Rubber: The Dark History Behind the Material We Take for Granted

It's hard to imagine a world without rubber, but it's surprising how ubiquitous this material has become. From tires that provide horsepower and improve car performance, to insulation and wiring, rubber is an integral part of our daily lives. However, the history of rubber is far from innocent. In fact, it's a story of greed, exploitation, and violence.

The demand for rubber was skyrocketing in Europe during the late 19th century, driven by the popularity of the bicycle and other machinery that required natural rubber for its tires. King Leopold II of Belgium saw an opportunity to make a fortune from this demand and set his sights on the Congo, a region in central Africa rich in natural resources. Leopold's insatiable hunger for wealth and power led him to exploit the Congo's people, using brutal tactics to extract rubber from them.

Leopold designated certain commodities as taxes for living in his colony, forcing the Congolese to harvest rubber on their own time. However, this quota didn't make sense, and it was essentially slavery. When the Congolese refused to comply, Leopold authorized his people to use other means of motivation. Belgian officers and hired mercenaries, known as the Force Publique, would use a special whip made from hippopotamus hide called de Chakotay that did horrific damage. They also cut off the hands of anyone who didn't meet their quotas. The villagers were burned down, women were killed, and children were kidnapped to be used as soldiers.

The brutal tactics employed by Leopold's men were designed to instill fear into the Congolese population. The force publique would roll up on villages and demand rubber from the inhabitants. If they didn't have enough, they would take hands, burn down homes, kill women, and kidnap children to be used as soldiers. This was a reign of terror that lasted for years, with estimates suggesting between six and twelve million Congolese lost their lives.

The international community eventually caught wind of Leopold's atrocities, and the backlash was significant. Journalists like Joseph Conrad wrote about the horrors in the Congo, exposing the truth to the world. The public outcry led to pressure from Parliament at home, and eventually, King Leopold gave up control of the Congo to Belgium in 1908. Leopold died the next year without ever having set foot in Africa.

The legacy of Leopold's regime continues to have an impact on the Congo today. While tire manufacturers have largely shifted to synthetic rubber, latex is no longer the Congo's main export. Instead, cobalt has become a valuable resource, used in electronic devices like lithium-ion batteries. However, the mining of cobalt is also fraught with human rights abuses, particularly involving children who are forced to work in difficult conditions for very little money.

UNICEF and Amnesty International estimate that around forty thousand children are involved in mining operations in the Congo. Electric cars also contain cobalt, but engineers are working on designing batteries that use less of the material. Tesla recently committed to using battery materials only from North America, a step towards reducing the demand for cobalt. However, there is still much work to be done to address the ongoing human rights abuses associated with cobalt mining.

As we take rubber for granted in our daily lives, it's essential to remember the dark history behind this material. The Congolese people suffered unimaginable atrocities at the hands of King Leopold and his regime. Their story serves as a reminder of the importance of holding individuals and corporations accountable for their actions and ensuring that human rights are respected in all aspects of our lives.

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrubber it's used everywhere but I usually associate it with partyers it's plentiful and relatively cheap but not so long ago that wasn't the case in fact some countries would go to such extreme lengths to get it that they basically committed genocide this one's going to be depressing today we're looking at the dark history of rubber and the materials connection to one of the most heinous crimes in history rubber is super important in the car world all the horsepower your car makes would mean nothing if the power didn't get put to the ground through your tires in fact if you want to improve the performance of any car the first place you should start is by upgrading tires Rober is used in other crucial places to weather seals keep your interior safe from the elements and your car probably relies on super-strong rubber belts on the front of the engine to keep everything running without rubber cars would probably not exist as we know them before we really get into things first you have to know that there are two kinds of rubbers natural and synthetic nowadays most rubber you come in contact with was derived from petroleum through the process of styrene Co polymerization we get styrene butadiene rubber not quite sure what that means but it's really durable and can stand up to Road use but before synthetics were developed rubber had to be made another way which was a lot harder natural rubber comes from a tree called the rubber tree harvesters carve a line into the tree's trunk causing it to bleed a milky sap this substance is called latex the sap drips down the tree into a bucket where it's collected by harvesters who let it coagulate and then it's pressed and dried ready for manufacturing use civilizations as old as the Olmec in central america used rubber harvested from the trees they use natural rubber to make textiles waterproof and to make balls for a game called poke to poke the wonderfully bouncing material made its way to Europe in the mid 1700s and all the sudden the continent fell in love with it and any Imperial country with colonies overseas ie most of them started planting rubber trees wherever they would grow Britain had rubber plantations in India and the Dutch had rubber growing in the East Indies a little country called Belgium found somewhere a little less crowded the first king of independent Belgium was King Leopold he died in 1865 and was succeeded by his second born son Leopold the second he didn't really have that much power his only responsibilities really were addressing Parliament attending the funerals of bed statesmen and greeting bigwig guests that sounds pretty boring Leopold wanted more he wanted a colony he wanted to make some money but where could Belgium set up shop first he wanted to buy a province in Argentina but that didn't really worked out then he offered to buy Borneo from the Dutch and they said no so he went to Spain and no joke asked if he could lease the Philippines they also said no honestly dude you're coming off pretty desperate and it's not like the Belgian Parliament was standing behind him because they work colonies were stupid expensive and they didn't believe Leopold had justification for establishing one but he did anyway he set his eyes on the area known as the Congo through a complicated scheme of hiring shell companies that he owned Leopold enlisted Explorer Henry Morton Stanley to purchase lands from the native Congo inhabitants unfortunately the Congolese didn't really understand the terms of Stanley's deals and sold their land for pennies in short time Belgium had a claim of a vast swath of western Africa about a million square miles in 1885 King Leopold established the Congo Free State it was an ironic name really because Leopold was not concerned with making the Congo a better place to live nor improving the life of its inhabitants the only thing Leopold cared about was making Leopold some money the equatorial climate made the Congo prime for rubber tree cultivation so Leo had huge portions of forest cleared out to make room for rubber tree saplings once trees had enough latex in them to harvest leopold ran into another problem finding people to harvest it like a lot of other colonies the Congolese didn't really care about rubber they didn't use it and they weren't getting paid so why would they harvest it that why wasn't Leopold's problem since he decided he would just make them do it instead of mandating taxes like the British colonies in North America did for instance King Leopold designated these commodities as a tax for living in his colony so if you don't want a harvest robber that's fine just harvest enough rubber for us on your own time and then when you get enough we can do whatever else you want but the quota didn't really make much sense and it was essentially slavery so the people of the Congo just refused to do it Leopold didn't like that so he authorized his people to use other means of motivation one such method was brutally whipping anyone who refused to harvest rubber Belgian officers and hired mercenaries called the force publique would use a special whip made from hippopotamus hide called de Chakotay that did horrific damage but they went even further in perhaps one of the most brutal acts in modern history Leopold's men would cut off the hands of anyone who didn't meet their quotas I didn't say cutting the hand I said cutting off the hand Leopold's goons would roll up on a village and if the citizens didn't have their quota of rubber waiting for the squads they'd just start taking hands they'd also burned down the living spaces kill the women and kidnap children to train US soldiers who would repeat the process what was driving all this demand for rubber among other things like wiring insulation belts for machinery the popularity of the bicycle was skyrocketing all over Europe and they needed natural rubber for the tires with demand so high king leopold couldn't help but see only dollar signs growing from his trees in the congo as rubber production went up so did Leopold's expectations his officers on the ground made higher and higher demands of the Congolese and they just couldn't keep up surprisingly the same went for the roaming terror squads the force publique had quotas of their own to prove to leadership that they used their ammunition to kill uncooperative workers instead of using it for hunting the force publique would bring back severed hands to their commanders these hands would be accepted in place of rubber so being human the squads decided it would just be easier to collect hands instead as a result of Leopold the seconds insatiable hunger for wealth and abhorrent treatment of his colony it is estimated between six and twelve million Congolese lost our lives they died from diseases like smallpox and sleeping sickness outright violence and bleeding out from their severed wrists journalists and books like Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness spread the word of what was happening in the Congo stoking outrage around the world facing backlash from the global community and pressure from Parliament at home the king gave up control of the Congo to Belgium in 1908 Leopold died the next year without ever having set foot in Africa over a hundred years later the congos natural resources are still desirable to companies around the world but since tire manufacturers have mostly shifted to synthetic rubber latex is no longer the congos main export the next big thing is cobalt if you have electronics like these with lithium-ion batteries it's likely they also contain cobalt which basically makes the batteries work over fifty percent of the world's cobalt comes from the Congo mined by people equipped only with shovels and working for very little money UNICEF and Amnesty International say that around forty thousand children are also involved in mining operations electric cars also use batteries containing cobalt but fortunately they're being designed to use a lot less of the material every year Tesla recently committed to using battery material only from North America and engineers are starting to make a ton of headway on lithium titanate batteries which needs zero cobalt to operate nowadays we take rubber for granted but not too long ago many people lost their lives because of greed over it so be cono thanks for watching wheel house if you haven't subscribed yet hit that yellow button right there check out last week's episode of wheel house right here and check out this science garage on types follow me at nolan j sites Fuld donut at donut media be nice see you next time