From 1879 to 1912, the Amazonian area saw a rubber boom caused by technological progress enabling a wider use for rubber in items such as tires and suspenders.
Some local businessmen used less than ethical methods such as debt slavery or straight up kidnapping local natives to enslave them; the working conditions were furthermore horrendous: one plantation started with 50,000 Indians but, when discovered, only 8,000 were still alive.
The above picture was included in a report of British Consul Robert Casement about the Putumayo basin in Peru and the activities of the Peruvian Amazon Company, which included enslavement, rapes, flogging and killing by overseers: "The crimes charged against many men now in the employ of the Peruvian Amazon Company are of the most atrocious kind, including murder, violation, and constant flogging." Native population fell from 40000-50000 down to 10000. Outcry caused the British Parliament to investigate the company, which had dissolved itself beforehand, thereby avoiding any liability for its owner Julio César Arana del Águila.
Coincendally, Casement is also known as the author of a report about the Congo Free State rubber boom.
jagfb
"When humans were still animals". But seriously: we still are tho.
Johannes_P
From 1879 to 1912, the Amazonian area saw a rubber boom caused by technological progress enabling a wider use for rubber in items such as tires and suspenders.
Some local businessmen used less than ethical methods such as debt slavery or straight up kidnapping local natives to enslave them; the working conditions were furthermore horrendous: one plantation started with 50,000 Indians but, when discovered, only 8,000 were still alive.
The above picture was included in a report of British Consul Robert Casement about the Putumayo basin in Peru and the activities of the Peruvian Amazon Company, which included enslavement, rapes, flogging and killing by overseers: "The crimes charged against many men now in the employ of the Peruvian Amazon Company are of the most atrocious kind, including murder, violation, and constant flogging." Native population fell from 40000-50000 down to 10000. Outcry caused the British Parliament to investigate the company, which had dissolved itself beforehand, thereby avoiding any liability for its owner Julio César Arana del Águila.
Coincendally, Casement is also known as the author of a report about the Congo Free State rubber boom.
jagfb
"When humans were still animals". But seriously: we still are tho.
diabeetus76
Thanks Henry Ford.
richh00
Face second from left…whats going on there?