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A small village located around a fortress gave origin to what today is one of
the most visited brazilian city by foreign tourists. Manaus was founded around the São José da Barra's Fort, built by the portuguese in the
middle of the 17th Century to prevent the entrance of the european invaders into the country, specially the dutch and the french
who colonized the countries to the north of South America, like Suriname and Guianas.
Until the middle of the 19th Century, the name of the small place
was São José da Barra do Rio Preto. In 1848, the Vila da Barra was recognised as a city but it was only in 1856 that it received the name of
Manaus, in honor of the Manaó tribe, which is the principal etnical group of the region.
Manaus was a place that practically didn't exist on the map until the europeans
decided to use the latex that was extracted from the rubber trees in their industries. It was in this period that the state of Amazonas began
to live an economical moment of extreme importance: the Rubber Cycle. In the region there are rubber trees in abundance forming, with other
species, the Amazonic forest, which covers almost the whole territory of the Amazonas. With the dream of getting rich, thousand of immigrants,
principally ex-slaves and north-eastern brazilians, running away from the drought to install themselves in the rubber trees plantations.
The highest point of the economical development was in 1890 to 1910, when there
was also the foreign investment in the region. The "Rubber Barons" financed sumptuous building like the Amazonas Theatre (Teatr Amazonas) and
other historical houses. During two ephemeral decades, the Amazonas Theatre received operas and international orchestras, while a part of its
residents got very rich. The economical growth had a positive reflex on the city which invested a a lot in infrastructure. At the moment when
almost all the big cities in the country lived in an almost rural way, in Manaus there was already eletric lights, a water and sewage network,
street cars and the seaport.
A short time later, however, the english discovered that rubber trees were
adaptable in the soil of Malay. The ruber production of Amazonas fell into decadency and the city grew poor. It was only in 1996, with
governmental funds, that the Zona Franca of Manaus was created. Industries and eletronic equipment were installed and the population of the
city doubled. At that time, the region also received the first hotels and the first visitors began to be attracted to the place. In 1976, the
international airport was inaugurated and put Manaus on the route of the world tourism.
Today, the contrast is seen all over. Manaus has 1/4 of the indian population
of the country living in harmony with people who come from many different place of the world among the gigantic industrial park, the
historical monuments and the beautiful natural scenery. |
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