“The ghost of the water’s power”: Emil Rathenau and his electrical networks in Chile and Spain

• Autor(a) principal: Steiner, Marion
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Labor & Engenho (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/labore/article/view/8651201
• topic: Electrificación temprana. Elektropolis Berlin. Imperio alemán. Análisis geopolítico. Red mundial de actores. Termo versus hidroelectricidad.; Early electrification. Elektropolis Berlin. German empire. Geopolitical analysis. Global networks of power. Thermo versus hydroelectricity

In 1902, the founder of AEG in Berlin, Emil Rathenau, called water power a “ghost ... that has completed his tour around the world.” The vast majority of electrical systems his company had built at that time were based on the use of coal and, in Spain, its thermal power plants already supplied much of the cities. In Chile, on the contrary, according to contracts signed with the municipalities of Santiago and Valparaiso in 1898 and 1902, AEG was obliged to install hydroelectric systems. This article re-constructs the corresponding disputes between the company and the municipality on the use of hydraulic force in Santiago and contrasts them with the situation in Catalonia. Both cases are contextualized from a global perspective of geopolitical analysis that allows for also explaining the global network of actors involved and the strategies implemented by German electric companies and banks to conquer the world market, up to a little beyond the end of World War I.