Potosi City

1139 Words3 Pages

One of the most important aspects of human nature is society. Because of the great importance, that is place in interpersonal relationships and communication the gathering of individuals within a city or town is an eventual occurrence. Since cities allows people to engage in a far greater amount of activities than they would be able to on their own. Cities are created in certain areas for many reasons, which often are driven by economic or social reasons. One of the many reasons that cities are created in a certain location is that the location has access to certain natural resources such as water, minerals or other resources. Another reason that cities are created is that the area has a large concentration of people and a city is created …show more content…

By the 1650s, Potosi was the largest city with a population of 160,000 citizens . Most of the citizens of Potosi during the 1650’s were fortune seekers that had traveled from places such as Germany to Potosi to work in the mines and earn a fortune. Due to the economy of Potosi being highly dependent on the mining of silver from the Silver Hill nearby Potosi, the collapse of the mining industry would have a negative effect of the city. Furthermore, the collapse of the mining industry in Potosi would also effect other regions of Bolivia as well due to Bolivia’s economy being based primarily on …show more content…

In the neighboring colonial city of Chuquisaca’s oligarchy were able to maintain the city’s economic and political hegemony in the haciendas however following the collapse of the silver mining industry in Potosi, the system changed drastically. From having a silver mining dependent economy to having a greater dependency on the agricultural sector of the cities economics . During the 19th century, Bolivia under the leadership of Antonio Jose de Sucre opened up the countries mines to investors from Europe and allowed them to purchase mines that they had abandoned during the revolution. Furthermore, in 1825, in an attempt to stimulate the mining industry in Bolivia, the government began making reforms to the mines in Potosi to increase the cities mines productivity and profits. However, in 1826, the process of reforming and stimulating the mining industry in Bolivia failed due to mismanagement of foreign investors in London and the mines were forced to close . Although in the 19th century, the mining industry of Bolivia collapsed, later in the 20th century the mining industry of Bolivia, resurged with the mining of other minerals besides silver such as tin, lead and zinc . As a result of the event such as the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay the country had a great need to control national resources so as to pay its debts to

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