Blog for Week of January 27th

 Who would've guessed at the beginning of the semester that I would be writing a blog post about bird poop, yet here I am. The guano industry off the coast of Peru is surprising, to say the least. Within the modern-day United States, we use cow manure as a fertilizer for a variety of tasks. However, the United States actually had interests in the guano industry in the 1800s. In fact, the United States passed the Guano Islands Act of 1856 in order to claim unclaimed/uninhabited islands with guano deposits off of Peru and internationally. It's shocking to realize that American expansion and global intervention started partly due to bird crap. As a result of discovering the potential of the guano industry, the United States used naval force to search the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans for additional guano deposits. Additional German and British ships were investing in guano. This goes to show the importance of the good itself. Incredibly, the Peruvian guano was of a higher quality across the board compared to its Atlantic and Pacific equals because of its strong sea bird population, favorable dry weather, cool ocean currents, and lack of predators. Because of this, it makes sense why 80 percent of Peruvian revenues during the guano boom (1841-1879) were from bird-dropping deposits. Just imagine another country asks how you make capital, and you, in all seriousness, say bird poop. It's comic to even imagine, and it still happened. Attached is the source that I used for the post; I would recommend reading it for yourself. 

The Great Heap, 1865
From Alexander Gardner, Rays of Sunlight from South America

Source: The Guano Trade | National Museum of American History (si.edu)

https://americanhistory.si.edu/norie-atlas/guano-trade 

Comments

  1. Madelyn StembolJanuary 28, 2022 at 1:32 PM

    Hey Ben! I agree with you, it is remarkable how something as random and seemingly insignificant as guano could have made such a large impact on the national economy. I like how you provided so much additional information about the guano trade. I had no idea that the western industrialized nations had that much interest in it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Médar SerrataFebruary 12, 2022 at 2:03 PM

    Thank you for your post, Ben. I like how you took the initiative to do some research to deepen your knowledge on a topic you learned in class. The additional information you found on the guano industry is fascinating.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog for Week of Sept. 23

I need to come up with some sort of name to address the people who are reading my posts. It's boring just saying hey everyone. Anyways, something that caught my attention during the week was the story of Ferdinand van Olmen. In 1487, only a few years prior to Columbus, van Olmen was given permission to sail west with the hopes of discovering new resources and land for Portugal. He attempted to go west across the Atlantic Ocean with high hopes, but he ran into difficult winds and storms that made the voyage impossible. Strangely enough, the weather had a tremendous impact on our world history. Since van Olmen set sail in winter, the winds were pushing against his ships. Columbus, to his fortune, set sail when the winds were in his favor and helping him towards what would become the New World. Imagine if van Olmen had succeeded and ended up discovering the New World for Portugal. The entire structure of Latin America would be based on Portuguese culture and language. The people today...
Read more

My Response to Annika's Post Week of October 28th

 I really like how you compared the example from the movie to today's standards. It's interesting how materialistic objects can portray what someone is worth or at least appear that way. Much of what is perceived by others of ourselves is what we like. Just because someone takes an interest in something doesn't mean their personality is always the same. I think that humans are too quick to judge each other based on outward appearance instead of personal interactions.
Read more

Blog for Week of October 28th

 I thought the city of Potosí in current-day Bolivia was very similar to many towns in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. People tend to live around where the money is, and in both Michigan's U.P. and Potosí, there was labor needed for the mining industry. Although Potosí and the U.P. had very different primary mining resources available in copper and silver, the results of the mining industry remained the same. Large populations developed around the mining communities because that was where resources were most necessary. Additionally, many of the miners in both Potosí and the U.P. had to deal with extremely difficult conditions. A lot of the work was done by immigrants or people who had come from far away for the work. The miners did not have many other choices other than to work in the mines because of their social statuses and backgrounds. Consequently, the mining industry in both communities created booming trade industries. The Upper Peninsula would grow as a series of mining tow...
Read more