The Surprising History of Diamonds

diamonds these stones have captivated Humanity for thousands of years once believed to be gems obtainable only in one place on Earth guarded by legendary creatures and possessing Supernatural qualities our understanding of how they form and their Discovery in other lands has hardly diminished our fascination with them what are diamonds where do they come from and what is their story ladies and gentlemen hello and welcome to fire of learning thank you for joining us in this episode as we discuss the history of the diamond the first known evidence of the human use of diamonds comes from China the evidence suggests that around the year 2500 BC ancient Craftsmen were using diamonds to polish ceremonial axes this is not surprising as though diamonds are often regarded as decorative gems they are also a very hard material the hardest occurring in nature in fact with a number of practical uses indeed even today diamonds are used much more often for industrial purposes than ornamental diamonds however are only found in abundance in certain locations and though they are present in China they were not nearly as plentiful as they were in India for much of History the only land in which diamonds were known to Old World civilizations to be abundant was India thus the vast majority of diamonds present in them came from this land naturally the first written records describing diamonds also came from India around the 4th Century BC even though the polishing techniques that truly make diamonds so radiant weren't developed yet they nevertheless commanded the attention of ancient peoples in their raw form they were greatly prized in Ancient India and were even used in religious symbolism the uniqueness of diamonds to India helped establish it as a land of mystery and bounty in the eyes of foreigners a land from which great riches were exclusively obtained it also helped spark a great degree of myths and Legend pertaining to Diamonds themselves which is evident in the first writings about them from outside of India in his lost but heavily quoted 4th Century BC book Indica the Greek physician tesius who encountered them in Persia recorded a legend that diamond Vines were guarded by Griffins diamonds were likely first brought to Europe itself during the reign of Alexander the Great decades after whose Empire reached into India it is from the Greeks that English and most European languages derive their word for diamond from adamos meaning Unbreakable the Roman view of diamonds is uncertain but they possibly regarded them as a mysterious and Powerful gem as well in 79 A.D the chronicler Pliny the Elder wrote of a substance called Adamas saying of it quote the substance that possesses the greatest value not only among the precious stones but of all human possessions is Adamas a mineral witch for a long time was known to Kings alone and a very few of them end quote he also attributes a number of magical qualities to adomas saying it cures poisons insanity and anxiety however though famous it should be said it's actually not certain that plenty was referring to Diamonds in this section it seems the word Adamas referred to several different things in classical Latin with some arguing that Pliny never actually encountered what we call diamonds either way any Diamonds the Romans did encounter were likely not of relatively impressive quality in the ancient world the most spectacular diamonds would have generally been kept by the rulers of India's many kingdoms regardless of how common diamonds were on the Roman Empire when the trade routes to India broke down after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century diamonds were likely extremely rare in much of Western Europe throughout the Early Middle Ages although more common in the Islamic world and possibly Byzantium the 11th century scholar Albert Rooney wrote of diamonds in his book on precious stones saying quote I have started my book describing Diamond before all other gems because it is the leader or Master end quote he goes on to explain methods of differentiating diamonds from other similar looking gems however the status he Awards diamonds seems to be based on their durability as they do not seem to have been as favored ornamentally compared to other gems in the Islamic World until the age of the mughals and Ottoman Empire during the Crusades Europeans began to encounter these gems more frequently as they venture to the Holy Land and established much broader trade networks Marco Polo wrote of diamonds in the 13th century claiming they are obtained in the mountains he adds that obtaining them is dangerous for those who try must contend with venomous snakes and intense heat he also states that the men who do go to harvest them do so by taking meat with them which they throw into snake infested valleys into which men cannot Venture these valleys are so full with diamonds that they actually coat the meat then eagles fly down to retrieve and eat the meat the diamonds can then be obtained from the birds droppings to this day Diamond collectors still use this method just joking these were of course tall tales with the truth being unknown to him then where do diamonds actually come from the vast majority of diamonds in circulation today formed within the Earth's upper mantle about a hundred miles where 160 kilometers below the surface it is often said that diamonds are made from compressed coal this is mostly a myth most diamonds are far older than coal however diamonds are either Pure or mostly pure carbon carbonate rocks are turned into Diamonds by the intense heat and pressure within the mantle during very violent and very rare volcanic eruptions these diamonds were spewed out onto the surface where they would be deposited in certain locations such as India diamonds in India at this time were obtained by Placer mining what are called alluvial deposits of the Krishna and panar rivers these Rivers were the origins of many famous diamonds like the Hope Diamond and koenor the Diamonds would be obtained by separating them from the alluvium the sand clay gravel Etc of these riverbeds while purely carbon diamonds are colorless traces of other elements can alter the color of the diamond creating diamonds in numerous different colors while still uncommon yellow is the most common color among the color diamonds colors like blue and pink are a bit more rare with the rarest of all being red diamonds it was around this time that countries like Marco Polo's homeland of Venice were acquiring diamonds in Greater quantities through trade thereby increasing their exposure to the rest of Europe the upper classes of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance took great interest in them as symbols of wealth and Prestige among other things associations that of course last to this day the famous sansi Diamond was included in the Dowry a valentia Visconti the sister-in-law of the French King Charles VI in 1398 and would pass to several notable monarchs around Europe over the centuries in 1477 the first known diamond engagement ring was given to Mary of burgundy by the Austrian Archduke Maximilian when Vasco de Gama reached India in 1498 European exposure to Diamonds increased substantially the cities of Venice Paris Bruges and Antwerp sprung up to be the diamond centers of Europe in these cities improvements in polishing and cutting diamonds allowed them to obtain an even greater Beauty diamonds continue to be mined exclusively in India until the 1720s it was then that while searching for gold the Portuguese discovered diamonds in their colony of Brazil this was a major turning point in the history of the gem which came at just the right time as the minds of India were becoming exhausted however buyers from Europe regarded Brazilian diamonds as inferior to the Indian diamonds known as Golconda diamonds there was little actual difference between them apart from the aura and history surrounding them thus the Portuguese were able to develop a simple solution they would sometimes ship their Brazilian diamonds to their colonies in India from where they could be imported to Europe as diamonds from India one of the most famous names associated with a diamond is Jean Baptiste Tavernier Tavernier was a French gem Merchant who traveled to India multiple times in his life he is associated with several famous diamonds but is most well remembered as the man who obtained the Tavernier Blue Diamond as you can tell diamonds of Exquisite quality often become famous and are given specific names the Tavernier blue so named because of its rare blue color was brought back to France in the mid 17th century where Tavernier sold it to King Louis XIV the 112 carat jewel was cut into a 67 carat jewel which was called the French blue which remained a part of the French crown jewels until the French Revolution the French blue was set in gold and worn by the king during important occasions on a neck ribbon in the 1790s during the French Revolution however the diamond was stolen the thief remains a mystery to this stay and for about 20 years so did the location of the gem however in 1812 a 45.52 carat blue diamond was documented in London as a gem owned by a Mr Robert Eliason gemologists believe it likely that this was the French blue it likely had been recut by those who stole it to prevent its identification the diamond seems to have passed through several owners in the subsequent few centuries including King George IV of Britain and a man named Henry Philip Hope from whom the current name of the diamond was derived the Hope Diamond ever since 1959 this diamond has been owned by the Smithsonian museum in Washington DC and retains an estimated worth of about 125 million dollars this is the summarized story of just one famous Diamond among numerous in history diamonds such as the koenur one of the crown jewels of the British royal family obtain in India during the reign of Queen Victoria the Region's Diamond another famous Diamond once owned by the French bourbon monarchy and the orloff diamond of the empress Catherine the Great of Russia's Imperial scepter have equally fascinating stories behind them in the 19th century diamonds were discovered in numerous other areas of the globe in 1829 they were found in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1851 they were found in Australia and in 1867 a teenage boy named Erasmus Jacobs discovered a diamond near the Orange River in South Africa the diamond Jacobs discovered remains famous to this day and is known as the Eureka diamond the discovery of diamonds in South Africa which was ruled by the British Empire at the time would change the history of diamonds and sub-Saharan Africa forever when an 83 carat diamond was discovered in South Africa a few years later a Diamond Rush began in the area which led to the opening of famous mines like the Kimberly mine and the beer's mine in 1905 the largest diamond ever discovered on Earth was found here the colonin diamond which weighed over 3 000 carats or over 600 grams it was cut into nine separate Stones including what was named the great star of Africa new techniques other than alluvial mining became popular in this place and time specifically mining what are called kimberlite pipes the volcanic pipes in the ground through which Diamond carrying magma itself once traveled miners began to mine these pipes underground as well pipe mining was is more difficult but was and is well worth the struggle great quantities of diamonds were obtained in the area over the years in fact some feared too many so many diamonds were being mined about 10 times the amount prior to South Africa that they began to go down in value the upper classes began to lose interest in them and turn their eyes increasingly towards other rarer gems fearing what this could mean for the industry action was taken in 1888 Cecil John Rhodes founded De Beers Consolidated mines which came to control all mining operations within South Africa and eventually a great majority of the entire world's Diamond production holding such a monopoly allowed them to directly control the supply of diamonds on the market with the supply of diamonds now able to be artificially limited the value rose again by about 1900 De Beers controlled about 90 percent of the world's Diamond Supply by 1990 this figure had dropped to only 80 percent today however De Beers owns only about 30 percent of the world's Diamond Supply the high price of diamonds today is actually a much more honest reflection of supply and demand as demand has exploded in many countries like China and India it's a myth that the sole tactic of tight manipulation is why they're still so expensive De Beers simply no longer has the Monopoly that allowed this to be the case interestingly diamonds are relatively more expensive now than they were during the age of De Beer's manipulation diamonds would be discovered in other parts of Africa as well between 1870 and 1960. the vast majority of the world's Diamond Supply came from sub-Saharan Africa during decolonization and into the modern day many of these diamond mines were taken over by corrupt governments where the corrupt Warlords who opposed them who worked them with forced labor and sold the diamonds to fund violent destabilizing activities in countries like Angola the Ivory Coast and Liberia such diamonds have been termed blood diamonds or conflict diamonds and though efforts have been taken to prevent them from reaching the global market perhaps about 10 percent of diamonds involved in the global Diamond trade today have such Origins though diamonds have been used on engagement rings since at least the 15th century this practice was not set in stone up until the 1940s numerous other gems like Opals rubies and sapphires were used for engagement rings however it was in the 1940s that de Beer's advertising campaigns turned the diamond into the go-to stone of matrimony with the famous slogan a diamond is forever today around 130 000 carats of diamonds are produced each year the largest producer of diamonds in the world is Russia producing around 39 million carrots a year followed by aboutswana Canada the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa as diamond mines are exhausted diamonds May indeed become harder to obtain and thus even more expensive as time goes on however we don't exactly know for sure how many diamonds are left Within Reach or how future technology will alter our reach furthermore any scary scarcity would be challenged by the rise of imitation diamonds which are made from cubic zirconia and synthetic or man-made diamonds the latter of which are identical to those found underground and are created by artificially replicating the conditions in which they form and so there we have it the diamond no matter how history unfolds which fads come and go and even how plentiful or scarce diamonds become their unique beauty will always catch the eye I hope you enjoyed this video If so I invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to help support the channel you may make a donation through patreon a special thanks to my current patreon supporters listed here I also have a science channel much like this called lucinox so be sure to check that out too thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 122,579

Keywords: Engagement, Ring, Gem, Stone

Id: Lnr2fHH59Fc

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 03 2022