When one thinks of jungle ruins, one thinks of ancient Maya or Aztec ruins, or ancient Buddhist temples, encased in vines, forever lost to history. However, there are a particular set of ruins in the Amazon which does not conform to these stereotypes. Here, the ruins are instead of factories, and of homes, and of farms. It almost looks like an American small town, which has been abandoned. Odd place for it, considering it is deep in the jungles of Brazil. This is Fordlandia, the lost dream of Henry Ford, and a warning to all who try this experiment again.
In the 1920's, Ford was booming. Their Model T cars had proven a major success, and they could be seen across the nation. This put company founder Henry Ford, the 65 year old young farmer's son turned engineer turned innovator to the national spotlight, and cemented his place in the American fabric, making him a household name. However, he was facing a bit of a crisis. With the amount of cars he was churning out, he needed an extravagant amount of rubber for tires. However, rubber production and trade was controlled by a small group of British and Dutch robber barons, who grew the rubber trees in British Malaysia, and the Dutch East Indies. It was incredibly expensive to purchase raw rubber. Seeking a cheaper way of obtaining rubber, he decided to look for other places. The rubber tree is not native to South East Asia. It was smuggled in 1870's to the region, and that is how the rubber plantations began. The tree was actually indigenous to the Amazon rain forest. Given this information, Ford reasoned that perhaps he could establish his own Rubber produce, breaking the monopoly, and supplying his company with a cheap supply of rubber.
In 1928, he hired a local surveyor to scout out a location. The surveyor found a 25,000 square kilometer area called Boa Vista (Portuguese for "Good View"), which Ford subsequently selected for Fordlandia. He soon brought a barrage of machines to develop the area. After building the necessary location, he soon sent several workers to the region. Scores of Ford's workers came to Fordlandia to help Ford's vision. Soon, indigenous workers joined them in Fordlandia, with promises of higher pay. Boa Vista was transformed from a wild patch of rainforest to a sprawling 20's American suburb, complete with a power plant, a modern hospital, a library, a golf course, a hotel, and rows of white clapboard houses with wicker patio furniture. It had swimming pools, and a variety of businesses, from tailors to restaurants to bakeries. It It was vision of American perfection, as envisioned by Ford. However, problems arose almost instantly. Henry Ford had very strong conservative, Mid-Western values, which he tried to impose on his workers. He had a policy that all workers had to lead pious, "christian" lives, or they would be fired. The same policy was applied not just to the American members of Fordlandia, but also to the Indigenous workers. Obviously, this wasn't Michigan, and the workers rebelled against the new restrictions, including no women, no alcohol, and having to work a 9-to-5 shift (in the hot equatorial sun). Another problem natives had was the foreign products. They were baffled by concepts like cafeteria self-serving (they were more accustomed to having food brought to them, and the American homes. They also had to eat alien foods like Hamburgers (how quaint), and participate in American festivities. Tensions began to rise between the workers and the administrators. Business of dubious morality were established outside the town's border, to serve the unholy desires of the workers, serving them rum, and giving them women. As if the tensions of the workers wasn't enough, the rubber production wasn't going well at all. Ford hadn't hired any botanist for this project (due to his anti-intellectualism), and relied primarily on the cleaverness of his engineers. His engineer's cleaverness allowed for two hundred trees to be grown per acre, despite there being 7 per acre. The reason was that the trees would fall prey to leaf blight, caterpillars, and ants. And sure enough, many of the trees were rendered ineffective. This is why the Asian Plantations were more successful. South-East Asia did not have the rubber trees natural predators, so they could grow in vast numbers. However, in the Amazon, it was an open feast for the insects and fungi. As months of unproductivity increased, worker discontent also rose. This wasn't helped by an outbreak of malaria (due to the hilly terrain pooling water, allowing for mosquitos to breed.) Then, one day, finally fed up with the conditions, one Brazilian man rose, and declare that he could no longer tolerate the conditions. Soon, others joined in, and a rebellion began. The management fled to the boats, whilst the workers, armed with machetes, destroyed the cafeteria, and spread chaos through the colony. When the Brazilian army arrived three days later, the colony had been severely damaged. Another rebellion arose over workers brought from Barbados, who were taking jobs from the native workers. Finally realizing the mistake he made, Ford hired a botanist. After examining the land, the botantist concluded the land was not suited for rubber production. Ford had bought faulty land from the local surveyor. Undeterred, Ford decided to shift locations to a new area called Belterra. Here, the American traditions were relaxed (although Ford balked at the idea of building a Catholic church, even though the workers were predominantly Catholic). The weather was more conducive to Rubber production. However, by 1945, synthetic rubber had been created. Ford, humiliated, sold the land back to Brazil, and abandoned the two plantations to their fate. The Brazilian government tried to use the abandoned factory for their own uses, but this was short lived. Now, the regions provides tourism and agriculture for the curious. Fordlandia cost the Ford company 200 million dollars in 2013 dollars. It now serves a lesson, actually several lessons. If you run a million dollar enterprise, and you seek to make a risky investment, consult experts before engaging in said enterprise. What is acceptable to people in Michigan may not be understood or accepted by Brazilians. And never try to impose your alien values onto people who are unfamiliar. Fordlandia's story continues to intrigue many, and will serve as a parable for generations to come.
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ordlandia by Mary A. Dempsey- Michigan History Online
http://wayback.archive-it.org/418/20080304195857/http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/fordlandia/fordlandia.html
THE RUINS OF FORDLÂNDIA
ARTICLE #207 • WRITTEN BY ALAN BELLOWS- Damn Interesting
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-ruins-of-fordlandia/
Fordlandia: The Failure Of Ford's Jungle Utopia- NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105068620
Fordlândia- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia
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