Stuff the British Stole
Tyres. Elastic bands. Balloons. Shoes. There’s a long list of items that are made from rubber: the waterproof, durable substance that’s all around us, almost all of the time. But like many resources, rubber has a dark past, where today’s inventions only exist thanks to generations of exploitation.
And this dark past had one key turning point based on the actions of one Englishman deep in the Amazon. While it undoubtedly changed the course of history, some say it was a brazen theft.
A substance used for millennia
Rubber trees are found in tropical regions of the Americas and, at first look, don’t appear particularly special. But a white sap called latex can be extracted by carefully slicing their trunk, to create rubber. For millennia, Indigenous people in the Americas used rubber for things like waterproofing clothing and making balls for sports.
For the rest of this article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-05/rubber-history-stuff-the-british-stole/104156456