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Claudia Chávez de Lederbogen, 2024

The lucrative trade in saltpeter began for Hamburg merchants in the early 1880s. They were also involved in mining the mineral. In the Atacama Desert there were large deposits of saltpeter, a mineral consisting of sodium and potassium nitrate. It was suitable as a fertilizer and for the production of gunpowder and explosives.

Before 1879, the northern Atacama Desert belonged to Bolivia and Peru. Both countries had granted licenses to British and German companies for the mining of saltpeter since the 1850s, and they were striving for state-regulated saltpeter production. Chile, on the other hand, pursued an extremely liberal policy. When Peru largely nationalized the saltpeter industry and insisted on a trade monopoly for saltpeter, and Bolivia also increased export duties on saltpeter, the "Saltpeter War" broke out between the three countries from 1879 to 1884. It led to the cession of the Peruvian saltpeter regions of Arica and Tarapacá to Chile in 1883. Bolivia lost its access to the sea.

Chile thus became the world's leading producer of saltpeter and several Hamburg merchants relocated their businesses there after trading with the almost exhausted guano reserves from Peru no longer brought the desired profit.

Stationen

Vorwerk Gebr. & Co

The Fölsch Block at Rathausmarkt

The Saltpeter-King Weber

Laeisz – shipowner and patron

Henry Sloman and the Chilehaus

Living and working conditions in the saltpeter plants

Resistance - The Massacre of Santa María de Iquique

Saltpeter plants under military control

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