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Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject History Europe - Germany - 1848, Empire, Imperialism, grade: keine, , course: A World of Copper, language: English, abstract: In the framework of accelerating globalization in the nineteenth century, the genesis of a world market for homogenous bulk goods was one of the basic preconditions for the steady industrialization of Western- and Central Europe and North America. Of all metals, copper ranked third after iron and steel until the rise of aluminium in the 1890s. Ore, raw and refined copper, belonged to the first investment goods that were traded on a global market in the truest sense of the word.
The copper mining and smelting industry delivered important raw materials and semi-manufactured goods, regardless of whether the final costumer was from civil society or the military. Refined copper and alloys of red metal, such as bronze or brass, were extremely important for the construction of mechanic or electromechani-cal components. This type of industry played a key role during different waves of industrializations that fundamentally changed the Northern Atlantic World over the course of the nineteenth century.
Consequently, the copper mining and smelting industry was closely connected to the different leading industries that drove Germany's take off during the 1850s and 1860s and its ongoing industrialization after the foundation of the Kaiserreich in 1871. The copper mining and smelting industry provided the railroad-sector with essential preliminary products, already before Germany's take off began by 1850, as well as the electric industry and the new chemical and manufacturing branches after 1870.
For that reason, it is surprising that the interdependences among the German copper mining and smelting industry and other industrial branches in Germany have never been investigated systematically, and that the history of the German copper branch in the context of nineteenth century globalization has never been researched either.
Which companies dominated the German copper industry?
Who provided them with plants, equipment and fuels?
How did those companies finance their investments?
Who were their customers?
All of these questions still need to be answered.
