Cartagena de Indias and the footprints of Industrial Heritage

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to describe the footprints of the industry of Cartagena in the early decades of the XX century. The industries created in this period left footprints and memories in the colonial houses, holders of commercial and industrial activity in the city. Many houses still have the mark of the prosperity that Cartagena lived in the area of manufacturing industry (soaps, chemical and pharmaceutical, typography), and these are the living industrial heritage which the city counts on in order to reconstruct the last years of the XIX century and the early years of the XX century. Understand that the economic and business development is only possible when we look in detail the industrial heritage, a living actor that let us reconstruct the history of a society. Likewise, other sources such as notarial protocols and trade press of the period are part of the triad with which, we social scientists count on to discuss the social, economic and cultural transformations of that moment.