Fordlândia
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Fordlândia ("Ford-land") was a vast tract of land purchased by American automobile tycoon Henry Ford in the 1920s. Covering over 10,000 km² of land, it was situated near the city of Santarém, Brazil, and approximately 960 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon River at Belém.
Ford intended to use Fordlândia to provide his company with a source of rubber for the tires on Ford cars, avoiding the dependence of British (Malaysian) rubber. The land was hilly, rocky and infertile. None of Ford's managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture. The rubber trees, packed closely together in plantations, as opposed to being widely spaced in the jungle, were easy prey for tree blight and insects. The mostly indigenous workers on the plantations, given unfamiliar food such as hamburgers and forced to live in American style housing, disliked the way they were treated — they had to wear ID badges — and would often refuse to work. In 1930, the native workers actually revolted against the managers, many of whom fled into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended.
The government of Brazil was suspicious of any foreign investments, particularly in the northern Amazonia region, and offered little help. Ford tried again upstream. Ford relocated to Belterra. Better weather conditions to grow rubber tried. But by 1945, new technology was able to make tires without using rubber trees. So Fordlândia was a total disaster. In 1945, Henry Ford sold it for a loss of over US$10 million.
References
- Dempsey, Mary A. "Fordlandia," Michigan History 1994 78(4): 24-33.
- Galey, John. "Industrialist in the Wilderness: Henry Ford's Amazon Venture' Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 1979 21(2): 261-289. Issn: 0022-1937
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