The Cartel That Killed Three Continents
In 1876, a British adventurer smuggled 70,000 rubber seeds out of the Amazon. That act of biopiracy would give Britain control of 75% of the world's rubber supply—and set in motion a chain of atrocities spanning Africa, Asia, and South America. Ten million dead in King Leopold's Congo. 750,000 Tamil workers killed in British Malaya. A $20 million ghost town rotting in the Brazilian jungle. Three continents. One commodity. The same silence about the human cost.
Episodes
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Malaya: The Cartel That Killed Three Continents
From biopiracy to the Death Railway: how a British rubber cartel stole seeds from Brazil, enslaved Tamil workers in Malaya, and orchestrated one of history's deadliest corporate conspiracies—with Winston Churchill at the helm.
58m - 2
Red Rubber: The King Who Never Saw His Crime
How King Leopold II of Belgium orchestrated one of history's deadliest atrocities from his palace in Brussels, killing an estimated 10 million Congolese people in the pursuit of rubber wealth—a death toll comparable to the Holocaust. This is the story of a humanitarian facade that concealed industrial genocide, told through the voices of victims, missionaries who exposed the truth, and the monarch who never set foot in his empire of terror.
49m - 3
Fordlandia: Henry Ford's $20 Million Amazon Disaster
In 1927, Henry Ford tried to build an American utopia in the Brazilian Amazon. White picket fences, square dances, and fire hydrants from Michigan—all transplanted into the world's most untamed jungle. What he got was worker riots, ecological collapse, and a $20 million ghost town. This is the story of Fordlandia.
32m - 4
Firestone Liberia: America's Rubber Plantation Empire
How Firestone Tire & Rubber Company transformed Liberia into America's largest rubber plantation through a controversial 99-year lease, creating a corporate colony that exploited workers and shaped a nation's destiny during the global rubber wars.
1h 3m