One material we all use, all the time, brought them together: rubber. Widely used by pre-Columbian civilizations, the rubber was rediscovered in the 18th century by the French explorer Charles Marie de La Condamine. In the 19th century, men will improve its production and its use, in particular for the manufacture of bicycle and car tires. These names, you have already heard them: Charles Goodyear, John Dunlop and the brothers Michelin. And this rubber, Henry Ford, the car tycoon needs it en masse for the tires of his famous car: la Ford T. But at the start of the 20th century, the English have completely mastered this resource. Ford, one of the richest men in the world, decided in 1927 to build his own rubber plantation in the heart of theAmazon. It’s the start of Fordlandia !
A documentary account of Adrien Morat
Guest :
Thomas Cantaloube, journalist and talented writer of thrillers stuck to French history in its former colonies, including his latest to be published in May 2023:
May 67 in Gallimard’s Série Noire collection around the bloodily repressed strike movement in Guadeloupe.
In 2017, he published in Mediapart a series of reports on theAmazonia, the reality behind the myth including one on
Fordlândia, the Amazonian industrial utopia
Discography:
Roosevelt SYKES Henry ford blues (1930)
Gilberto GIL reforest
Stephan EICHER To our lonely hearts (2022)
