Inside Henry Ford's Failed Amazon City | Rise And Fall

In the 1920s, Henry Ford created a utopia in the middle of the Amazon jungle. The plan was to produce enough rubber to feed his auto empire, but the dream soon turned into a nightmare. Disease, riots, mud - and caterpillars - were too much for Ford's millions.
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Inside Henry Ford's Failed Amazon City | Rise And Fall

[@passthetimeplayers5078]

My Mother lived there for many years. My grandfather was the foreman sent to oversee this entire project. She was there for Fordlandia and Belterra. I still have her photos. She always talked about the beauty of this place. Although a failure for Ford, she loved growing up among the jungle, the natives, and the animals.

[@slashdotjeo]

Could u post those pictures online? Maybe post the link here?

[@debbielannen2089]

There are hundreds of photos. They are not online.

[@alexsozansky]

I don't believe you. Bye

[@alexsozansky]

@@debbielannen2089 POST THEM

[@Qtown444]

She loved it while people died in front of her?

[@ericburton5163]

If you are wondering why Ford went through all of that trouble, it's important to remember that British Malaysia and Dutch Indonesia at the time had a monopoly on the Rubber trade, and had an OPEC like organization that controlled the industry. So rubber consumers were desperate to find alternative sources, because no one likes to be dependent on a monopoly.

[@anthonygordon9483]

Yeah I think there is more to it then that. Goodyear has been in business since 1898 and Akron till this day is considered the rubber capital of the world and the only American company to this day that still does not outsource. Ford was a decent man but he still was greedy. I think he wanted his own monopoly and he didn't want to dispute with American companies. He was trying to out source at a time when American manufacturing was still strong.

[@ericburton5163]

@@anthonygordon9483 Ford no doubt wanted to have vertical control of the entire car manufacturing process. The video mentions this, so there is no point in me mentioning it in my comment. The video doesn't mention the monopoly that the British and Dutch had on (raw) rubber. It's also why Ford went to Brazil instead of just buying a plantation in Malaysia or Indonesia (which would have been easier) because he would have had to participate in the cartel the British and Dutch formed. Goodyear had to buy the raw rubber from the British and Dutch at that time. I can assure you there are no rubber plantations in Akron Ohio. My comment definitely wasn't intended to oversimpfly things nor was intended to say that Ford didn't want vertical integration. If that's how it came across I apologize. Rather it was intended to provide additional information missing from the video that in my opinion is extremely important in explaining some the questions I had when watching it. (They talked about rubber in Asia why didn't Ford just build his Fordlandia there? Why go through all of that trouble when there were other commodities he didn't control?(although he controlled alot)).

[@anthonygordon9483]

@@ericburton5163 No offense. I got it.

[@alexandersaldivar7243]

Thanks for the comment, I thought of the omission immediately as well.

[@seanogallchoir3237]

He used industrial soya for interior vehicle parts, if it was engineered further it could have been suitable for tyres. The fact large Dandelion produce rubber type substance that is used in the EU. Industrial soya first used in China as a green manure may have provided if engineered with other material a solution. Land based transport as with sea transport operates in primitive mode .

[@Lucaspc99]

As a Portuguese speaker, i never saw Portuguese being translated to English so perfectly like in this video.

[@miepic3291]

Thanks for confirming stuff like this, really hard to know if what you're hearing is getting the same point across in both languages and having someone who can back up whether translations are good or bad is like peer review :)

[@estebancorral5151]

You made no mention of Eduardo Sguiglia’s comments which were made in Spanish. You’re a chauvinist.

[@Lucaspc99]

@@estebancorral5151 To be honest, portuguese do look very similar to spanish, but i dont have knowledge to say if the translation of that part of the video is accurate.

[@kendellfriend5558]

The translation was so crisp.

[@kendellfriend5558]

@@viktor8928 mas seu sotaque era tão claro. Ele é de PA tbm.

[@adriennebetts6589]

I love How that lady Kept her house clean and floors Polish in the middle of the Amazon.

[@JohnSmith-rw6vo]

I've always been told that you may not have a choice about being poor but being dirty is a choice.

[@kokonana4086]

I'm fascinated by the fact that many of these American-made facilities, infrastructures and machineries are still in use today. This really reflects their philosophy & quality of "BuiltTo Last" back then. Amazing!

[@GrandChessboard]

Most of the stuff built today would not last long in the Amazon rain forest.

[@user-cw2py6wh8l]

Did you not see "failed" in the title?

[@sesetio338]

@@user-cw2py6wh8l The system failed not the stuff. lol

[@thewatchworks1372]

@@GrandChessboard agreed, our modern slapped together toothpick wood chip formaldehyde cardboard homes would fall apart so quickly!

[@deathkitten7635]

@@user-cw2py6wh8l they achieved making a historical site.

[@freggo6604]

Reminds me of Walmart setting up shop in Germany to conquer the European market; running their stores as copies of their US stores instead of adapting to the local customs (and labor laws). They failed and there is no Walmart in Europe anymore.

[@richardgray115]

Same happened to Bunnings Australia. Australian culture is very much diy and trade projects at home. Bunnings didn't realise that the dynamic and weather in the UK is completely.different. Bunnings failed in the UK. Bunnings is a huge hardware store in Australia

[@jryalls]

Yes there is. There’s ASDA in the U.K. which is a version of Walmart adapted for the U.K. market. Although it was recently sold and is no longer owned by Walmart.

[@devinkk]

@@jryalls 'one day I went to ASDA, I went to shoplift in ASDA, then I got caught in ASDA, now I don't go back to ASDA'

[@_method_5877]

Like Dominos thinking it was a bright idea to sell pizza in Italy of all places lol

[@gvs6462]

Yet Starbucks has been able to push its own American business model unto the world without adapting to local demographics and customs. Instead, the people adapted to Starbucks.

[@TommySchulzte]

I remember visiting this place. Lots of neat rows of rubber trees. Kinda eerie to see something American in this part of the Amazon

[@hodgepodge51]

I also visited, in spring 2018. There was a very eerie derelict American suburbia type village nearby

[@andiarrohnds5163]

@@hodgepodge51 yeah the amazon is infested with satan

[@tlockerk]

Like the little 'perfect' towns dotted around deserted parts the US that were built by energy companies.

[@MerkleAkrunphleuphle]

Henry Fords book inspired Hitler enough to take action.

[@Sokol10]

@@MerkleAkrunphleuphle And?

[@udynes4457]

The vast majority of Brazilians never heard of Fordlandia. It's an almost forgotten page of Brazilian history. The American WW2 base in the North East of Brazil came to light with the internet which by the way it's a very interesting historical episode.

[@expatinbrazil]

Definitely almost nobody knows about Fordlandia!

[@estebancorral5151]

Brazil and the US were Allies because Germany sank innocent Brazilian ships. Read the autobiography of Vernon Walters.

[@expatinbrazil]

@@estebancorral5151 true !🙏👊👊👊

[@agentepolaris4914]

@@estebancorral5151 actually the US forced them to be friends

[@homerobueno3295]

@@agentepolaris4914 That's a lie

[@browngreen933]

Looks to be in better shape than Ford's other city --- Detroit.

[@WN_Byers]

No unions in the amazon

[@theobuniel9643]

Detroit’s a lot better now. You’re just not catching up to the news.

[@tyrel7185]

Bahahaha

[@jerkjerkington3874]

@@theobuniel9643 If Detroit ever got to be 10% as important as it used to be, then we wouldn't need the news to tell us about it. We would just know.

[@micahbush5397]

The factors behind Detroit's decline are a pretty complicated (ex. White flight that left the city with too much infrastructure for its tax base to support, growth of foreign automobile producers, increased automation, etc.) and happened well after Ford's death.

[@Marina-nn4md]

Food in amazon is so plentiful and diverse, because of the rich fauna and flora... If I was made to eat only oatmeal and rice while living in the amazon I would riot too.

[@thomazxaviercarneiro3697]

Ninguém toca no meu açaí com tapioca, muito menos no meu tambaqui.

[@ricknaughty1016]

"diet was strictly controlled in the company dining hall" 5 mins earlier: "alot of workers died from malnutrition" "inspectors checked houses were kept clean and free from mosquitos" Also 5mins earlier: "alot of them workers died from desease"

[@deathkitten7635]

What food they ate in fordlandia was devoid of nutrition. Very cruel when you know they were hunting, fishing, gathering fruits, and growing vegetables before, and now reduced to bland empty carbohydrates.

[@jpbugalho2676]

i think feeding hunter-gatherer foresters and nomadic workers on cheap foreign carbs might be a bad idea

[@joelwillems4081]

I think the workers buying and eating food they wanted with what was described as generous wages was an easy solution to the diets. But it was too much of a cultural clash between an industrial people and those who were at the extreme end of not. Neither side is the bad guy. That's an ignorant, modern viewpoint on this. Rioting and looting because of what was a few minor cafeteria rules seems a little extreme too. Or complaining that the owners were very strict because you had to punch in for work on time. At the time in history, there was a health clinic in Michigan (Battle Creek) advocating the bland diet like that as being the healthiest thing for a person. They thought they were doing what was best for the people, not a cheap carb food source. They were spending millions of dollars so they were not trying to cut a few pennies here.

[@garylefevers]

Joes Williams, Henry Ford was a racist control freak. I am surprised anyone agreed with these living conditions at all.

[@garylefevers]

Joel Williams, sorry. I did not mean to misspell your name.

[@HighMojo]

What Ford needed was a green thumb, just because his brown thumb worked so well with machines, doesn't mean it applies to plants. Ford was victim to the age old adage, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. He should've hired a botanists and agriculturalists, not factory managers.

[@raymondtonns2521]

he could have had spies visit the successful rubber plantations elswhere and get it right

[@seanogallchoir3237]

Correct, the large Dandelion is used in the EU to create tyres. In China they have several sources, including ancient Fossil trees, that grew in other parts of the Planet. Thank you.

[@cremebrulee4759]

He should have talked to the native people, too. They could have explained how to do it properly, but they were considered ignorant.

[@realnealvatn]

Ford was a known open racist he didn't give a shit about Brazil

[@erikbudrow1255]

@@cremebrulee4759 Yep the locals would have had an ecological understanding of the area that would dwarf even the most educated botanists from the industrial world, in terms of real world practical solutions.

[@michaelofsc4143]

Henry Ford only hired engineers to work in the Amazon, he never hired any expert botanists in rubber plants.

[@devinkk]

racism and speciesism. he probably believed that whites should dominate everyone else and machines should dominate nature.

[@Tom_Samad]

So strange! Just yesterday i watched Wendigoon's video on Henry Ford's failed Fordlandia project!

[@alvarohigino]

They know everything about us and about what we watch.

[@momoney00can]

It’s amazing that some of the equipment still works

[@david9783]

That's what I was thinking. That sure was a nice lathe. I bet it wasn't made in China!

[@davidanalyst671]

this guy has a ginormous lathe in an old shop. Give him some material, and he'll build a steel christo redentor for fordlandia!!!

[@Miamcoline]

Very cool. These short docs are so good and visually-stimulating!

[@kgizzle92]

Ford’s obsession with efficiency did him in…it made him overly rigid and unable to adapt from the trees to the diets!

[@badfoody]

@Save 🇺🇸 civilization? A bunch of factoried that are available elsewhere? Ford brought civilization but he also brought the unadaptable self entitlement his kind was always known for Civilization my ass Nothing civilized about not studying a region before building a 100 million dollar town in it

[@3mtech]

I doubt he was eating oatmeal, rice and bread. He didnt understand some dont worship the almighty dollar

[@markothwriter]

There's still a Ford Motor Company - so it didn't do him in. But maybe hurt him a bit.

[@RandomNPC001]

@Save 🇺🇸 you believe that a person that lives in a big house full of accumulated things is better, more successful and happier than a person that doesn’t?!

[@locolalo1364]

@Save 🇺🇸 Ford didn't bring civilization. Learn your terms before you begin to use them. He brought industrialization to the untamed Amazon. It had nothing to do with "civilization wasn't appreciated". Civilization always existed within those communities. Ford had no regard for social stratification, government, cultures and identities. Similarly to how the Americans complain about immigrants not fitting into the American culture, Ford did the same to the people of the Amazon. His biggest defeat was of course, a disregard to the environment first and the natives second. Ford assumed that developing in a wet tropical rain forest would be as easy as developing in a temperate grasslands and forests (like in Michigan). Even the Asian plantations mentioned in the video were established in dry rain forests, which is a night and day difference compared to the Amazon. The Amazon region has the potentiality to become one of the most successful regions in the world, however they face the most difficult challenges any civilization has encountered. Their environment. The Europeans in contrast have had the most easily tamed environments even when compared to the Americans, Arabs, Asians or Africans.

[@rickcowan7527]

Thanks for creating and posting this informative and engaging documentary!

[@hildashubby]

This is an awesome piece, very nicely done.

[@hannahschultz9074]

Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance- wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..

[@kleaghoni3883]

I've got interest in investing but I'm afraid of doing it on my own to avoid losses,

[@kleaghoni3883]

Thanks for the amazing recommendation it will help a lot

[@adasohas4557]

A friend that I referred to her just received €61,050 profit after 6days of investing.... I became jealous.. Lol

[@cedricjiosh6935]

I'm not here to converse for her but to testify just for what I'm sure of,

[@cedricjiosh6935]

I've never heard or seen any of her clients complain of lost....I think she's just too perfect.

[@amamam95]

I live in Pará and i've heard that story, one of the main reason for the clash of brazilian workers and the ford employees as mentioned in the video was the food diet, because the americans demanded that local workers ate the same thing as the americans did.

[@iamwhoimnotimnotwhoiam4431]

Americans wouldn't eat that crap every single day It's one of those "brave new world" diets. They're trying to do this again, except with bugs. The workers were right to rebel. All they had to do was let people bring their own food, and share recipes with the cooks. It woulda saved Ford a ton of money to do so

[@eckosters]

I have actually been to Belterra. It’s most bizarre - all of a sudden you’re in a tiny town with picket fences and side walk and 1950s style American bungalows. A great book about the Rubber history is “The thief at the end of the world” by Joe Jackson

[@eckosters]

@@enturnetrol7869 maybe you should read the book before making an ignorant comment

[@niceshotmano]

I have a sneaking suspicion...

[@valterzc8187]

Never underestimate the jungle, that is lesson for anyone who wanna invest in the Amazon must learn.

[@adityasonti9478]

This is peice of history!!!! Thanks for the wonderful information. ...

[@1986fritzthecat]

ive seen other documentaries on this, im kind of surprised how kindly this talks about ford in this one compared to the others

[@SquigglesZero]

Yeah! Why are the protecting the bastard?

[@mrhackerman4817]

Because it's a business channel

[@djsjmc511]

Screw Ford we dont need to support them

[@grovermartin6874]

@@SquigglesZero was he protected in this? The fellow toward the end who enumerated what they did right -- the capital, the technology, etc. pointed out that the disrespect for the people and the region was at the core of the failure of Fordlandia. What could be a more scathing observation than that? He said it without passionate rancor, though, so it must come across as neutral...

[@oriplaydirty]

Cause pro America🤮🤮 9/11 coming to a major city near you soon

[@violinsinthevoid4579]

The Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson made an amazing album called Fordlandia. Although it is about the settlement in a way, it pursues other themes as well. Great stuff!

[@ronboerste1813]

Thank you for the awesome video😎👍🍻

[@Inversion_wrld]

Thanks for making this. Very informative!

[@WeLiveWeDie]

I love that guys enthusiasm for his city

[@RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr]

Basically man tried to fight the Amazon, the Amazon fought back and man lost, I'm on the side of the Amazon.

[@raclark2730]

Seams its not the helpless cur that some bleeding heart types make it out to be eh.

[@davidanalyst671]

too bad, because ford could have made money, and these people who never heard of having jobs would have developed into an amazing civilization and build up a car culture.

[@stevekonbass]

Wow, that's some story. Never heard of it. Thanks for posting.

[@tonialemany766]

Muy interesante, he aprendido mucho gracias profe

[@mans4104]

The WEF is trying to do the same now on a global scale, "they want to tell you what to do, what to eat, what to consume, how to live", and they spect different results.

[@colinburroughs9871]

hey, finally someone taking this type of thinking and applying to the now and the future, as opposed to grandstanding on history. Utopian/totalitarian impulses of the rich aren't a new story and frankly, it's as bad now as it's ever been.

[@mrivantchernegovski3869]

Wow all those old machines in his shop would of been state of the art back then and still great machines today and still working all these years later ,the old mid century stuff is the best ever

[@sailawaybob]

that is a cool looking place love all the old machinery .

[@jerroldkazynski5480]

I thought this would be about a more modern Ford production facility. Location escapes me, but it is this same concept for producing cars. A GREAT 1st person account of early 1920s Amazonia is the book "Jungle Paths and Inca Ruins," by William Montgomery McGovern, published 1927. He became Assistant Curator of South American Ethnology, Field Museum of Natural History. The story tells of quite an expedition thru native jungle and then up over the Andes into Chile & Peru. It's an awesome record of the journey.

[@ibelieveicansoar]

Fittingly, now Ford’s original hometown of Detroit is also being subsumed by the jungle

[@Izzy-qf1do]

Ford should've google how to grow rubber trees. 🤣

[@hevnervals]

His research is what you would find on Google today.

[@Sorcerers_Apprentice]

It sounds like they might have been able to grow the trees as a polyculture, like a controlled forest with multiple species, instead of as a monoculture.

[@johnmwangi8706]

He should research how to treat natives first

[@vidard9863]

@@Sorcerers_Apprentice not really, to do so would have made it almost worthless as a project, what he needed to do was more or less what he started doing in the end, build a test site, and begin to research pesticide, fertilizer, and treatments for the blights. further building the plantations smaller on the rivers for transportation he could isolate given plantations and develop treatments as new problems occured. unfortunately it would turn out that synthetic rubber would be easier to make than do all that.

[@Sokol10]

The rubber production system that Ford tried and failed in the Amazon worked for the British and French in Malaysia, Ceylon, Indochina.

[@breakingtoys3542]

What an amazing documentary.

[@maryannedelaney]

A great documentary!

[@randyearles9286]

had Ford and his team got the locals more involved with a free exchange of ideas they could of been successful with half the capital outlay. being egocentric is very expensive

[@davidmeeks2405]

Great job, would love to see you do something about the extensive farming projects that Ford built in Richmond Hill Ga. Again with housing, hospitals, schools churches but apparently with much more success. With experts involved it is my understanding that they developed what we know today as ( iceberg lettuce)

[@Realtubetv]

This was an awesome documentary.

[@jsl02008]

One of the best episodes...

[@c.rutherford]

There are cities in the rainforest now, Manaus for instance is about dead center in the Amazon and has a metro population of over 2.5 million, bigger than St Louis. So sadly there is no more "going to the middle of the jungle". Everybody has already moved there.

[@raclark2730]

Recent lidar evidence shows that there were urban centers there in the the past and it may not be as virgin as thought.

[@hewitc]

Manaus was the center of the world rubber trade in the 19th century. The Asian production started when someone took seeds from Brazil and brought them to Southeast Asia. Then Asia dominated production. This video implies that Asia was first and that Ford was doing something new in Brazil.

[@Fusso]

Manaus was already a huge city before Ford. Also, you have no idea how big the amazon is, 99,9% of the jungle is absolutely hostile to human living.

[@fluffylittlebear]

@@raclark2730 Do not besmirch the honor of the innocent jungle.

[@raclark2730]

@@fluffylittlebear I hear the jungle was sneaking out at night.

[@youisstupid2586]

lack of empathy for people and nature is the biggest problem with the otherwise successful system of capitalism.

[@SethMethCS]

And it cost them today’s equivalent of $400 million dollars.

[@youisstupid2586]

@@SethMethCS yeah, empathy would've saved/ made them an ungodly amount of money. that and better research .

[@Tsuruchi_420]

Lack of socialism and environmentalism is the biggest problem with the otherwise successful system of capitalism

[@youisstupid2586]

@@erdelegy that is not capitalisms doing, that's just the good ol humans. its not like other systems would've saved us from this. human greed is the worst.

[@youisstupid2586]

@@Tsuruchi_420 sure. but there failsafe put in place to not let capitalism or any other system do this, but our politicians are useless, corrupt people.

[@pixelpotato4874]

Author:"There wasn't a lot of consciousness in respecting or preserving the environment" Balsinaro:"I don't see any issues"

[@rjl110919581]

Thank you for sharing your details video

[@robo1000]

I don’t know much about Henry Ford but most bosses I’ve had have said that he was an amazing writer

[@joelpaape8748]

Yeah read Ford's The International Jew- The World's Foremost Problem

[@TrillBelichick]

“Some died from bites from Snakes and Vampire bats” GOT DAMN

[@gui250493]

Thanks for sharing that

[@in2thewild]

Such an amazing story !

[@MyFirstYoutubeHandle]

Failed as it might be, we need to appreciate the efforts of a man free from the fear of failure. Ford had his flaws, but without people like him, where would we be?

[@seanogallchoir3237]

Free, the large Dandelion provides rubber it may be more suitable than trees. It is used in the EU.

[@raclark2730]

@@seanogallchoir3237 Ah makes sense similar milky sap.

[@seanogallchoir3237]

@@raclark2730 interesting industrial soya was used to make Ford vehicle interior parts, the best use for it, after greena manure. In the modern world land based transport should be history, on our beautiful Ocean Planet.

[@raclark2730]

@@seanogallchoir3237 Hemp is useful for such things also.

[@seanogallchoir3237]

@Turtle Spirit 142 Energy is free, when we are? Enjoy our beautiful Ocean Planet.

[@DR.Detroit11]

The Ford fund should look into preserving this treasure.

[@mr19471985]

a story I never knew before, interesting history.

[@almeggs3247]

Thanks very informative!

[@madcrabber1113]

Those floors in the house built for Edsel Ford are stunning. I am assuming they are made of a native species of tree that was sourced locally and if so I wonder if they ever tried planting that species and selling products made from it? Would be resistant to native pests and diseases and a renewable resource.

[@genekelly8467]

Indeed the hardwoods in the region do not rot-and many will sink in water. That kind of wood lasts (unless attacked by termites). Ford actually had a lumber mill that sawed up the trees they had cut down while clearing the land. That operation made a profit.

[@davidanalyst671]

brazil is known for wood today.

[@markharder3676]

Tropical hardwoods are in demand worldwide. But they are a scarce commodity and expensive. They do not grow quickly, and so are difficult to replenish. There are tropical locations that are growing rapidly and therefore clearing land and cutting down trees of great value. To my way of thinking, it's a shame that the forest is destroyed this way, but I can't fault poor people for clearing forests in order to grow food and making a living for themselves. Yet, given that these precious trees are going to be cut, I would prefer that they be processed as lumber and used for constructive and artistic purposes. However, the populations grow faster than the industry required to process and export the wood. Instead of making use of the trees, they are simply piled up and burned. And that is a great shame.

[@LG141602]

In a Mexican town in Michoacán an outsider bought almost half a mountain of land. Then he sold all the wood in the land. There was not a single tree left. He made so much money that he started a very expensive avocado farm that gives him about 3.5 million dollars per year. And pays the people about 5 dollars per day.

[@JohnSmith-rw6vo]

@@LG141602 But how far does $5 a day go in Mexico?

[@okwatever3582]

Back then, there wasn’t any perception regarding environment protection, if the industrial city have become fully operating, it might have attracted more and more other investors to build factories. from today’s perspective, the failure of the investment adjacent to This Amazonian River is actually cleaner than rivers around the world with factories operating beside them such as the citarum river of Indonesia. So, this is sorta benefiting the ecology to this particular river in the Amazon

[@evertonmiranda2004]

Cool little doc. I'm brazilian living in the amazon and didn't knew much about it.

[@ianandersen265]

I remember learning about this tragedy on Amazon Trail.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

Wow that plot of land he bought was nearly the size of Jamaica?? Wtf.. I would have never perceived that area of land like that. It was a good way to put things into perspective. (Man it's a bummer the vast rainforest ecosystem was clear cut and burned to an extent. Those ecosystems take so long to evolve to the state that they were in.. it's like finding a cave full of crystals. It's a fine tuned, work of art that took a lot of time and very precise set of circumstances for it to be created and flourish. I live in Oregon and we have some patches of "old growth forest" still and the Amazon rainforest in a sense is the same sort of precious unique ecosystem. It creates this web that all sorts of different species can flourish off of and fill their own niche in the environment they live in.)

[@vidard9863]

meh, one of the swamps on the edge of the amazon is so large you could drop the state of florida into it without hitting a road. then you could drop another florida, in the same swamp, without hitting a road, or the first florida. and then you could do the same thing three more times. this is a very small part of the picture.

[@IkeCoblentz]

Brazil is big.

[@chrissypoo69]

Great comment

[@deWiAnNaEnEcBi3857]

@@IkeCoblentz yes, But rainforest is becoming small now.. 👏🏽👏🏽

[@javen69]

spot on. When I visit Seattle (my favourite city) I feel a sense of loss when I think about about the area before it was logged and developed. Towering trees as big as building and waterways that simply no longer exist, ecosystems forever cut off and lost. The Amazon is still relatively intact so I remain optimistic

[@viniciusv8767]

Never heard about it, amazing👏👏👏👏❤❤❤

[@worknfun7368]

This is crazy. I thought i knew it all until this

[@Jen-zk9se]

This is absolutely bizarre! Never heard of it.

[@vanesslifeygo]

Diet control was absolutely unneeded

[@fattlip1958]

Thank god it wasnt a success, imagine the expansion and deforestation

[@johnnymoran1177]

Never heard of this, thank you.

[@yeboscrebo4451]

Fascinating!

[@cj94zj92sc]

I love how they are just glazed over the evil parts

[@LVang152]

Simplicity is key

[@meripederson8379]

Very interesting. I've never come across this before.

[@safetymikeengland]

that was really interesting. I don't think I've ever heard about this before.

[@darrenchin_]

anyone wishing to do some further reading into this should look up Greg Grandin's excellent book, "Fordlandia"

[@poy791]

Good thing this shit failed. If this succeeded amazon jungle wound not be here today.

[@hevnervals]

That's not true. Synthetic rubber became superior and the Amazon is huge. Cattle farms are the real issue

[@joaoneves5701]

Amazon is big, this is just a small piece of forest

[@alparslankorkmaz2964]

Nice video.

[@xNevikKx]

Wise lessons here.

[@lecoqjeannot3358]

Very interesting, I learned something today !

[@goncaloveiga]

My first MA thesis was on a man who lived there with his parents who worked for Ford! Can’t wait to watch this documentary!

[@PHlophe]

Gonzalo, your theis should have covered the he corrupt gringo brazilians who took ford's money too. corruption in Brazil is old school.

[@condor5150]

That was Great content! It is also amusing to me to hear American history narrated by British people.

[@Hossyboy420]

I learned about this in my econ class. Such a strange vision

[@Davido50]

Henry Ford was incredible! The current Ford Motor Company is still family owned & controlled 100%. Testimonial to an amazing family!

[@LeZouave]

While Ford Motor Company is really an exception in the american car industry, the man had many flaws, including giving a lot of money to an enemy nation, Third Reich Germany.

[@david9783]

Seems to me that research on pests of the rubber tree would have revealed a better outcome for the trees. Well, at least there's a nice lathe left operational!

[@melvinaikens7710]

An amazing tale!

[@Ryan-un5cn]

Henry Ford is in my family tree so this is very interesting to watch and see!

[@Henriqueemusicas]

Ryan ford 😅

[@vaticinus]

People living in the global north don't realize how difficult it is to live in and develop tropical areas. Most of them truly believe that their countries are richer because their people are genetically more intelligent.

[@cartel_papi]

even some people, or a big chunk in the tropical areas don't understand that either and just berate their respective countries for being this and that

[@keithlea6804]

Yep if you're white keep out of the jungle. We are not built for it.

[@nowistime8070]

do you mean some people in the global north? or I can state people in the global south are ignorant to what other people may or may not think. I assume you are not from the north or you are a self hating westerner...your comment is a poorly constructed thought imo

[@vaticinus]

@@nowistime8070 You are clearly poorly educated. Did you even read your comment before posting it?

[@craxd1]

Utopianism has always failed in the end, going back to the days of Robert Owen, who started it, much like what Disney is witnessing in Florida now, as EPCOT was at the center of that, which was supposed to be an autocratic utopian community ruled over by Walt, himself. He and Ford were two peas from the same pod.

[@SethMethCS]

Walt never got to build his dream town, for some reason.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

@@SethMethCS His death is the "some reason" why EPCOT was never built...

[@toomanymarys7355]

Robert Owens was a commie, too.

[@RoninGray]

What a cool story

[@yaagodourado]

It's so funny how the world is just discovering Fordlândia nowadays Nice video and you have an INCREDIBLE pronunciation of Portuguese words, congrats

[@arunasrineti1495]

Amazon must not be harmed.

[@Sokol10]

Henry Ford wasn't the only one who tried to profit from the Amazon and fail, another failure was Daniel Keith Ludwig "Jari Project" 1967 - 1982, for what a thermal power plant and the pulp mill itself were towed from Japan. Ludwig left the enterprise in 1982. In 2000, "Jari Project" (Projeto Jari) became controlled by "Grupo Orsa", so that Jari Celulose not only became economically viable, but also proved to be sustainable, receiving certification in 2004 by the Forest Stewardship Council. Nowadays it's the cattle ranchers who profit from Amazon, with more modest investments, they sell the wood to clandestine loggers, who clear the area for cattle ranching. USA and EU buy this wood.

[@RandomNPC001]

The reason the amazon is so important, is because all the other forests worldwide have been cut down and destroyed by the so called first world civilization.

[@raclark2730]

@@erdelegy Don't let them tell you it cannot be repaired because it can.

[@raclark2730]

@@erdelegy That's bullshite there are methods to assist natural regeneration. Or you can listen to doomist propaganda by people who know very little about actual environmentalism, but I am not going to twist your arm.

[@justincoleman7856]

Wow I can't believe this information has been hidden for so long. But then again, apparently the Ford corporation wants to keep people away from its previous failures. I mean Henry's son attempted to make his own vehicle, but unfortunately Henry was so obsessed with his Model T that he just blatantly ignored his son's ideas & that's why his son gave up on making cars since it didn't seem to impress his own father. Just lessons we can learn in the future when it comes to creating future things...

[@Dog.soldier1950]

This has been well known since the beginning

[@kathycooper9577]

I lived right outside Detroit and never heard a word of this enterprise.

[@Dog.soldier1950]

@marthale7 Ford was anti -Semitic and a pacifist. He met Hitler 2x as Ford had plants in Germany and the concern was that as the socialist regime they would seize Ford’s plants. Henry Ford and Ford Motor Co is interesting history-worth reading

[@ryangajewski4585]

Just because you’ve never heard about something doesn’t mean it’s not known.

[@davidanalyst671]

@@kathycooper9577 you lived outside detroit before world war 2 when fordlandia was in operation.

[@randysixt1479]

This is gold

[@love2000amglam]

I really like this series. I have a request. The rise and fall of tap water.

[@270Winchester]

These 100 year old buildings in the middle of the Amazon somehow still look better than Detroit.

[@SlackersIndustry]

😂

[@stanthehandyman3719]

Thats because they don't have Taggers and scrappers in the amazon ;)

[@SCRB1GR3D98]

I'd love to visit there someday

[@larsstougaard7097]

Remember to bring garlic 🧄 to keep away the vampire 🧛‍♂️ bats 🦇

[@hadesobscuro2822]

Plane tickets to Brazil are very cheap at the moment. you could spend 3 months there with 2000 dollars

[@islandvibez]

@@hadesobscuro2822 and get robbed and murdered by your street gangs? Lol no thanks. 🙅‍♀️

[@normcameron2316]

It is a wonderful story of the time. Preserve it all cost. Hubris of the American Industrial Giant against the reality of native culture, plants and creatures. Thinking "The American Way" would overcome all. It's going to make a great museum.

[@the-btc-tradingfloor2808]

Thank you

[@JoshKemmerer]

It’s wonderful to see nature take over this place. This seemed to be a project built on pride, and the guy in the video was right that the people who worked on this period failed because they lacked empathy for the environment and the people

[@damirbato5686]

They brought them electricity,built them modern and brand new homes,running water,they built them a state of the art hospital in the middle of the jungle,built the whole town,schools,gave it to the local population and a job on top of that with good pay.They had jobs,making money,free housing,free education better then in all of south America combined,free healthcare,food and water,and the straw that broke the camels back was them (workers)not getting a waiter to serve them food instead they had to line up and get it them self.What more did you expect?

[@MizTheDonGargon]

@@damirbato5686 😂 right hahaha. and they act like they couldn't just make their own type of food on their off time like they were before the town was built

[@constitution_8939]

Another Marxist indoctrinated Moron? Man, the World is Really in Trouble.

[@constitution_8939]

@@damirbato5686 Marxism has leeched Everywhere now it seem's Damir. Thank you for your Intelligent comment unlike some of the other brainwashed one's from the single digit I.Q. Crowd.

[@chrism8180]

@@damirbato5686 schools...so they could learn the skills necessary for their factory work, hospitals, for the problems brought forth by the development of the town, electric primarily for the factory, but given to the workers of the company town as a carrot on a stick. If so many went back to the forest I think it's safe to say life there wasn't that great

[@ramrunsfast]

Hey Business Insider, Since you decided to dig up Ford's past on Fordlandia you might as well do a part two on how Ford left Brazil.

[@niceshotmano]

E com razão

[@ramrunsfast]

@@niceshotmano, eu sei isso. O CEO do Ford corto a gordura da empresa mais a coisa triste e que Ford ajudo um monte de pessoas ter uma boa oportunidade de vivir um estilo de vida de clase media sim precisar fazer uma faculdade.

[@shaileshpal8671]

Thanks 🙏

[@hevartaha7144]

thank you