales, a constituent of the first global currency, and one of several thousand coins in the famous Byron Reed collection. The Reales and its origins rooted in expansive 16th century silver mining and trade, bear direct responsibility for ushering a new era of production oriented commodification of nature. Commodification of nature is essentially treating nature as purely an object of trade instead of something that has value in its natural existence. This ideology indoctrinated the entire world and still does to this day, including in that history Omaha and the 19th century American western front. This story begins in the 16th century when imperialistic tendencies encouraged the kingdom of Spain to travel far and wide in search of natural resources, laying claim to a number of new territories including Potosi, Bolivia. Potosi, was unique amongst other South American …show more content…
Driven by a failing home economy and immense Chinese demand, the Spanish quickly transformed the makeup of the small mining community. Neglecting sustainable practices, the whole of Potosi became consumed by a production oriented economy, at the direct expense of the local community and ecosystem. In the face of this ecological destruction, wealth flowed from the veins of Cerro Rico, providing the world the first widely available and universally acknowledged system of value, the Spanish silver Reales. Suddenly creditors and debtors alike were able to finance and expand their businesses to new frontiers, where un-commodified land and labor provided the perfect opportunity for wealth
Politically, World Powers craved practically nothing but silver from Asia. (Document 8) When silver was in such high demand, the business structure in many places changed dramatically. In China, the previous Bill of Credit, where citizens could purchase items with means other than money (for example, rice, wheat, or chicken) was removed and it was heavy enforced that everybody must pay for everything with silver. (Document 5) Lust for silver caused many political injustices around the world as well. Antonio Vasquez de Española, a Spanish priest wrote about the brutality existing between Spain and the Potosi Indians
In Mark Fiege’s book “The Republic of Nature,” the author embarks on an elaborate, yet eloquent quest to chronicle pivotal points in American history from an environmental perspective. This scholarly work composed by Fiege details the environmental perspective of American history by focusing on nine key moments showing how nature is very much entrenched in the fibers that manifested this great nation. The author sheds light on the forces that shape the lands of America and humanities desire to master and manipulate nature, while the human individual experience is dictated by the cycles that govern nature. The story of the human experience unfolds in Mark Fiege’s book through history’s actors and their challenges amongst an array of environmental possibilities, which led to nature being the deciding factor on how
Americans to question the myth of nature's infinitude. Understanding the finite quality of America's natural resources, Roosevelt ...
The 2011 Spanish film, Even the Rain, attempts to tell the story of Columbus’s explorations of Latin America as well as parallel those events with the water crisis that Bolivia has faced due to the privatization of water. While the film remained relatively historically accurate on the pretense of Columbus, it became glaringly obvious that the amount of effort that went into being historically accurate on the Bolivian front was dramatically less. Furthermore, the film uses the water war of Cochabamba to further the plot of the movie while disregarding the majority of the facts regarding the real water crisis that occurred. Additionally, the neglection of these details provides the heavy implications that the indigenous peoples of Bolivia are still being taken advantage of to further the gains of Europeans.
The Andes had a legacy of resistance that was unseen in other Spanish occupied place during the colonial period. There were rebellions of various kinds as a continued resistance to conquest. In the “Letters of Insurrection”, an anthology of letters written amongst the indigenous Andean people, between January and March 1781 in what is now known as Bolivia, a statement is made about the power of community-based rebellion. The Letters of Insurrection displays effects of colonization and how the “lesser-known” revolutionaries that lived in reducción towns played a role in weakening colonial powers and creating a place of identification for indigenous people.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
The Conservation movement was a driving force at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time during which Americans were coming to terms with their wasteful ways, and learning to conserve what they quickly realized to be limited resources. In the article from the Ladies’ Home Journal, the author points out that in times past, Americans took advantage of what they thought of as inexhaustible resources. For example, "if they wanted lumber for their houses, rails for their fences, fuel for their stoves, they would cut down half a forest at a time; and whatever they could not use or sell they would leave to rot on the ground. They never bothered their heads to inquire where more wood was coming from when this was gone" (33). The twentieth century opened with a vision towards the future, towards preserving the land that had previously been taken for granted. The Conservation movement came along around the same time as one of the first major waves of the feminist movement. With the two struggles going on: one for the freedom of nature and the other for the freedom of women, it stands to follow that they coincided. As homemakers, activists, and citizens of the United States of America, women have had an important role in Conservation.
Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America. It borders many countries including Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil. Bolivia is part of the Andean region and has been inhabited for almost 20,000 years. The Tiwanakan people inhabited the area until about 1200 A.D. In which the Incas to over and ruled the area until the Spanish conquest showed its power throughout all of South America. Both cultures have greatly influenced the life of a Bolivian citizen. The Spanish held their power of Bolivia until it claimed its independence in 1809. Bolivia went to war with Spain for many years and final won on August 6, 1825. Bolivia, although independent, could never regain its steps. The governments from here on out were all very weak and only hurt the country as a whole. Many countries saw this weakness including Chile who went to war with Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). Up until this point Chile had a coast but the loss of this war also was the loss of the coastline and Bolivia then became a landlocked country. After this Bolivia found its...
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Translated by Cedric Belfrage. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
From my earliest childhood I remember the open country between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande; the vast expanse of territory that our early historians do not mention in the days of early history. Sometimes I have wondered why it is that our forefathers who helped with their money, their supplies, and their own energies have been entirely forgotten. (Zamora O’Shea n.p.)
Gold was the resource that attracted Spaniards to the Island of Hispaniola, because it was also King Ferdinand's interest (De la Riva 2003 ). Thus it ended up becoming the ultimate goal of the Christian Spaniards sent to Hispaniola to acquire gold and swell themselves in riches. (Las Casas 1552).Trading was also the key to getting wealthy; the more resources available for trade the more wealth will be gained. Resources in the New World attracted the Spanish conquistadors to Latin America.... ... middle of paper ...
Rock, D. (1987). Argentina, 1516-1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alphonsín. Berkley: University of California Press.
The relationship between humanity and nature has undergone a power shift since the time of cave paintings in Lascaux. The Tragedy of the Commons describes a balance between pre-industrial humans and nature, a relationship of morbid regulation. Human kind was prosperous, however limited in growth by various methods of population culling, which prevented humans from dominating the resources presented by nature. The issue occurs when humans reach a point of social cohesiveness that they are able to resist nature’s methods of population regulation and grow uninhibited. At this moment I believe humans departed from our relationship with nature, we circumvented the terms of natures presence in the relationship and embodied a supreme position of exploitation