Rubber Plantations in Southeast Asia
After Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanization, people started to realize that rubber had outstanding economic potential. Recognizing this potential, the British set out in hopes to set up rubber plantations in the colonies they owned. A British explorer Henry Wickham was hired to steal mass amounts of seeds for the tree Havea brasiliensis. This tree is what gives off the material to make rubber. Wickham went to the Amazon, and in 1876 stole around 70,000 seeds from the Santarem area in Brazil. Even though most people say he stole them, it wasn’t against the law to export them. He had to smuggle them out of Brazil because the government was trying to keep the Havea brasiliensis in Brazil knowing they had control over the rubber market. After taking the seeds out of Brazil, Wickham took them to the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens) in London, England. After arriving in London, the seeds were sent off to different British colonies such as Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Singapore, Malaysia, India, parts of Africa, and other destinations. Sending these seeds off was the beginning of the end for the Amazon rubber boom. Once the seeds were in the various colonies it took about 6-8 years to mature. Once they were mature, the plantations started tapping the rubber trees. The rubber plantations that the British were planting could be more efficient and more productive than all of the plantations in the Amazon. As a result, the price for this latex was lower, giving the British control of the world rubber market.
These rubber plantations in Southeast Asia remain the dominant supply of rubber even today. During WWII when the Japanese took control over the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, 95% of the world’s rubber supplies was coming from an area 15 degrees longitude and latitude of Singapore. Today in the 21st century, anywhere from 80-90% of the material to make natural rubber comes from Southeast Asia. The British and the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia were and still are today critical to the production of rubber.
These rubber plantations in Southeast Asia remain the dominant supply of rubber even today. During WWII when the Japanese took control over the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, 95% of the world’s rubber supplies was coming from an area 15 degrees longitude and latitude of Singapore. Today in the 21st century, anywhere from 80-90% of the material to make natural rubber comes from Southeast Asia. The British and the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia were and still are today critical to the production of rubber.
Amazon Rubber Plantations
The Amazon basin is primarily tropical lowlands, which contains 30,000 miles of waterways. Since the arrival of the Portuguese, the economy of the Amazon has almost totally relied on products that were made by wild plants and animals native to the land. The Brazilian city called Manaus lay at the center of the rubber lands about 900 miles upstream from the Atlantic and 6 miles up the Rio Negro. Near the mouth of the Amazon sits the old port of Belem (or Para as it was known back then). Lastly, 1,000 miles upstream from Manus was the highest navigable point for ocean-going shipping (called the: Peruvian River port of Iquitos). These above three ports were the hubs of a vast trade in wild rubber.
The people of the Amazon thought rubber was taking over their lives because the manufacturing of it was so prominent in their lives. Manufacturing of almost all other comedies came second to rubber.
During the 19th and 20th centuries the most popular of all Amazon exports was rubber. Rubber was made from the abundant wild rubber trees on the land called Castilloa elastica, and Hevea brasiliensis. Between 1860- 1910, The Amazon supplied around 60% of the worlds rubber needs. In 1852 rubber made almost half of the Para’s exports. Even with all this trade, there was a negative: there was unsustainable rates of tapping that largely destroyed the hevea stands in the lower Amazon basin.
Between the years 1890-1920 they called the Amazon a place under “rubber fever” because of the huge production and dependency on the material. The Amazon rubber barons employed thousands of men to extract rubber. The act of manufacturing rubber became a huge competitive game; people were trying to monopolize the rubber-treed areas.
The rubber fever, or Amazon boom, ended poorly when cheaper and more reliable supplies of the havea tree became available, forcing the local economy to suffer when there was a steep decline in profit rates around 1910.
Iquitos was a ‘slum’ type of city. The city was originally built to house the workers in the government’s machine shops and foundries (the foundries served as the Peruvian’s navy’s gun boats). Some of the citizens of the city were people there to make a name for themselves (and a fortune!) in the rubber trade business. Dominant of these types of people was Julio Cesar Arana (the towns un-crowned king). Behind the town of Callao on the Pacific coast, this town was Peru’s second seaport, and its primary export was rubber.
Manus (which Consul Kerbey regarded as “the St. Louis of the Amazon” was respectable and cultured in comparison to Iquitos. Manus was also much larger than Iquitos. in 1910 it had around 50,000 inhabitant. The city was very magnificent with Library’s, huge buildings, bars, taverns, hotels, cathedrals, an opera house with blue and gold tiles, gambling joints, and an “army of prostitutes”. Steam navigation had begun in the 1850’s but the Amazon was not opened to the foreign competition until 1867. A British-owned Booth Line owned a near monopoly of the Rivers traffic (it ran a regular service from Liverpool via Portugal across the Atlantic to Para and up as far as Iquitos). Originally possessing only a poor river basin with widely fluctuating water levels, the British owned Manus Harbor Ltd. Had built an impressive floating dock. In the holds of the foreign owned ships came the cargoes that kept the city alive- and back in them went wooden boxes packed with raw rubber. The volume of imported goods and the foreign ownership of shipping highlighted major problems of economic dependence for the city and Amazonia as well.
The contrasts of Iquitos and Manus mirror the sharp social divisions of the boom city, because even though “per capita incomes in the Brazilian Amazon climbed by 80%” during the 50 years before 1910, they were unevenly distributed. The slums on the edge of town had pools of stagnant water that provided a breeding ground for malaria and yellow fever. The diseases around these areas show the critical conditions the rubber workers had to live in everyday, the job was not easy; it was dirty, hard, and painful.
The Rubber Frenzy:
Some historians say the start of the “rubber boom” was 1820, others say it was 1850 with the demand for raw rubber accelerating following the discovery of the vulcanization in 1839. Some say the start was 1889 when “the rubber trade was characterized by a steady and reasonable growth”. After that with the production of pneumatic tires for bicycles and cars, the demand for rubber became greedy in a “succession of waves which took prices to new levels”. Finally in 1910 came the final surge which brought the price of rubber to about 3 dollars—then there was a sudden and catastrophic crash! (more about the rubber frenzy, or 'rubber boom' can be found above in this section).
The people of the Amazon thought rubber was taking over their lives because the manufacturing of it was so prominent in their lives. Manufacturing of almost all other comedies came second to rubber.
During the 19th and 20th centuries the most popular of all Amazon exports was rubber. Rubber was made from the abundant wild rubber trees on the land called Castilloa elastica, and Hevea brasiliensis. Between 1860- 1910, The Amazon supplied around 60% of the worlds rubber needs. In 1852 rubber made almost half of the Para’s exports. Even with all this trade, there was a negative: there was unsustainable rates of tapping that largely destroyed the hevea stands in the lower Amazon basin.
Between the years 1890-1920 they called the Amazon a place under “rubber fever” because of the huge production and dependency on the material. The Amazon rubber barons employed thousands of men to extract rubber. The act of manufacturing rubber became a huge competitive game; people were trying to monopolize the rubber-treed areas.
The rubber fever, or Amazon boom, ended poorly when cheaper and more reliable supplies of the havea tree became available, forcing the local economy to suffer when there was a steep decline in profit rates around 1910.
Iquitos was a ‘slum’ type of city. The city was originally built to house the workers in the government’s machine shops and foundries (the foundries served as the Peruvian’s navy’s gun boats). Some of the citizens of the city were people there to make a name for themselves (and a fortune!) in the rubber trade business. Dominant of these types of people was Julio Cesar Arana (the towns un-crowned king). Behind the town of Callao on the Pacific coast, this town was Peru’s second seaport, and its primary export was rubber.
Manus (which Consul Kerbey regarded as “the St. Louis of the Amazon” was respectable and cultured in comparison to Iquitos. Manus was also much larger than Iquitos. in 1910 it had around 50,000 inhabitant. The city was very magnificent with Library’s, huge buildings, bars, taverns, hotels, cathedrals, an opera house with blue and gold tiles, gambling joints, and an “army of prostitutes”. Steam navigation had begun in the 1850’s but the Amazon was not opened to the foreign competition until 1867. A British-owned Booth Line owned a near monopoly of the Rivers traffic (it ran a regular service from Liverpool via Portugal across the Atlantic to Para and up as far as Iquitos). Originally possessing only a poor river basin with widely fluctuating water levels, the British owned Manus Harbor Ltd. Had built an impressive floating dock. In the holds of the foreign owned ships came the cargoes that kept the city alive- and back in them went wooden boxes packed with raw rubber. The volume of imported goods and the foreign ownership of shipping highlighted major problems of economic dependence for the city and Amazonia as well.
The contrasts of Iquitos and Manus mirror the sharp social divisions of the boom city, because even though “per capita incomes in the Brazilian Amazon climbed by 80%” during the 50 years before 1910, they were unevenly distributed. The slums on the edge of town had pools of stagnant water that provided a breeding ground for malaria and yellow fever. The diseases around these areas show the critical conditions the rubber workers had to live in everyday, the job was not easy; it was dirty, hard, and painful.
The Rubber Frenzy:
Some historians say the start of the “rubber boom” was 1820, others say it was 1850 with the demand for raw rubber accelerating following the discovery of the vulcanization in 1839. Some say the start was 1889 when “the rubber trade was characterized by a steady and reasonable growth”. After that with the production of pneumatic tires for bicycles and cars, the demand for rubber became greedy in a “succession of waves which took prices to new levels”. Finally in 1910 came the final surge which brought the price of rubber to about 3 dollars—then there was a sudden and catastrophic crash! (more about the rubber frenzy, or 'rubber boom' can be found above in this section).
Africa
In Africa the rubber was a key trade. Africa had five leading producers of rubber which were French Guinea, Angola, The Gold Coast, French Congo, and probably the most important of them all is the Congo Free State. The Ivory Coast and German East Africa also experienced booms of their own. As the production of rubber grew so did the demand for it. Products such as tubing, hoses springs, washers, and diaphragms were in wide demand. African rubber boomed from 1890 to 1913, and was the greatest income earner for African countries. Even though rubber was their main income, their economy, social class, and governments took a negative impact. The country with the most devastating impact was the Congo Free State. Most of Africa’s rubber came from trees and vines. Areas where rubber was being harvested were constantly threatened by exhaustion of supplies. By 1875 countries like Angola had no more rubber to harvest. Dahomey peak production was 14.5 of rubber per year; by 1901 it had declined to 5.9 tons a year. Once all the vines died there was only 1.9 tons produced per year. Likewise in French Guiana rubber was completely used up in 1905.
King Leopold established the International Association of the Congo in a need to end the Arab slave trade in Africa. He then hired Henry Mortan Stanly to establish several trading and administrative stations in Congo. Leopold was granted full control over Congo by the congress of Berlin. A majority of Congo’s territory is thick and dense rain forest. King Leopold told went on a massive plunder of Congo resources. Leopold exploited Congo’s land and divide among concession companies. This then cut the native population by 50 percent. They used brutal tactics to force the natives to extract rubber for them. Leopold gave granted concession companies were granted the right to extract all products from the forest for over a thirty year time period. The natives were expected to collect ivory and wild rubber for the companies. Native men were under the control of rubber agent. They were given a rubber quota in which they had to meet in two weeks. The agents hire armed sentries to make sure rubber was being collected. The agents received two percent commission of rubber they shipped out. Like other countries due to high demand, rubber was quickly depleting and eventually it died out. In an attempt to avoid exploitation rubber gatherers destroyed vines. By doing so they believed without rubber the concession would leave. The search of rubber caused a huge crisis in Congo. Villagers tried to flee into the forest but Leopold sent his army into the forest and kill them. When they succeeded in finding and killing the villagers, they would cut off their right hands as a fear campaign. The fear campaign actually worked into getting the villager to collect the rubber. To counter, the villagers attacked and killed sentries. King Leopold tried countering this by massive massacres and villages being burned to the ground. Due to the massive amount of violence in Congo, Leopold was forced to turn his colony over the Belgian government. Leopold may have ended the Arab slave trade in the Congo, but he simply replaced it with his own form of slavery. He took possession of the land and its twenty million inhabitants and forced them to work for his personal enrichment and to the benefit of his business associates. He neither developed the region nor provided any benefit to the local people.
King Leopold established the International Association of the Congo in a need to end the Arab slave trade in Africa. He then hired Henry Mortan Stanly to establish several trading and administrative stations in Congo. Leopold was granted full control over Congo by the congress of Berlin. A majority of Congo’s territory is thick and dense rain forest. King Leopold told went on a massive plunder of Congo resources. Leopold exploited Congo’s land and divide among concession companies. This then cut the native population by 50 percent. They used brutal tactics to force the natives to extract rubber for them. Leopold gave granted concession companies were granted the right to extract all products from the forest for over a thirty year time period. The natives were expected to collect ivory and wild rubber for the companies. Native men were under the control of rubber agent. They were given a rubber quota in which they had to meet in two weeks. The agents hire armed sentries to make sure rubber was being collected. The agents received two percent commission of rubber they shipped out. Like other countries due to high demand, rubber was quickly depleting and eventually it died out. In an attempt to avoid exploitation rubber gatherers destroyed vines. By doing so they believed without rubber the concession would leave. The search of rubber caused a huge crisis in Congo. Villagers tried to flee into the forest but Leopold sent his army into the forest and kill them. When they succeeded in finding and killing the villagers, they would cut off their right hands as a fear campaign. The fear campaign actually worked into getting the villager to collect the rubber. To counter, the villagers attacked and killed sentries. King Leopold tried countering this by massive massacres and villages being burned to the ground. Due to the massive amount of violence in Congo, Leopold was forced to turn his colony over the Belgian government. Leopold may have ended the Arab slave trade in the Congo, but he simply replaced it with his own form of slavery. He took possession of the land and its twenty million inhabitants and forced them to work for his personal enrichment and to the benefit of his business associates. He neither developed the region nor provided any benefit to the local people.