La contribución de Manuel Fernández de Castro (1862) a la geología y minería de la República Dominicana
[EN] The mining engineer Manuel Fernández de Castro received in 1861 a government commission to report on the geology and mining of Santo Domingo. The loss of the American colonies at the beginning of the 19th century, which had produced important incomes for the Public Treasury, motivated the inter...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/281133 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/281133 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Geology mining Dominican Republic Santo Domingo 19th century Geología minería República Dominicana siglo XIX |
| Sumario: | [EN] The mining engineer Manuel Fernández de Castro received in 1861 a government commission to report on the geology and mining of Santo Domingo. The loss of the American colonies at the beginning of the 19th century, which had produced important incomes for the Public Treasury, motivated the interest of the rulers in the natural resources of the Antillean and Asian colonies still maintained by the Spanish crown, and especially in the coal mines. Fernández de Castro carried out his work by following ten itineraries along the eastern half of Santo Domingo, dedicating two of them to the Samaná peninsula and its coal deposits. The report was finished in 1862, and was accompanied by six maps with cartographic and mining information. Fernández de Castro produced two more memoirs, one on the geography of the country, and the other on its economic and industrial history. The commission appointed in the metropolis to evaluate its possible publication issued an unfavorable opinion: first, because some members disagreed with the geological results and, second, because of the excessive length of the texts. Its publication was rejected by the Overseas Ministry. The colony became independent in 1865 and the report fell into oblivion. In the present work, a study and evaluation of the Fernández de Castro report is carried out for the first time. The value of this work is vindicated as the first geological study of a wide territory of the Dominican Republic and the historical memory of its author as a pioneer of geological studies of the country is restored. |
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