|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chapter Reference: Colonial Crucible; Neocolonialism; Nationalism; Revolution; Neoliberalism
The silver mines of Potosí are surely among the most famous in world history. "To be worth a Potosí" was once a common expression to describe enormous riches. Indigenous people knew about Potosí silver before the Spanish arrived, but they did not exploit it on a large scale. Beginning in the 1570s, the Spanish made the "mountain of silver" into an enormous quasi-industrial conglomeration. But the miners were forced labor crews of indigenous people, organized by the old imperial Inca labor draft called the mita. The mines of Potosí produced their richest loads in 1600s, declining in importance thereafter, relative to other silver-producing locations. Mexican silver production eclipsed Peru's in the 1700s. A paper on Potosí might also explore the culture of more recent indigenous Bolivian miners who work in the tin mines. Miners played an important role in the Bolivian Revolution of the 1950s.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- Mining in the mountain of silver during the 1600s was a large-scale operation that depended on forced labor—a sort of slave plantation in the bowels of the Andes. But just how many laborers worked in the mines of Potosí, and how many lost their lives to the exploitation of silver?
- Potosí generated a network of economies and services revolving around silver mining. Raising mules to transport the precious metal and making cloth to clothe the miners were just two of the activities connected to the mine. What were others, and how far away from the mountain did they stretch?
- Mining has continued to be a major economic activity in Bolivia. In the 1900s, however, the main product was tin. How did tin mining affect the indigenous miners, and what political roles have these played in the twentieth century?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
** Bakewell, Peter. Miners of the Red Mountain: Indian Labor in Potosí, 1545—1650.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
Students interested in the mita and Potosí's many generations of miners should begin with this concise study.
________. Silver and Entrepreneurship in Seventeenth-Century Potosí: The Life and Times
of Antonio López de Quiroga. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.
Cole, Jeffrey A. The Potosí Mita, 1573—1700: Compulsory Indian Labor in the Andes.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.
Cole looks closely at the origins of the mita and how it was administered.
Nash, June. I Spent My Life in the Mines: The Story of Juan Rojas, Bolivian Tin Miner. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Nash narrates the biography of Juan Rojas, largely as he told it to her. Though lengthy, the narrative is a good introduction to the perspective of miners in the twentieth century.
________. We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us: Dependency and Exploitation in
Bolivian Tin Mines. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
** Tandeter, Enrique. Coercion and Market: Silver Mining in Colonial Potosí, 1692-1826
Translated by Richard Warren. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.
Tandeter provides a thorough and engaging scholarly overview of mining in Potosí, a basic book for students interested in the topic.
Other Resources:
|
|
|
W. W. Norton | Credits | Site Feedback | Technical Support | Print This Page