The mystery of the land formed from one of the greatest failures in Henry Ford’s life
In the 1920s, industrial magnate Henry Ford wanted to establish a rubber industry in Brazil to serve the automobile industry. A town named Ford was founded but soon abandoned in the jungle and became one of Henry Ford’s biggest failures.
The town of Fordlândia was founded in 1928 by inventor Henry Ford in the Amazon rainforest as an industrial town with the purpose of being home to 10,000 people to ensure a source of rubber cultivation for production activities. Ford Motor Company’s automobile manufacturer in the United States. Fordlândia covers an area of 14,268 square kilometers located in the city of Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. The town is located on the east bank of the Tapajós River about 300 km south of the city of Santarém.
At that time, the name Ford was associated with glittering promises about the scientific and technological revolution like today’s Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.
Ford negotiated an agreement with the Brazilian government granting him an area of 10,000 square kilometers along the banks of the Rio Tapajós river near the city of Santarém, Brazil. The Brazilian government also agreed to exempt Ford from taxes on the export of goods in exchange for 9% of profits, of which 7% for the Government and 2% of profits for local municipalities.
At this stage Ford Motor Company was seeking to eliminate the British monopoly in the supply of rubber, which was mainly used to make tires and other car parts. Henry Ford was looking for alternatives and a permanent place to establish a rubber production area. and the Amazon rainforest in Central America he considered.
This land was quickly planned and developed as a community dedicated to Brazilian workers and American managers. Typical American homes were built, as were hospitals, schools, libraries, and hotels. People in this area call this the American Village.
The home of a Fordlandia manager at the Vila Americana. Source: The Guardian.
To attract human resources to the town to work, Henry Ford also built a swimming pool, a stadium, and an 18-hole golf course. In addition to finding workers, several offices have been opened in the Brazilian cities of Belém and Manaus with the promise of good wages to attract people in the vicinity.
However, Henry Ford did not take into account the factors of natural conditions in this Amazon land. The land has poor transport infrastructure that is only accessible by the Tapajós river. In addition, the workers here often have to fight with yellow fever and malaria.
None of Ford’s managers had the necessary knowledge of tropical agriculture. At lower temperatures, latex is concentrated in the lower areas of the tree, as the temperature increases during the day, the latex spreads throughout the tree, making tapping less efficient. Therefore, rubber tapping workers usually have to start early in the morning at 5 am and finish at noon. The plantation is divided into zones and each worker is assigned to a different area to prevent workers from consecutively shaving the same trees.
In the wild, rubber trees grow apart as a defense against disease and often grow close to larger trees of other species for extra support. In Fordlândia, however, the trees are planted close together on the plantation, making them easy prey for blight, sauva ants, lace beetles, red spider mites and caterpillars.
The town also applies a strict set of management rules. Alcohol, women, cigarettes and even football were banned in the town, including inside the workers’ private homes. In response, workers often crossed the river by rowing boats to merchant ships moored outside the town area and often concealed contraband for trade.
Not only that, the workers at the plantations were forced to eat American foods such as burgers and canned food, had to wear tags when working.
In 1930, the workers in the town revolted. The insurgents proceeded to cut telegraph wires and chased the town’s managers and even cooks into the woods for several days until the Brazilian army arrived and the uprising ended.
The Brazilian government was suspicious of any foreign investment, especially in the northern Amazon region, so it wasn’t long before numerous problems began to affect the project and the decision to relocate was made. Fordlândia was abandoned by the Ford Motor Company in 1934, and the project was moved south, where there were better conditions for growing rubber.
By 1945, synthetic rubber had been developed, reducing the world’s demand for natural rubber. Ford’s investment opportunity was lost overnight without producing any rubber for Ford’s tires. The town named after him was also abandoned. In 1945, Henry Ford’s grandson Henry Ford II sold the area including both towns to the Brazilian government at a loss of more than $20 million ($301 million in 2021).
Despite the huge investment and countless invitations, Henry Ford never visited either of his ill-fated towns.
The town is mostly deserted, with only 90 residents still living in the city until the early 2000s as the population grew, being home to about 3,000 people in 2017.
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