The Rise And Fall Of Henry Fords Forgotten Jungle City

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City Henry Ford may be best known as the founder of Ford Motor Company and as the creator of the first model-T, but what you may not know, is that he owned 25 million acres of land in the Amazon, where he attempted to establish the largest rubber plantation in the world. Greg Grandin, in his book Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, talks about Ford as an idealist who took on many projects and was determined to see them succeed; focusing chiefly on the discussion of his rubber plantation project. Henry Ford controlled most of the raw materials he needed to manufacture his cars. This included lumber, coal, and iron oar to be made into steel.†¦show more content†¦This was the case when Brazil was the number one exporter of rubber, but the boom of rubber production in Asia was so considerable, that Brazil could no longer compete. In 1927 Ford sent a botanist named LaRou, to survey the land in Brazil and find a suitable location for rubber production. He was responsible as well for reporting the condition of the rubber tappers in the area, who were â€Å"fever stricken †¦ [having] horrible wounds and sores on their legs and feet. They [were] always nearly naked, covered merely by rags†(p.88). Upon hearing of the poverty of the workers, it became more of a social project than an economic one. Besides establishing a profitable rubber plantation, his objective became to establish â€Å"model towns†. His mission was to civilize the people, while having them obey his rules. Ford acquired 25 million acres of amazon forests along the Tapajos River. The town that he created is now known as Fordlandia. In that town, he funded the building of a hospital, as well as a water purification plant to provide the employees with clean drinking water. He also tried to improve their nutrition, teach them proper hygiene, and teach them to be economical while paying them decent wages.