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THE DISCOVERY OF SILVER IN POTOSI 1545Following the fall of the Aztec (1521) and Inca (1533) empires, Spanish conquistadores rushed to New Spain in search of El Dorado in South America—a mythical place. Although they found little gold, they did discover the silver mines of Zacatecas in Mexico and, the richest of them all, Potosí in Bolivia in 1545.-3295659652000El DoradoThe Spanish lust for gold gave rise to a tale of a city of gold named El Dorado. They believed that somewhere in the New World there was a place of immense wealth. The Spanish explorers who had reached South America in the early 16th century, they heard stories about a tribe of natives in what is now Colombia. This tribe, it was believed, had so much gold that t he chieftain dusted himself in gold every morning and washed it off every night. With the discovery of so much gold among the Aztecs and the Incas in Mexico and Peru, they believed there had to be a place of great wealth somewhere in the interior.Potosi in Bolivia The silver mines of Potosi were already famous before the Spanish arrived. The natives, aware that the mountains contained silver, had used the silver from the mountains to pay for some of the ransom to rescue Atahuallpa, the last Inca emperor, when he was held hostage by Pizarro. 343408017399000After the conquest of the Incas, the Spanish soon after arrived in Bolivia in search of El Dorado. Conquistador Juan de Villarroel arrived in Potosí, Bolivia in April of 1545 and claimed the mountain for himself and on behalf of King Charles I of Spain. The wealth he found inside the Cerro Rico (“Rich Mountain”) was endless. From it so many bars of silver were extracted and sent to the Spanish crown that by 1553 King Charles I had given the city a coat of arms with a slogan praising its wealth and named it the “Villa Imperial”. The mining town of Potosí soon grew to be one of the largest cities in the Americas. Some 45,000 tonnes of silver was mined between 1545 and the end of 1600s Zacatecas in MexicoWithin the same year, 1545, in Zacatecas vast silver deposits were found fuelling a boom that was to push Zacatecas into the place of Mexico's 3rd largest city. By the early 1600s, Zacatecas was producing a third of Mexico's silver and a fifth of the total world supply.Consequences of the discovery of silver in Potosi266573012700000In their excitement at having found so much silver, the Spanish conquistadors had never taken it upon themselves to establishment an official settlement. Finally Francisco de Toledo, the Viceroy of Peru, decided to organise the colony. He officially declared the founding of the Villa Imperial de Potosí. He ordered the draining of the swamps that covered much of the region to make the city more liveable and introduced colonial mining - a system where the natives were forced to mine for silver. As a result thousands died due to the extremely harsh conditions of the mine life; the exposure to harmful gases, pneumonia and mercury poisoning – a substance used in the process of separating silver. Once the native population began to decline, African people were traded and brought to Bolivia by the Spanish to replace the native workers in the mines. Under the same dangerous conditions, thousands of Africans also lost their lives.The Church received its portion of the silver mined by the natives and the Africans as just two years after the Spanish settled in Potosi, two churches were constructed which were followed by a total of 36 churches with altars of pure gold and silver. The churches were also divided into “churches for native people” and “churches for Spaniards and creole (Spaniards born in the New World)”. Huge mansions for noblemen and their families, gaming houses, and dance halls for the entertainment of the Spaniards and creoles were also built. Natives and Africans were however not afforded the same luxuriesYet, the silver produced by the natives and Africans was moulded into bars and stamped with the mark of the Spanish Royal Crown. From Potosí, the silver travelled across the mountains on llamas to Lima, Capital city of Peru, after which it was taken by the Spanish treasure ships to Panama and then finally across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain. Silver from Potosí made Charles I, and later Philip II, the wealthiest and most powerful monarchs in Europe. It allowed them to fund their armies, and pursue military expansion. With the silver from Potosí, Spain was able to wage war against the English, Dutch, French and Ottoman Empire. Vast amounts of silver were brought under the control of the Spanish crown. 730885146748500. ................
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