Amazonian Cities in the Rubber Period The brief and tragic history of Santo Antônio do Madeira

Abstract

This work will address the creation, maintenance, existence, and failure of settlement in Santo Antônio das Cachoeiras on the Madeira River. Colonized for millennia by Indigenous peoples of various ethnicities and at different times in its existence, the locality gained a grim reputation as the world's most unhealthy city, according to the Hygienist Oswaldo Cruz, who visited it in 1910 during the peak of a malaria pandemic. Since the expedition of Francisco Melo Palheta in 1722, attempts were made to establish the foundations of a Portuguese colonial model in the region that would ensure the intentions of the colonial government, both in Mato Grosso and "Cuyabá," as well as in "Gram-Pará." These conditions were meant to enable the advancement, supply, fallow, and restructuring of the "monsoons" that sailed up the river toward the golden fields of the Guaporé mines. These attempts were unsuccessful. By the 19th century, the region had been abandoned multiple times by determined colonizers. With each attempt, they moved downstream, eventually settling in a place they named Santo Antônio de Borba. In the 20th century, Santo Antônio regained its importance as the point of embarkation for all the rubber produced in the Mamoré, Beni, Madre de Dios, and Guaporé regions. New attempts were made, and in 1913, the city was founded, only to disappear in 1945. This work relied on bibliographical sources produced from the 18th to the 20th centuries by Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian, and Bolivian authors. The results reveal that the city has consistently proven unviable, but it has always been and continues to be a focal point in the history of the local societies' relations with the river. While our study period may seem lengthy, covering the last 200 years of these relations, it is only a fraction of the time. Traditionally, we have overlooked something essential: considering the locality from the perspective of the Original Peoples who have always inhabited it.