just make an update of Peru's current macroeconomic situation with massive infrastructures ongoing and futures projects, it's crazy! looks like the empire is back
It is a myth that guano islands were solely about fertilizer. Mainlanders could easily get guano from many areas including bat caves, pig and chicken farms, etc. What these islands were valued for was that the purity of the guano was especially needed for making quality gun powder for naval cannon used on battleships.
That's actually correct. Most of this was used to make highly explosive gunpowder, and even nitroglycerin... aka another form of nitrogen... aka.... TNT!!!
Fantastic video. As a Peruvian, we were taught about the importance of the guano islands in school, but admittedly a more reserved version in regards to the atrocities our government committed with the usage of slaves. What hits particularly close to home is the way in which the elite withheld the profits made from guano to themselves and for vanity projects which ultimately fractured our economy and nation. Sadly the repercussions are still seen today, since our main industries revolve around mineral and petroleum extraction, and one could argue the government practices have hardly changed since the guano days when it comes to allocating the money earned from those industries. Thank you for this video Casual Scholar, I don't think many people nowadays know about the importance guano had in the development of modern society.
Do they also teach about the importance of the Andean plant that produces quinine? Highly ironic that it was the only effective treatment for centuries for a disease that only afflicted the Americas after European colonization. Peru has had much more impact on world history than is commonly recognized.
As a farmer I did already know most of this and I have at times tried to explain to others but it never landed as well as I thought it schould have. Lol Now I can show them this video!
Related to these deposits in Peru. The Guano Islands Act was passed by USA 1856. This United States federal law passed by the Congress enables citizens of the United States to take possession in the name of the United States any unclaimed islands containing guano deposits.
Tangent: at least on a small scale some market garden farmers (say 2 to 5 acres or so) have manage to be quite profitable without any commercial fertilizers (organic or synthetic) but instead compost and soil management, large scale organic farms may require organic fertilizer inputs but can regenerate soils while profiting from them. Naturally both tend to result in considerably higher quality produce but at significant price premium. (maybe common knowledge)
@@Mrbfgray , But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath to Yehovah. Thou shall neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord.. thou shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. Leviticus 25: 4 and 5. This command and principal of operation applies to all land on earth in all ages, and would have/will rejuvenate the land to it's former potential, but will not enrichen it beyond, as will composting.
The twists and turns of this story are fascinating. Love how you tied in various seemingly unrelated topics and showed the sort of butterfly affect that small moments can have.
@@PatrickKniesler Once the education of a nation, and its breeding yield a population on average capable of perceiving at once nuance and greater than binary systems, I reckon the variety of demands would dissolve at least in part, the Jevons Paradox.
This is the real reason why British coordinated full support to Chile to invade Peru. And when Peru wanted to buy ammo and ships, guess who stepped in to block other countries after been paid to deliver it: USA. Later the US tried to play the friendly role by supporting a peace deal, after the Dutch, English and US companies had absorbed all sorts of contracts from the Peruvian nationals. USA even suggesting that Peru should pay Chile the cost of war, an insult to peace treaties. Then USA declared its Monroe doctrine.
And Greedy Brits went back to Ransack Peru’s Rubber Plantations and used Colombia on 1932-33 with help of US ripped off more Peruvian territories giving to Colombia City of Leticia and access to Amazon river to Colombia
The Monroe doctrine secured for the USA Exclusive monopoly for subduing, invading and imperialism in all latinamerica!!!! Latinamericans do not understand what USA means when they call themselves America!!!
You literally have no evidence to support the British Help myth, only. You probably don't even know Perú had nothing to do in the War of the Pacific, and that they joined voluntarily
@@cseijifja Yeaaaah sure while holding a binding secret alliance with Bolivia, you really can't be seriously trying to pull that argument like people are stupid or something
During that time, Chile, being the poorest country in America, was manipulated by British interests that sought to invade Peru, mainly due to its rich mineral deposits. As a result of the war between Peru and Chile, Peru's saltpetre mines and guano islands fell under the control of British companies. In this situation, Chile acted as a pawn in the hands of foreign interests and eventually seized Peruvian lands. It's also important to note that years before the conflict, England secretly provided Chile with arms and even supplies such as clothing, creating an imbalance of power in the region. In this context, Peru had invested in purchasing arms and ships in Europe, but these resources were blocked by England. Additionally, the country was dealing with internal civil conflicts, which weakened its ability to defend itself effectively. This combination of factors further exacerbated Peru's situation in the war and paved the way for the appropriation of its resources by foreign interests.
That's false, as a peruvian, Chile had always been a more stable and functioning nation, and triumphed because of two things : They modernized their navy earlier, buying two state of the art ironclads, and had more and better support ships. And two, their weapons and supplies were standardized long ago, by the adquisition of belgian comblain rifles and teh stablishment of a supply system. Nothing of the sort happened on peru, because local authorities were too busy ploting against each other and deposing one another.
@@cseijifja Esos paises son nuevos, no mas de 200 años. ´Peru existe mas de 5000 años con la primera civilziacion de America, CARAL. El Virreinato de Peru abarco durante 300 años todo Sudamerica excluyendo Brasil, en el Imperio Inca con capital en Cusco, se ocupo Colombia, ECuador, Chile, Bolivia y Argentina.
As a Peruvian, we are also taught that while the guano represented an important revenue stream during the early days of the Republic, this period is labelled by one of our most important historians as the "fallacious prosperity" as the Government instead of selling directly, it delegated the task to private entities (local and foreigners), with the latter using the gains to improve their industrial capacity in their respective countries, while ours remained stagnated. On top of that, a poor spending plan generated many poor-quality infrastructure and railways that only represented more debt. "in Peru it is extraordinary what does not happen" - Jorge Basadre - Peruvian Historian
@@sethbartley2212 Years later, we had another economic boom with saltpeter. Rich saltpeter deposits were found in the south along within Bolivian territory (when Bolivia had a sea access). Eventually, it escalated to the War of the Pacific with Chile which resulted in Chile gaining the region of Arica and removing Bolivia of its sea access. The causes are different but the result was the same.
Just another reason why I have hated international companies. If a company wants to do business in another country, it should have to work with a local company, so that both have vested interest in doing well for each other as well as themselves in a symbiotic relationship, rather than an exploitative one.
In my island of Curaçao we have a tall "Table Mountain" that was mined for phosphate to the point that is disppearing. The tiny island of Klein Curaçao or "Small Curacao" off the coast was also mined. Several meters of its top soil were removed for its phosphate.
The island of Nauru, in the western Pacific Ocean, had migrating birds using it as their travel stop and toilet. It made the inhabitants wealthy, before it disappeared after the toilets were cleaned out.
One of my upper level undergrad electives was history of peoples of South Asia & the pacific, during which we covered Nauru. That class turned out to be surprisingly useful in understanding that history is all context and does not happen in a vacuum.
South America all around should have definitely had a similar story to the US and Canada in terms of prosperous and modernized nations go, but corruption and European wealth stealing for far too long stunted the potential of South America all around. In the very least Argentina should be a world superpower right now with the likes of the US, Europe, Japan, etc
As a peruvian, I really appreciate this video about our history. While I would have personally preffered a video about the economic history of Peru (kind of like how you did on your video about the soviet union or the one about Lichtenstein) I still found it insightful and it even helped me remember some things from history class back at school
Yes, Peru was an enslaver of Easter Islanders, destroyed their history, depopulated the island, let the selfish elite dominate the decrepit economy, preferred visual illusion of progress, envied Chile, treacherously allied itself with Bolivia against Chile, was too weak to defend even Lima, and lost the War of the Pacific. Peru has a lot of historical baggage.
@@romeosantos9006 You seem to like making assumptions. We actually got to learn a bit about it, though we did not spend as much time with it as we did with the history of exploitation of blacks, chinese and of course the native themselves
Extremely good and insightful, poor Fritz Haber apart from his Nitrogen extraction process was also involved in poison gas production during WW1. A sad tale as he was also Jewish and of course had to leave Germany. A great scientist all in all.
Fritz Haber's story is so remarkable and sad it's wild there hasn't been a movie made about him. His chemicals or poison gases also made an appearance in WWII as well...such a shame how it all ended for him.
I cant beleive how little school prepared me for life, bird poop salesman was never brought up when talking about the possible jobs that the subjects i took could lead to, it was doctor, lawyer, engineer but never on the prospects of harvesting white gold?
You took an incredibly complex series of historical situations and created a concise timeline that was both easy to understand and engaging. Amazing presentation.
2:57 "This is the astonishing and strange tale of how bird shit changed the course of history" lol the way that line was backed up by the epic opening song was great!
There is an error in the documentary... it blames Peru and not Bolivia for the seizure of the Antofagasta mines that caused the Pacific War with Chile... The direct cause of the war was a nitrate taxation dispute between Bolivia and Chile
An eye-opening history of the value and influence of bird droppings in agriculture. And the exploitation and use of labour in a hazardous unhealthy environment.
WOW 😯 Absolutely mind blowing! The road humanity took to get to modernity is absolute madness. This begs the question yet again, are we good for this earth or it’s biggest curse?🤔 Greed, ignorance, exploitation, and world domination by any means are the true diseases that will be the end us
the indigenous Americans treated the land just fine. its the invading foreigners from europe that have no history or connection to the American continent so they will destroy it and everything on it without remorse in the name of jesus and the queen : D
It appears the left wing politics will end us far before nature does. One by one the major agricultural centers are being shut down. Sri-Lanka farming shutdown by their own government by denying fertilizer to the farmers, Netherlands working on doing the same. Ukraine shutdown by a war to topple Russia.
The moment he mentioned what they did to the Easter Island people I knew that was moment the island failed. The strongest and most knowledgeable gone. The rats. The pillaging. Why have historians questioned this event when they know an entire third of a population vanished?
@@jz94117 there is a second encounter years after. The trees were gone, the people fought over caves, and there was cannibalism. I don't remember the documentary I saw years ago though. It mentioned two separate visits. I don't think it was the guano ship though
Interesting Vid for sure! Who'd have thought that all would have gone to nowhere if not for bird poo 😂 2 remarks for more precison though: 1. WW I started in 1914 2. BASF, that got the patent from Haber (who issued it in 1908 and got it granted in 1911) build the first industrial factory centered around the haber-process in 1913. Just FYI
22:25 How is Mr. Fritz not more well known?! His invention single-handedly saved so many lives and guaranteed food production for generations after him. he is a hero.
What do you mean not well known? The haber-bosch method for synthesizing ammonia is taught in middle school chemistry... Well I guess it depends where you're from.
Now to be a powerful and developed country you not only need to have so many resources. In these times it is necessary to choose ideal, bold and intelligent immigrants, to have an educated, civilized, competitive, disciplined society, and many things.👍👍👍👍 Unfortunately, Peru 🇵🇪 is still full of traitors, corrupt people, revolutionaries, and at the same time there are good, enterprising, hard-working people, most of whom are informal, but those who are going to compete and excel leave the country to work abroad.😟😟😟😟 I don't know if Peru 🇵🇪 has a future with prosperity and splendor, but a country that has so much wealth, minerals and resources, several powerful countries and empires intervene, loot them and take control of them for a long time.😥😥😥😥
There's an important omission in the basic science of this video that changes the whole conclusion. The guano shortage problem was not solved during world war I by The haber process. Only one aspect of it the nitrogen shortage was solved by that. The phosphorus problem is still solved by guano and geologic phosphorus deposits, and we are just about to run out of those, there is a phosphorus crunch going on right now and it's getting worse. There are very hard efforts going into solving the phosphorus problem, but it's not going to be as easier as pulling it out of that atmosphere because there is no phosphorus in the atmosphere, most of it is diluted in the ocean or spread out in the rocks and minerals of the earth. This is a looming crisis, and only some areas are going to be naturally abundant enough in their soil to allow them to be independent of phosphate fertilizers. You should consider doing the part two on the imminent phosphorus crisis and the international conflict it will probably cause
Great video! Yes, Germany might have found the Nitrate harvesting from air, but Norwegian inventor Christian Birkeland was in the race too. Funded by business entrepreneur Sam Eyde, they made Norsk Hydro producing fertilizer in Norway. They plant had half Birkeland ovens, the others BASF ovens from Germany.
If only Peru had had a strong leader, such as Paraguay's Dr. Francia, perhaps guano revenue could have been better spent. Maybe Peru's navy preemptively occupying islands all over The Pacific Ocean in order to better monopolize the resource. Uchronia. Being peruvian and fond of history I admire the accuracy of your video.
Yes, Peru was an enslaver of Easter Islanders, destroyed their history, depopulated the island, let the selfish elite dominate the decrepit economy, preferred visual illusion of progress, envied Chile, treacherously allied itself with Bolivia against Chile, was too weak to defend even Lima, and lost the War of the Pacific. Peru has a lot of historical baggage.
You know you watch too much random informational RUclips videos when you get upset thinking “No way he titled the video this and it’s about GUANO..” then I remember nobody really knows about guano other than people who watch this type of stuff.
It's wild to think how many people's lives were supported by bird poop. And how if alternatives hadn't been found how insane the global starvation rates would have skyrocketed once all the bird poop had been used up.
Little Peru, at one time, was the leading fishing country in the world. Thinking that eliminating fish eating birds would improve their catch, they killed off the birds, which killed off many fish that depended on the steady supply of guano. No more number one in fish exports.
Of course, today it's been worked out that with the correct cover crops and rotating certain crops farmers don't need nitrogen, lime or potassium to be spread on their fields and still produce better crops.
Phosphorus is the macro element that is harder to maintain. It cannot be pulled from the air like N or C, it needs to be supplemented by rock dust or synthetic sources.
I read a book written by the USDA in the late 1800s suggesting extremely high yield for crops and cattle. That they subsidized even back then with unreasonable numbers.
Very important lesson to learn for every individual of a nation state. Make sure that your government does not squander economic gains. Observe how some countries have manage not to squander.
It's been a year, so no way this comment is gonna get noticed, but as a Chilean, I absolutely love the fact that you brought up a history fact that is hardly ever mentioned: How the Easter Island's native population got forced into slavery for the guano. One minor detail, however, is that the Peruvian Navy was one of the most formidable ones of its time, during the War of the Pacific. It is absolutely insane that Chile managed to beat them.
You should look into the scraps of writings on Easter Island, untranslated, to the ancient writings found in the "Indus Valley." To date, neither have been deciphered. Compare the two places with the letters used, it is obvious that at some point in history, there must have been some contact between the two.
This video is telling partialy the truth. The british equiped and armed Chile 10 years before the war with Peru to ocuppy the peruvian nitrate mines which after the war ended as british companies and chile just gaining the land. The war was between Peru and the British
@@g.g.v5716 Makes literally no sense, The War of the Pacific was between Chile and Bolivia, Peru willingly joined, if it wasn't for that Chile had no reason to ever attack Perú. Selling guns is not "arming", when you use the word "arm" it implies the UK gifted the guns anf machinery to Chile which is complete false. Plus the main ironclad of Perú, the Huascar is literally made in England, when the war broke out, the English blocked the purchases of both Chile and Peru. Knowing all this the myth of the British help makes absolutely no sense
@@olekatoska1901 That's completely false, since Chile knew that attacking Bolivia would prompt Peru to come to its defense, as they had both signed a mutual defense act many decades before that war. In 1881, the Secretary of State of the United States, James G. Blaine, confirmed that the war was between Peru and the UK.
@@g.g.v5716 You're out-right viciously lying at this point, stating how much did Chile know of the clauses of the treaty or how far would they go or respect them of which there's no concensus to this day. And whatever does an Anglophobic senator says from a random country couldn't matter any less, specially when in contrast the UK literally embargoed 4 ironclads in total to both Chile and Peru the moment the war broke out. You only got quotes, rumours, lies and cheap propaganda for your arguments, I got actual actions and historic facts
This youtube is excellent and more people should see it. The only change is that I'd mention bat poop as well as bird poop. Also as these reserves run out, our chemists might be able to synthesise more nitrates, but only a nuclear-physicist can synthesise phosphorus. That's not happening at scale. What *might* happen at scale is asteroid mining. Be interesting if the Peruvian space-programme gets out into that. Let's hope the Peruvians offer better deals to its miners than their ancestors offered to Rapa Nui.
I knew there was phosphorus mining in some Pacific Islands in the 20th century. I didn't know about guano until today! It's refreshing to get historical content that I'm not familiar with
Well they kinda did with the nitrate mines, this video is telling partialy the truth. The british equiped and armed Chile 10 years before the war with Peru to ocuppy the peruvian nitrate mines which after the war ended as british companies and chile just gaining the land. The war was between Peru and the British
I don't know but an Englishman named John Thomas North was the one who financed the weapons, in addition to a vice admiral named Patricio Lynch who was trained by the English royal navy, England took them away indirectly.
onyl reason it feels "exotic " , is mostly because of how filled with misinformation and stereotypes the palce is, in truth it's mostly iberian people in america.
I often argue how wars continuously set us back instead of moving us forward. The example of the Spanish in Peru is a great example. Knowledge was lost. I think that has happened all through history where societies make great leaps forward only to have conquering powers "kill" that advancement. Even in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. What was one of the first things destroyed? It was the most advanced aircraft ever made.
I really want to get into gardening. I have 9 parrots of my own and we have a non-profit parrot rescue/sanctuary out of our house. Time to switch to biodegradable cage liners and start a bird shit compost pile out back.
Peruanos en general oe, acá hace rato no solo hay quechuas ☠️ In case you don't happen to speak Spanish, there are a lot more other ethnicities that call Peru home, not just Quechuas, mind you
The word shit actually comes from the transportion of guano from Peru to England. Because it’s explosive and or smells awful when wet the term shit means ship high in transit. For when it was loaded on ships
technically if the lands are not claimed nor inhabited (rules specifically identified in the legislation) its not "empire" as they are not imposing their dominion upon others. there ARE events one could argue for empire, but i don't think that legislation is one of them.
I RoccoMend this excellent video. Thank you Casual Scholar for creating this video for us to learn from. I look forward to watching many more of your videos.
I'm a farmer and what concern me more is the supply of potassium on the following decades There is already a geopolitics of potassium, with Brazil heavily relying on Russian deposits what curbed a big arms deal with Ukraine But the point is every single human needs some 5 grams of potassium per day, our fertilizing practices aren't the best to avoid high losses of it by percolation and the mineral deposits are finite Ironically, Brazil have the bigger reserves which still untouched because st upid immense Indian lands was set over, done by political imposition from European countries Unless other sources are developed, a mineral potassium exhaustion may threat mankind with widespread starvation with in some decades
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What are the music used in the video?
@@rogertriebwasser4779ex
just make an update of Peru's current macroeconomic situation with massive infrastructures ongoing and futures projects, it's crazy! looks like the empire is back
It is a myth that guano islands were solely about fertilizer. Mainlanders could easily get guano from many areas including bat caves, pig and chicken farms, etc. What these islands were valued for was that the purity of the guano was especially needed for making quality gun powder for naval cannon used on battleships.
That's actually correct. Most of this was used to make highly explosive gunpowder, and even nitroglycerin... aka another form of nitrogen... aka.... TNT!!!
@@davey815 TY
Agreed. Gunpowder was the real driver. Fertilizer was a convenient secondary use.
@@davey815 Not quite, you forgot fuming nitric acid used to make Nitroglycerin and many other explosives and industrial processes. Then came oil.
Not true, those composts are really poor compared to peruvian guano islands
Fantastic video. As a Peruvian, we were taught about the importance of the guano islands in school, but admittedly a more reserved version in regards to the atrocities our government committed with the usage of slaves. What hits particularly close to home is the way in which the elite withheld the profits made from guano to themselves and for vanity projects which ultimately fractured our economy and nation. Sadly the repercussions are still seen today, since our main industries revolve around mineral and petroleum extraction, and one could argue the government practices have hardly changed since the guano days when it comes to allocating the money earned from those industries. Thank you for this video Casual Scholar, I don't think many people nowadays know about the importance guano had in the development of modern society.
fascinating! thanks for sharing your unique insights. I'll have to read into this further.
"As a" 🤓
@@balabanasireti 6:01 had seen
Do they also teach about the importance of the Andean plant that produces quinine? Highly ironic that it was the only effective treatment for centuries for a disease that only afflicted the Americas after European colonization. Peru has had much more impact on world history than is commonly recognized.
thank you for sharing
Wow! I'm Peruvian and I never would've known that the discovery of Guano in Peru shaped the course of the world's history this much.. how fascinating
That is why England and Chile that stolen the two provinces (states) Arica and Tarapacá for guano and saltire to make powders for the guns.
@@RobespierreThePoof
I went to Paracas. The birds pooed on the hills or guano. They smelled horrible.
@@catholic3dod790 We did not steal them , read son.
Ese gringo ha tirado varias cosas erroneas, el guano peruano era importante pero no te sostenia una economía.
@@lolproo cual gringo
As a farmer I did already know most of this and I have at times tried to explain to others but it never landed as well as I thought it schould have. Lol Now I can show them this video!
🐦💩
The spelling. That was the reason. Lol joking
Related to these deposits in Peru.
The Guano Islands Act was passed by USA 1856. This United States federal law passed by the Congress enables citizens of the United States to take possession in the name of the United States any unclaimed islands containing guano deposits.
That's awesome, "How birdshit changed the course of history." I have never heard it put in exactly the same way I have before. Thank You Cas.
the subtitles say "how sheet changed the course of history" lol
Tangent: at least on a small scale some market garden farmers (say 2 to 5 acres or so) have manage to be quite profitable without any commercial fertilizers (organic or synthetic) but instead compost and soil management, large scale organic farms may require organic fertilizer inputs but can regenerate soils while profiting from them. Naturally both tend to result in considerably higher quality produce but at significant price premium.
(maybe common knowledge)
@@Mrbfgray TY
@@Mrbfgray , But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath to Yehovah. Thou shall neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord.. thou shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land.
Leviticus 25: 4 and 5.
This command and principal of operation
applies to all land on earth in all ages, and would have/will rejuvenate the land to it's former potential, but will not enrichen it beyond, as will composting.
The twists and turns of this story are fascinating. Love how you tied in various seemingly unrelated topics and showed the sort of butterfly affect that small moments can have.
Thank you so much! Happy you enjoyed!
I saw a video where a pacifist said this was among the dumbest reasons to fight a war. Like bruh, literally this is feeding your nation.
So stealing from other countries is okay?
@@Bell_plejdo568p yes
@@Bell_plejdo568p as long as we're stealing bird shit 🐦💩
While I can't disagree generally, one has to wonder at what point we're going to stop chasing jevons paradox with population.
@@PatrickKniesler Once the education of a nation, and its breeding yield a population on average capable of perceiving at once nuance and greater than binary systems, I reckon the variety of demands would dissolve at least in part, the Jevons Paradox.
This is the real reason why British coordinated full support to Chile to invade Peru. And when Peru wanted to buy ammo and ships, guess who stepped in to block other countries after been paid to deliver it: USA. Later the US tried to play the friendly role by supporting a peace deal, after the Dutch, English and US companies had absorbed all sorts of contracts from the Peruvian nationals. USA even suggesting that Peru should pay Chile the cost of war, an insult to peace treaties. Then USA declared its Monroe doctrine.
And Greedy Brits went back to Ransack Peru’s Rubber Plantations and used Colombia on 1932-33 with help of US ripped off more Peruvian territories giving to Colombia City of Leticia and access to Amazon river to Colombia
The Monroe doctrine secured for the USA Exclusive monopoly for subduing, invading and imperialism in all latinamerica!!!!
Latinamericans do not understand what USA means when they call themselves America!!!
You literally have no evidence to support the British Help myth, only. You probably don't even know Perú had nothing to do in the War of the Pacific, and that they joined voluntarily
@@olekatoska1901 we got war declared on us while triying for a peacefull negotiation to the bolivia chile dispute.
@@cseijifja Yeaaaah sure while holding a binding secret alliance with Bolivia, you really can't be seriously trying to pull that argument like people are stupid or something
During that time, Chile, being the poorest country in America, was manipulated by British interests that sought to invade Peru, mainly due to its rich mineral deposits. As a result of the war between Peru and Chile, Peru's saltpetre mines and guano islands fell under the control of British companies. In this situation, Chile acted as a pawn in the hands of foreign interests and eventually seized Peruvian lands.
It's also important to note that years before the conflict, England secretly provided Chile with arms and even supplies such as clothing, creating an imbalance of power in the region. In this context, Peru had invested in purchasing arms and ships in Europe, but these resources were blocked by England. Additionally, the country was dealing with internal civil conflicts, which weakened its ability to defend itself effectively. This combination of factors further exacerbated Peru's situation in the war and paved the way for the appropriation of its resources by foreign interests.
Gonna need a source for that chief
That's false, as a peruvian, Chile had always been a more stable and functioning nation, and triumphed because of two things : They modernized their navy earlier, buying two state of the art ironclads, and had more and better support ships. And two, their weapons and supplies were standardized long ago, by the adquisition of belgian comblain rifles and teh stablishment of a supply system.
Nothing of the sort happened on peru, because local authorities were too busy ploting against each other and deposing one another.
@@cseijifja You are not peruvian, you are chilean. Chile was the poorest nation in South America back then.
@@g.g.v5716 no lo soy , y no lo era , paraguay esta ahi , igual que bolivia .
@@cseijifja Esos paises son nuevos, no mas de 200 años. ´Peru existe mas de 5000 años con la primera civilziacion de America, CARAL. El Virreinato de Peru abarco durante 300 años todo Sudamerica excluyendo Brasil, en el Imperio Inca con capital en Cusco, se ocupo Colombia, ECuador, Chile, Bolivia y Argentina.
As a Peruvian, we are also taught that while the guano represented an important revenue stream during the early days of the Republic, this period is labelled by one of our most important historians as the "fallacious prosperity" as the Government instead of selling directly, it delegated the task to private entities (local and foreigners), with the latter using the gains to improve their industrial capacity in their respective countries, while ours remained stagnated. On top of that, a poor spending plan generated many poor-quality infrastructure and railways that only represented more debt.
"in Peru it is extraordinary what does not happen" - Jorge Basadre - Peruvian Historian
fascinating! thanks for sharing your unique insights. I'll have to read into this further.
@@sethbartley2212 Years later, we had another economic boom with saltpeter. Rich saltpeter deposits were found in the south along within Bolivian territory (when Bolivia had a sea access). Eventually, it escalated to the War of the Pacific with Chile which resulted in Chile gaining the region of Arica and removing Bolivia of its sea access. The causes are different but the result was the same.
As a 🤓
Just another reason why I have hated international companies. If a company wants to do business in another country, it should have to work with a local company, so that both have vested interest in doing well for each other as well as themselves in a symbiotic relationship, rather than an exploitative one.
Yup as a Peruvian I also learned this from the history class.
In my island of Curaçao we have a tall "Table Mountain" that was mined for phosphate to the point that is disppearing.
The tiny island of Klein Curaçao or "Small Curacao" off the coast was also mined. Several meters of its top soil were removed for its phosphate.
The island of Nauru, in the western Pacific Ocean, had migrating birds using it as their travel stop and toilet. It made the inhabitants wealthy, before it disappeared after the toilets were cleaned out.
As an Australian, I know that Nauru was the source of our phosphate fertiliser.
One of my upper level undergrad electives was history of peoples of South Asia & the pacific, during which we covered Nauru. That class turned out to be surprisingly useful in understanding that history is all context and does not happen in a vacuum.
South American should be so much more profitable than it is today. They were feeding the world for that long!!! This was a great video!!!!
Amerika has kept it down toppling democratically elected president after another for dictatorship
Yes, and the Potatoe comes from Peru!
more like the Americas were being robbed and stolen from while being destroyed for some christian europeans to get rich the last 400 years :D
@cliffwoodbury5319 The profits are in spain, portugal, and your wealth caste.
South America all around should have definitely had a similar story to the US and Canada in terms of prosperous and modernized nations go, but corruption and European wealth stealing for far too long stunted the potential of South America all around. In the very least Argentina should be a world superpower right now with the likes of the US, Europe, Japan, etc
As a peruvian, I really appreciate this video about our history. While I would have personally preffered a video about the economic history of Peru (kind of like how you did on your video about the soviet union or the one about Lichtenstein) I still found it insightful and it even helped me remember some things from history class back at school
As a 🤓
Like the fact they were enslavers and colonisers.
Yes, Peru was an enslaver of Easter Islanders, destroyed their history, depopulated the island, let the selfish elite dominate the decrepit economy, preferred visual illusion of progress, envied Chile, treacherously allied itself with Bolivia against Chile, was too weak to defend even Lima, and lost the War of the Pacific. Peru has a lot of historical baggage.
I bet Peruvian history glosses over its cruelty to Easter Islanders and the island itself.
@@romeosantos9006 You seem to like making assumptions. We actually got to learn a bit about it, though we did not spend as much time with it as we did with the history of exploitation of blacks, chinese and of course the native themselves
Extremely good and insightful, poor Fritz Haber apart from his Nitrogen extraction process was also involved in poison gas production during WW1. A sad tale as he was also Jewish and of course had to leave Germany. A great scientist all in all.
Fritz Haber's story is so remarkable and sad it's wild there hasn't been a movie made about him. His chemicals or poison gases also made an appearance in WWII as well...such a shame how it all ended for him.
He didn't remain Jooesh, he converted to Lutheranism although that wasn't appealing enough to the 30's regime
I saw this in @veritasium channel, very informative!
Sounds like karma
Please do more videos like this. This was amazing. Keep up the great work.
Very cool! One of the few channels these days I watch the video start to end with no skips or anything.
I cant beleive how little school prepared me for life, bird poop salesman was never brought up when talking about the possible jobs that the subjects i took could lead to, it was doctor, lawyer, engineer but never on the prospects of harvesting white gold?
I prefer Simon Whistler's terminology; "sweet, sweet ass-gold".
You took an incredibly complex series of historical situations and created a concise timeline that was both easy to understand and engaging. Amazing presentation.
2:57 "This is the astonishing and strange tale of how bird shit changed the course of history" lol the way that line was backed up by the epic opening song was great!
BURD SHET STUNLOCKED ME
I was expecting a mild “bird poop” but got hit by the hard T 😭
There is an error in the documentary... it blames Peru and not Bolivia for the seizure of the Antofagasta mines that caused the Pacific War with Chile... The direct cause of the war was a nitrate taxation dispute between Bolivia and Chile
An eye-opening history of the value and influence of bird droppings in agriculture. And the exploitation and use of labour in a hazardous unhealthy environment.
well we must say the dinosaurs did the most work for millions of years shitting in the planet. hahaha
Over one million years of poop. That’s a lot of poop!
WOW 😯
Absolutely mind blowing! The road humanity took to get to modernity is absolute madness.
This begs the question yet again, are we good for this earth or it’s biggest curse?🤔
Greed, ignorance, exploitation, and world domination by any means are the true diseases that will be the end us
Very well said…..
the indigenous Americans treated the land just fine. its the invading foreigners from europe that have no history or connection to the American continent so they will destroy it and everything on it without remorse in the name of jesus and the queen : D
Please type:
King James Bible Online,
Matthew 24: 4, 6, 7 and
especially 8.
Leading to
Revelation 13.
Revelation 14.
Leading to
Matthew 24: 21 and 22.
@@senatorjosephmccarthy2720 that’s a lot of work, and I’m not really Christian or religious 😭
It appears the left wing politics will end us far before nature does. One by one the major agricultural centers are being shut down. Sri-Lanka farming shutdown by their own government by denying fertilizer to the farmers, Netherlands working on doing the same. Ukraine shutdown by a war to topple Russia.
The moment he mentioned what they did to the Easter Island people I knew that was moment the island failed. The strongest and most knowledgeable gone. The rats. The pillaging. Why have historians questioned this event when they know an entire third of a population vanished?
It is a mystery. Where did all the Easter Islanders go? They just seemingly left in the middle of their meals.
@@jz94117 there is a second encounter years after. The trees were gone, the people fought over caves, and there was cannibalism. I don't remember the documentary I saw years ago though. It mentioned two separate visits. I don't think it was the guano ship though
Eh, didn't the Polynesians themselves accidentally brought rats? Those mofos have been hitchhicking all through the Austronesian Expansion.
saw a video relatively recently that provided evidence for a disease being the cause for the loss of trees on Rapanui
Actually Rapa Nui "failed" long before europeans "discovered" it.
Interesting Vid for sure! Who'd have thought that all would have gone to nowhere if not for bird poo 😂
2 remarks for more precison though:
1. WW I started in 1914
2. BASF, that got the patent from Haber (who issued it in 1908 and got it granted in 1911) build the first industrial factory centered around the haber-process in 1913. Just FYI
22:25 How is Mr. Fritz not more well known?! His invention single-handedly saved so many lives and guaranteed food production for generations after him. he is a hero.
Same reason why the inventor of dynamite is remembered
@@Mr.Isquierdo yeah, I see your point.
Well he created most of the gas used in ww1 so you know, not a hero. Just a guy who did a good thing.
synthetic anything is never good for anyone or anything on earth.
What do you mean not well known? The haber-bosch method for synthesizing ammonia is taught in middle school chemistry...
Well I guess it depends where you're from.
Now to be a powerful and developed country you not only need to have so many resources. In these times it is necessary to choose ideal, bold and intelligent immigrants, to have an educated, civilized, competitive, disciplined society, and many things.👍👍👍👍
Unfortunately, Peru 🇵🇪 is still full of traitors, corrupt people, revolutionaries, and at the same time there are good, enterprising, hard-working people, most of whom are informal, but those who are going to compete and excel leave the country to work abroad.😟😟😟😟
I don't know if Peru 🇵🇪 has a future with prosperity and splendor, but a country that has so much wealth, minerals and resources, several powerful countries and empires intervene, loot them and take control of them for a long time.😥😥😥😥
I learnt in 24 minutes what all I wanted to know for decades. Thank you.
There's an important omission in the basic science of this video that changes the whole conclusion. The guano shortage problem was not solved during world war I by The haber process. Only one aspect of it the nitrogen shortage was solved by that. The phosphorus problem is still solved by guano and geologic phosphorus deposits, and we are just about to run out of those, there is a phosphorus crunch going on right now and it's getting worse. There are very hard efforts going into solving the phosphorus problem, but it's not going to be as easier as pulling it out of that atmosphere because there is no phosphorus in the atmosphere, most of it is diluted in the ocean or spread out in the rocks and minerals of the earth. This is a looming crisis, and only some areas are going to be naturally abundant enough in their soil to allow them to be independent of phosphate fertilizers. You should consider doing the part two on the imminent phosphorus crisis and the international conflict it will probably cause
Never... underestimate the 'significance' of a "good dump!"
Those birds literally changed the world... one priceless dropping at a time😌
Great video! Yes, Germany might have found the Nitrate harvesting from air, but Norwegian inventor Christian Birkeland was in the race too. Funded by business entrepreneur Sam Eyde, they made Norsk Hydro producing fertilizer in Norway. They plant had half Birkeland ovens, the others BASF ovens from Germany.
If only Peru had had a strong leader, such as Paraguay's Dr. Francia, perhaps guano revenue could have been better spent. Maybe Peru's navy preemptively occupying islands all over The Pacific Ocean in order to better monopolize the resource. Uchronia.
Being peruvian and fond of history I admire the accuracy of your video.
We did use it better, and had a good leader. This video is grossly misinformed.
Fond of what? The fact they were enslavers and colonisers.
@@jasonhaven7170 Please.
Yes, Peru was an enslaver of Easter Islanders, destroyed their history, depopulated the island, let the selfish elite dominate the decrepit economy, preferred visual illusion of progress, envied Chile, treacherously allied itself with Bolivia against Chile, was too weak to defend even Lima, and lost the War of the Pacific. Peru has a lot of historical baggage.
@Celdur
> Disagrees
> Doesn't elaborate
Not the most convincing argument. What do you think was wrong in the video?
“How birds*** changed the world” should have been the video title… probably would get at least 10x more views
That there is some Batsh!t crazy economics...literally! Outstanding Video! Love it!
Thank you for this video. I had never heard of the American Guano Islands. It brings a new understanding to the battle of Midway.
great video. humboldt is one of my favorite historical figures
You know you watch too much random informational RUclips videos when you get upset thinking “No way he titled the video this and it’s about GUANO..” then I remember nobody really knows about guano other than people who watch this type of stuff.
If you want to increase the value of your car, hope that a bird poops on it.
This is why I always park my car under power lines.
One of the most informative videos I’ve watched. Didn’t know ANY of this History
Props for having an uncensored swear in the thumbnail (a pretty mild one, but still a de-mon risk)
It's wild to think how many people's lives were supported by bird poop. And how if alternatives hadn't been found how insane the global starvation rates would have skyrocketed once all the bird poop had been used up.
Little Peru, at one time, was the leading fishing country in the world. Thinking that eliminating fish eating birds would improve their catch,
they killed off the birds, which killed off many fish that depended on the steady supply of guano. No more number one in fish exports.
13:14 The Peruvians were colonisers of the Easter Islands and enslavers of Black, Chinese and Polynesian peoples.
INDEED
Something that Peruvian historians, professors, and even the government itself try to hide.
peruvian elite
Until 1854.
source: chileno resentido
Of course, today it's been worked out that with the correct cover crops and rotating certain crops farmers don't need nitrogen, lime or potassium to be spread on their fields and still produce better crops.
Phosphorus is the macro element that is harder to maintain. It cannot be pulled from the air like N or C, it needs to be supplemented by rock dust or synthetic sources.
Utterly marvellous… such an amazing 24 minutes. Thank you. .
Thank you for the incredibly kind comment :)
I read a book written by the USDA in the late 1800s suggesting extremely high yield for crops and cattle. That they subsidized even back then with unreasonable numbers.
In so far as I am aware we still have to mine phosphorus, and in fact it is a very limited resource, perhaps a different video on rock phosphate?
Superb. I knew some of the content, but about half of it I did not - thank you for expanding my knowledge of history!
Surely once a ship carried 2k ton of soggy guano around South America and across the Atlantic it can never be used for anything else again?
The explanation of the guano issue is excellent. I have known it for some time, because my family from Canary Island used this kind of fertilizer...
Very important lesson to learn for every individual of a nation state. Make sure that your government does not squander economic gains. Observe how some countries have manage not to squander.
It's been a year, so no way this comment is gonna get noticed, but as a Chilean, I absolutely love the fact that you brought up a history fact that is hardly ever mentioned: How the Easter Island's native population got forced into slavery for the guano.
One minor detail, however, is that the Peruvian Navy was one of the most formidable ones of its time, during the War of the Pacific. It is absolutely insane that Chile managed to beat them.
WHAT AN INTRODUCTION
You should look into the scraps of writings on Easter Island, untranslated, to the ancient writings found in the "Indus Valley." To date, neither have been deciphered.
Compare the two places with the letters used, it is obvious that at some point in history, there must have been some contact between the two.
The War of the Pacific involving Chile. Peru and Bolivia was oversimplified in this video.
This video is telling partialy the truth. The british equiped and armed Chile 10 years before the war with Peru to ocuppy the peruvian nitrate mines which after the war ended as british companies and chile just gaining the land. The war was between Peru and the British
@@g.g.v5716 Makes literally no sense, The War of the Pacific was between Chile and Bolivia, Peru willingly joined, if it wasn't for that Chile had no reason to ever attack Perú. Selling guns is not "arming", when you use the word "arm" it implies the UK gifted the guns anf machinery to Chile which is complete false. Plus the main ironclad of Perú, the Huascar is literally made in England, when the war broke out, the English blocked the purchases of both Chile and Peru. Knowing all this the myth of the British help makes absolutely no sense
@@olekatoska1901 That's completely false, since Chile knew that attacking Bolivia would prompt Peru to come to its defense, as they had both signed a mutual defense act many decades before that war. In 1881, the Secretary of State of the United States, James G. Blaine, confirmed that the war was between Peru and the UK.
@@g.g.v5716 You're out-right viciously lying at this point, stating how much did Chile know of the clauses of the treaty or how far would they go or respect them of which there's no concensus to this day. And whatever does an Anglophobic senator says from a random country couldn't matter any less, specially when in contrast the UK literally embargoed 4 ironclads in total to both Chile and Peru the moment the war broke out. You only got quotes, rumours, lies and cheap propaganda for your arguments, I got actual actions and historic facts
The intro was soooo dramatic... made my day.....how bird shit saved humanity... or the symbiotic relationship that saves the planet. Great video
This youtube is excellent and more people should see it. The only change is that I'd mention bat poop as well as bird poop.
Also as these reserves run out, our chemists might be able to synthesise more nitrates, but only a nuclear-physicist can synthesise phosphorus. That's not happening at scale.
What *might* happen at scale is asteroid mining. Be interesting if the Peruvian space-programme gets out into that. Let's hope the Peruvians offer better deals to its miners than their ancestors offered to Rapa Nui.
although 1913 as the first world war is, er. fix this plz Casual Scholar
As a Peruvian I was a little bit offended by the video title. Great job about my country thank you
lmao. dude drops the line "how birdshit changed the course of history" got me dying.
That was quite enjoyable, sir.
2:59 That caught me off guard lmao. I thought you were gonna say nitrogen or fertilizer but damn I guess that works too.
One of Russia's main exports is fertilizer.
Ukraine's main export is corn.
7:49 The Incans and their descendants were already experts. Listen to Indigenous people.
I knew there was phosphorus mining in some Pacific Islands in the 20th century. I didn't know about guano until today! It's refreshing to get historical content that I'm not familiar with
Potassuim and Phosphourous are more important today as some plants can fix nitrogen
LOVE the new title! 💙
I'm surprised the British didn't outright take the islands from Peru
Well they kinda did with the nitrate mines, this video is telling partialy the truth. The british equiped and armed Chile 10 years before the war with Peru to ocuppy the peruvian nitrate mines which after the war ended as british companies and chile just gaining the land. The war was between Peru and the British
I don't know but an Englishman named John Thomas North was the one who financed the weapons, in addition to a vice admiral named Patricio Lynch who was trained by the English royal navy, England took them away indirectly.
Is it me or South America feels both familiar and exotic?
I wish more videos focused on South America it’s such a unique place.
Joseph Conrad, "Nostromo"
onyl reason it feels "exotic " , is mostly because of how filled with misinformation and stereotypes the palce is, in truth it's mostly iberian people in america.
Stereotypes is like say exotic,people has differents cultures because world is enormeus
I often argue how wars continuously set us back instead of moving us forward. The example of the Spanish in Peru is a great example. Knowledge was lost. I think that has happened all through history where societies make great leaps forward only to have conquering powers "kill" that advancement. Even in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. What was one of the first things destroyed? It was the most advanced aircraft ever made.
I really want to get into gardening. I have 9 parrots of my own and we have a non-profit parrot rescue/sanctuary out of our house. Time to switch to biodegradable cage liners and start a bird shit compost pile out back.
Fascinating video! Keep putting out the amazing content! 👍
Thanks for posting this interesting history.
ahhh time for my bird poop fix.
Beautiful script and narrated excellently. 🎉
I had no clue. What a fascinating video.
“The astonishing and strange tale of how bird shit changed the course of history”
-Casual Scholar
😅😅😅😅 I was laughing at the same thing
This feel like one of those dominoes memes begining with "Incas using bird shit as fertilizer" ending with "AMERICAN IMPERIALISM"
Well done documentary. Thank you.
Long live the Quechuan people 🇵🇪
thanks 🇵🇪 ♥♥
Peruanos en general oe, acá hace rato no solo hay quechuas ☠️
In case you don't happen to speak Spanish, there are a lot more other ethnicities that call Peru home, not just Quechuas, mind you
Man you need more subscribers you’re underrated as hell!
I knew there was more than just coal that sparked the industrial revolution, but we were never taught us in schools
this channel deserves a million subs
This is an excellent post!! Very fascinating!!
The word shit actually comes from the transportion of guano from
Peru to England. Because it’s explosive and or smells awful when wet the term shit means ship high in transit. For when it was loaded on ships
I always love your content it’s always so informative and they really help to educate me further on economics
Incredible! I have never heard such a story before. Thanks. I learned something interesting today.
technically if the lands are not claimed nor inhabited (rules specifically identified in the legislation) its not "empire" as they are not imposing their dominion upon others. there ARE events one could argue for empire, but i don't think that legislation is one of them.
In the 1860s Spain also ocuppied the Cincha Islands during the Spanish-South American war
you had me at bird shit
It seems to be a pretty big stretch to say that the USA is or was the fourth largest empire because that had a bunch of mostly uninhabited islands.
Where there is muck there is money! As an old saying goes.
I love fhat you tell the history of a country from an economic standpoint. 😊
I never thought that bird pope 💩💩💩 would be so important.
I RoccoMend this excellent video. Thank you Casual Scholar for creating this video for us to learn from. I look forward to watching many more of your videos.
"Bird shit" got me😂
The birds : I poop
Rest of the world : r e a l s h i t
I'm a farmer and what concern me more is the supply of potassium on the following decades
There is already a geopolitics of potassium, with Brazil heavily relying on Russian deposits what curbed a big arms deal with Ukraine
But the point is every single human needs some 5 grams of potassium per day, our fertilizing practices aren't the best to avoid high losses of it by percolation and the mineral deposits are finite
Ironically, Brazil have the bigger reserves which still untouched because st upid immense Indian lands was set over, done by political imposition from European countries
Unless other sources are developed, a mineral potassium exhaustion may threat mankind with widespread starvation with in some decades
The concentration is 380mg/L K+ in typical seawater. next!
@@vultureTX001 thanks
How many joules/g is needed to extract it, please?
And do not forget Sodium is poisonous to almost any edible plant