Author(s): LARREA-ALCÁZAR, D. M.; CUVI, N.; VALENTIM, J. F.; DIAZ, L.; VIDAL, S.; PALACIO, G.

Summary: The objective of this chapter is to identify the main economic processes that occurred in the Brazilian, Andean, and Guyanese Amazon during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until the 1970s. Specifically, the chapter describes the history of extractivism and the effects of geopolitical reconfiguration in the Amazon after the processes of emancipation or decolonization. It analyses the extractive history based on quina barks (species of the genus Chinchona, Rubiaceae) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis, Euphorbiacae), as well as the characteristics and practices developed by social actors related to the local and regional economy that arose from these exploitations. It also includes a synthesis of the history of the emergence of the extractive economy based on the exploitation of oil, minerals (mainly gold), and the beginning of wildlife trafficking and the basis for the emergence of mechanized agriculture, intensive livestock herding, and mega-infrastructure, among others. Finally, it identifies the main lessons learned and key messages from the use of "historical commodities" in the Amazon and their implications in contemporary patterns of use of other resources in the Amazon, such as the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa, Lecythidaceae).

Publication year: 2021

Types of publication: Book sections

Unit: Embrapa Acre

Keywords: Abordagem histórica, Amazonia, Desenvolvimento Socio-Econômico, Década de 1970, Economic, census and historical data, Extrativismo na Amazônia, Socioeconomic development, Século XIX, Século XX