Source: WTL photograph© on site in the Amazon River Basin.
Comment: This is a typical view of the Amazonian rain forest. The first scientific work on Indian customs, farming, herbal medicine, and fauna in the Amazon is Cristóbal de Acuña's A New Discovery of the Great River of the Amazons (1641). The next great work on the Amazon was done by Henry Walter Bates and Richard Spruce in 1848, when they classified over 15,000 species heretofore unknown to Western science. Commercial exploitation of the Amazon's rubber trees began after Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization in 1844 and John Boyd Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire in 1888. In the 1890's Brazil produced 88% of the world's rubber exports. By 1900, Manaus, the commercial center of Amazonia, was one of the richest cities in the world. After World War I, Amazonian rubber production declined dramatically.
For a commented tour of Manaus, see: => Manaus Index.

Here is a map of the rubber producing regions in South America as borrowed from Charles C. Mann's book 1493 (p. 328):