Brazil Slide Series: Collection Intro To Brazil, Slide No. 0019.

Rubber tree. The sudden international demand for rubber beginning in the 1870s generated a great interest in the region. Large numbers of (people from northeastern Brazil) flocked to the Amazon Basin in search of new economic opportunities. The rubber boom concentrated around the city of Manaus which witnessed tremendous growth, yet by 1920 competition from Asian rubber plantations abruptly ended this lucrative economic activity and the region's economy entered a long decline.