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The Potosi Silver Rush: How One Mountain Fueled the Spanish Empire
In 1545, a Quechua shepherd named Diego Huallpa stumbled upon a silver outcropping on a cold Andean peak. Within decades, Cerro Rico would become the richest mountain on Earth, funding Spain's wars, flooding the world with silver, and transforming the global economy. This episode traces the rise of Potosí, from the discovery of the silver veins to the invention of the mercury amalgamation process by Pedro Fernández de Velasco, the forced labor of the mita system that tied indigenous communities to the mines, and the staggering output that made the Spanish Empire possible. We follow the…
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