The History Of Manaus: In Plain English
The history of Manaus is a gripping tale, at once tragic and beautiful. It tells the story of a small nation's rise to glory and prosperity and the long, agonizing fall back to the bottom. Although there is optimism for Manaus' present and future, one can only truly understand it by learning about its history.
The history of Manaus begins in 1669. That is when Manaus began as little more than a small fort, created by Portuguese settlers to defend themselves against incursions by the Spanish. It was not until November 13, 1832 that this fledgling settlement earned the status of Vila and began to use the name “Manaus”, which came from an indigenous tribe (the Manaos) who had once inhabited the same area.
In the local Portuguese language, “Manaus” means “Mother of God.”Finally, on October 24, 1848, Manaus earned the right to call itself a city, bearing the name Cidade da Barra do Rio Negro. Just two years later, in 1850, the entire Amazonas merged into a province. And on September 4, 1856, the city was renamed to Cidade de Manaus.
The most storied part of the history of Manaus took place from 1890 to 1920. During this time, Manaus was at the center of the Brazilian rubber boom. The boom led to a rising tide of prosperity throughout Manaus and much of northern Brazil, generally. For rubber plantation owners it was a time of triumph and celebration, as wealth from the rubber trade flooded their coffers and led to enormous prosperity for the entire city.
Unfortunately, this prosperity was short lived. The allure of riches and comfort attracted floods of immigrants who found the conditions of poverty and drought in northeastern Brazil to be intolerable. This swarm of new mouths to feed combined with the advent of synthetic rubber and the rise of cheaper plantations in Asia to deliver a decisive knockout punch to the rubber room. Rubber prices plummeted to unprecedented lows and Manaus descended into poverty that it has only recently begun to climb out of.
However, despite the up and down history of Manaus, there is reason to be optimistic. Today, Manaus is the epicenter of financial activity in northern Brazil. Where rubber has failed, industries such as soap manufacturing and petrol refineries have risen to prominence. Recently, Manaus was even declared a duty free zone, or Zona-Franca. This has resulted in billions of dollars worth of products entering Manaus each year to be distributed elsewhere in Brazil. With these trends unfolding, it may not be very long before Manaus repeats the glorious feats and wealth creation of its history!
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