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Amazon
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History
Half way through XVI century, the name Amazonas
was given by a Spanish monk called Gaspar de Carvajal, the first European
columnist to travel through the Amazon River. The name, Amazonas, is an
allusion to the women of the Greek mythology.
The Amazon region had a period of great development that was responsible
for its nowadays face in one way or another.
During the rubber cycle (1879-1912), Amazon was responsible for almost 40%
of all Brazilian exports. Manaus, the capital of the State of Amazonas,
was the worldwide diamond selling capital, and its theater with 681 seats,
was specially brought from Europe in a ship to be assembled in Brazil.
Due to the rubber boom, in the first years of the twentieth century,
Brazilian Amazon had a national per capita revenue two times higher than
the coffee production areas in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito
Santo. But all that wealthy vanished when the British took away some
"Seringueiras" seeds to Malaysia. Today, the worldwide leader in natural
rubber production.
People never really had any real interest in rubber itself. Until 1839,
rubber was much more a weird product among common people than something to
business man. It used to melt when exposed to heat and crack in cold.
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THEATER
AMAZON
This totally imported from Europe and
founded in 1896 theater is a Manaus and Brazil's cultural beloved
property. The original project belongs to the Liceu de Engenharia de
Lisboa (Portugal) and the inner decoration to Sir Domêncio de Angelis.
Its public capacity is 700 seats. It is for sure one of the most amazing
and beautiful structures of the world. Av. Eduardo Ribeiro |
TUCANO |
When
Sir Charles Goodyear once found out the rubber vulcanization process, the
product turned out to be stable. So, the industry boom came on. Between 1850
and the beginning of the twentieth century the exports of rubber in the
Amazon region grew thirty times.
Sir Henry Ford tried out the plantation of Seringueiras in Amazon, but the
plantations collapsed due to the "Praga da Folha" pest attack. The region
had a new economic boom only in 1967, with the establishment of the Zona
Franca, a free trade zone. |
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Seringueira |
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The
Geography of Amazonas |
Millions of years ago Cordilheira dos Andes was not formed yet, and all
Amazon rivers used to run to the Pacific Ocean, or the Caribbean. When the
Cordilheira raised, the exit to the Pacific Ocean was closed. The rivers
turned into lakes, their volumes joined and appeared in Amazon the biggest
lake on Earth. For a long time this scenery waited for the geologic
conditions to change again.
Amazon once brought together much more water than the nowadays its total
volume. If the Atlantic Ocean goes up only 55 meters high, its waters would
reach the city of Tabatinga, a Brazilian city in Rio Amazonas in the
frontier with Colombia and Peru. Each kilometer leaving out Brazil, the Rio
Amazonas goes down at about 2 cm. The water goes ahead much more by the
force of the one coming from the Cordilheira than the inclination of the
land.
The Amazon lands declines from the West and North. The city of São Gabriel
da Cachoeira ( 800 KM from Manaus ), is to the Northwest of the region and
as we approach the city the number of waterfalls increases, and mountains
can be seen. In São Gabriel you are next to the Pico da Neblina the highest
point in Brazil. Going to the State of Roraima (capital, Boa Vista), you
reach the high lands. Wonderful and dangerous the Monte Roraima can be seen.
To the South and East the plain lands. |
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The Rio Amazonas receives the
collaboration to its volume from 1.000 different streams and rivers.
In certain areas of Rio Negro, the fourth in the world, it is possible to
see the Earth's curve.
Near Manaus, Rio Negro is 100 meters deep. And it is just one of the Rio
Amazonas streams. There are at least 20 like it.
Much of Amazon land is not suitable for agriculture. There are, indeed, some
fertile islands, although, these places demand certain managed procedures.
In a day, Rio Amazonas takes to the Atlantic Ocean one complete Tamisa year
volume.
The Rio Negro, in fact, is a Rio Amazonas arm, and its bay total volume is
the total amount of sweet water in Europe.
The volume of earth taken to the Atlantic Ocean by the Rio Amazonas is so
huge that the coast of French Guyana and the State of Amapá are growing, as
satellite images prove.
The Rio negro that passes by Manaus is very beautiful indeed but as its
water is extremely acid and nutrients poor there is not so much life in it
as in others rivers. The forest is essentially tropical. It has three basic
systems: varzeas, igapó forests and firm land forests. |
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Manaus is the
Amazon pattern of climate. It is hot and humid, and the seasons are
limited only to two stations: winter (or rainy season) which begins at
the end of December and ends by June, the Summer (or dry spell), at the
rest of the period. Temperature oscillates between 21 and 40 degrees
Celsius. As the city is 40 meters above the sea level, it rains
approximately 2.100 mm, it contributes to the region's rivers and
igarapés phenomenon called "cheia" and "vazante", when the river and
some land areas flood and get dry respectively. |
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Reserve agora
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