Infogunea

Energy sources are necessary to provide the power to operate machines, and depending on the quantity of energy need, the location of a business can change: If the need of energy is very high it’s necessary to locate the industry near that source in order to be cheaper…

Nowadays, the energy it’s not a decisive factor for a factory’s location, but anyway if the consume of energy, usually electricity, is very big, the companies compare electricity rates in different countries before deciding where to locate it.

There are two types of energy sources:

1. Non-renewable energy sources, exist on Earth in limited quantities and diminish as they are consumed (petroleum, gas, coal, uranium, etc.). High consumption of these fuels also produces pollution obtained from limited natural resources that can be used up.
2. Renewable or alternative energy sources, obtained from unlimited natural resources (waterpower, solar energy, tidal and wave energy, wind, biomass…).

The most widely used energy sources today are coal, petroleum, gas water and nuclear energy.

Coal was once a chief source of energy, together with charcoal and wood. Today it is less important, its main use being in the production of electrical power. Power stations that use coal to produce electricity are called thermal plants. Coal has several uses other than as an energy source, in the production of plastic-based materials, disinfectants etc. in the chemical industry.

Main producing countries: China, USA and India.

Petroleum is a mixture of a number of substances, and can be distilled to produce petrol (gasoline), kerosene, diesel oil and paraffin. Some of these are used as fuel for motor vehicles. Petroleum has replaced coal in many uses, such as heating. As in the case of coal, petroleum has other uses too, in chemicals, plastic, etc.

Main producing countries: Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Gas is used increasingly as an energy source. It produces less pollution than coal or petroleum.

Main producing countries: Russia, USA and Canada.

Water power or hydroelectric power is mostly used to generate electricity. Water collected in reservoirs moves turbines to produce electric power. This energy source is chiefly available in mountainous areas.

Main producing countries: Canada, Brazil, USA, China and Russia.

Nuclear energy is produced by dividing atomic nuclei, in a process called nuclear fission. The heat produced by the fission (division) of the nucleus turns water into steam, which moves turbines that produce electrical energy. There are risks in nuclear energy production, the most dangerous being radioactive contamination of the environment.

Main producing countries: USA, France and Japan.

Each of these energy sources, which are the most widespread ones today, has their problems. Some of them – coal, petroleum and gas – are running out due to excessive use, and they all create pollution. There are not many renewable sources of energy and raw materials. However, we need to make increasing use of new or alternative energy sources in order not to exhaust fossil energy sources and to limit pollution. Here are some examples of alternative energies:

Solar energy: energy from sunlight is converted by means of cells or plaques into electric power. The main problem is that the plaques are expensive. They might become cheaper if their use became more widespread.

Main producing countries: USA, Germany, Australia and Canada.

Tidal and wave energy: energy from tides can be obtained in plants that are built to take advantage of the movement of daily tides, and this is done in some places. Waves can provide a lot of energy too, but they are difficult to control and may even break the energy-producing equipment.

Main producing countries: France, UK and Canada.

Geothermal energy: rocks deep under the earth’s surface are hot from the planet’s natural radioactivity. In some places hot rocks can be found by drilling into the earth, and the energy used to heat water.

Main producing countries: USA, Philippines and Mexico.

Wind (Eolic): modern wind turbines (windmills) make use of the wind’s energy to produce electricity. This method of energy production is now used in some parts of the world (in Navarre for instance).

Main producing countries: Germany, Spain, USA and Denmark.

Biomass energy is obtained from biological sources such as vegetable residues from harvests, animal manure, residues from filtering plants, and refuse. All these can be fermented to produce methane gas which, collected in containers, can be used like other kinds of gas for heating or electricity production.

Main producing countries: USA, France and Sweden. 

Capital (money, buildings, machinery, etc…) is needed to set up a company.

Capital is provide by private individuals (private companies), or the State (State companies).

Private companies can be individual (one person provides the capital) or collective (many people provide the capital). In this case the company is a cooperative or a public limited company or corporation.

Public

The owner of the company is the Government. Usually the employees are ‘public servants’. They can work in public hospitals, public schools, or in administration.

Private

• Individually owned. A company that belongs to a single individual. This owner takes all the decisions, profits and losses.
• Cooperative. A company formed by a group of people united for a common purpose, which could be economic, cultural or social. Membership is voluntary and free to all, and each member pays the same amount to join. When making decisions, the rule is ‘one member, one vote’.
• Public limited company or corporation (PLC). The initial capital of this company is distributed in ‘shares’. Major decisions are voted on a shareholder (or stockholders’) meetings, and the stockholders who own more shares have more votes. The profits are distributed according to the number of shares and if there are losses, the shareholders only lose the money that they spent when they bought the shares. 

After the Congress of Vienna, liberal and nationalist ideas spread easily in the new European context. Uprisings were common, especially where there were also socioeconomic
problems.

• REVOLUTIONS OF 1820´s

The first in the series of these revolutions took place in 1820 in Spain. In 1812 a liberal constitution had been agreed (The Cádiz Constitution), but after the Congress of Vienna, King Ferdinand VII ignored the Constitution. In 1820 there was a military uprising led by General Riego to restore the liberal ideas, and Ferdinand was obliged to accept the constitution. In 1823 the Congress of Verona sent French soldiers – ‘100,000 Sons of Saint Louis’, to restore Ferdinand’s authority, and defeat the rebels.

Nevertheless, these liberal ideas spread quickly to Portugal, Two Sicilies, Sardinia, and to some German states, but in all these places the revolts were crushed by the army.

In 1821, there began an uprising by the Greeks against their Ottoman Turk masters, whose empire included Greece. The Greek War of Independence lasted until 1829, and by 1832 Greece was recognised as a sovereign nation.

• REVOLUTIONS OF 1830´s

In France, there was another revolution in 1830 motivated by liberal ideas. Called the ‘July Revolution’, it deposed the ultraconservative Bourbon King Charles X and replaced him with a more liberal oriented king, LouisPhillippe I. Charles, who favoured absolutism, had tried to return to the Ancien Régime but the upper bourgeoisie and many influential liberals opposed him, encouraging the people to rise up against him. France became a constitutional monarchy.

Belgium: The Kingdom of the Netherlands, established after the Congress of Vienna, included a southern part (now Belgium) which was Catholic and mainly Frenchspeaking. The north (now Holland) was Dutchspeaking and Protestant (Calvinist). In 1830 a rebellion began in Brussels which finally resulted in Belgian independence (1831), with a new king, Leopold Ist, and a liberal regime.

After 1815, Poland was called ‘The Kingdom of Poland’ but it was in truth annexed to the larger Russian empire, under Tsar Nicholas I. In 1831, he ordered Polish troops to fight against the revolutions in France and Belgium, consequence of the Congress’ decision, but the Polish sympathised with the revolutions, and started one themselves! They declared themselves independent from Russia but the rebellion was suppressed and Poland was given even less freedom than before.

After the revolutions of 1820 and 1830, liberal governments spread throughout Europe. Only Central Europe, the German and Italian states (except Savoy), and the empires of Russia, Austria and Turkey remained absolutist.

• REVOLUTIONS OF 1848

1848 was a special year in European history because of a general outbreak of revolutions and uprisings. Historians call this year “The Spring of Nations”. Added to the factors of the previous revolutions, we could argue the following causes:

• Some of the previous revolutions began to take effect – for example in France.
• In the countries where absolutism was still strong, the bourgeoisie rose up against it. But in the countries that already had a constitutional monarchy, the radical politicians, usually proletarian, (called democrats), were looking for greater changes in their parliamentary governments (for example, universal suffrage).
• Technological changes were taking place in society through industrialisation, creating a new class, the proletariat.
• Technological changes were also responsible for a wider press, helping to spread ideas more quickly to a wider range of people in society.
• Nationalism was becoming stronger.
• Socialism appeared, growing more rapidly after Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
• Another factor was the crop failures in 1846 in Europe. The resulting economic crisis caused discontent among the peasants, and also in the new workingclasses.

More sources: bourgeoisie revolutions

The revolution of 1848 took place in most of the Western and Central european countries (France, Austrian Empire, Kindom of Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Ireland, some German states like Prussia, Saxony, Venice-Lombardy…) and also parts of South America such as Brazil. Some of these uprisings had also nationalist components as in the Italian and German territories.

Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa are the provinces where agriculture and livestock farming have the greatest incidence on economy. As regards the characteristics of the agriculture, the type practiced in the northern side of the Cantabrian-Mediterranean watershed is different to the type which has more importance in the southern side of this watershed.

In the northern side, a geographical area which covers the north of Araba, Biscay, Gipuzkoa, north of Navarre and the provinces of Iparralde, the livestock is more important than the agriculture. The size of the farms is smaller than on the southern side; they are mainly oriented to breeding cattle and sheep for milk and meat production. Characteristic features of this area are meadows and pastures, next to smallholdings dedicated to forage crops also for the livestock. It is also an area which, due to its orographic characteristics, presents a lower degree of mechanisation than the southern side.

On the southern side, in the centre and south of Araba and Navarre, the agriculture has greater weight compared to livestock farming, with a predominance of cereal, horticultural and vineyards over large areas. As regards the type of livestock, in this area the greatest indexes of production correspond to the poultry sector (Araba) and the pig (Navarre).