Читать книгу The History of Mining - Michael Coulson - Страница 57

The 19th century felt the full force of the Industrial Revolution as scientific and technological advances accelerated and developments in a whole range of industries swept round the world. In earlier centuries restless European adventurers had launched expeditions to acquire essential goods, often agricultural commodities, and to chart the unknown or the barely known. In the 19th century the Industrial Revolution led to a more urgent need to find new sources of, particularly, industrial metals such as copper where local supplies were no longer adequate to fulfil the rapidly expanding needs of the newly industrialised powers such as Great Britain.

Once out of the bag, as we know so well today, the demands of technology which drive industrialisation are relentless. So it was in the 19th century, and the rapidly expanding appetite for raw materials led to a revolution in sea and land transport. It also provided the driving impetus for the great powers to colonise countries, which became key suppliers of raw materials, in order to guarantee them unfettered access to these metals and minerals.