Chapter 3 - Searching for Rocks

Summary

Chapter 3 examines Mexico’s transition to coal between the 1880s and the 1910s. State officials, newspapermen, and industrialists viewed coal as crucial to becoming a modern and prosperous nation. Mounting concerns over rampant deforestation from embedded industrialization and railroad expansion prompted Mexican conservationists to promote coal as a way of protecting the nation’s forests. In response, the Mexican state surveyed its territory and discovered the largest deposits along the Mexico–US border. By combining domestic production and imports, Mexico’s economy partially shifted to coal. Coal would play the role of “energy bridge” between embedded and oil-based industrialization.