The story of Fordlandia, Henry Ford's attempt at making an American utopia in Brazil
Buried deep into the Brazilian jungle sit the remains of what was once Henry Ford’s utopian city. A place where one of the richest and most influential men on the planet wanted not to make money, but to - quote - help develop that wonderful and fertile land.
And I can tell you right now that Henry Ford definitely didn’t make any money out of his dream city. In fact, it turned out to be one of his biggest failures - but we’ll get to that later.
So stick around until the end of this video to find out the story of Fordlandia, an American attempt at making an American rubber factory and an American-style community in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.
Thanks for watching & don't forget to subscribe!
___________________________________________________________
The story of Fordlandia - Henry Ford's attempt at making an American utopia in Brazil,ford,fordlandia,ford brazil,fordlandia brazil,the story of fordlandia,ford belterra,belterra,henry ford,abanoned cities,ghost town,henry ford rubber,amazon rainforest,ford amazon,ford rainforest
Пікірлер: 108
My grandfather, David Riker, son of a confederate, lived in Santarem and was a part of the building of Fordlandia. He acted as an interpreter and supplied beef to the workers. He planted the first ceremonial rubber tree as well. My father, Octavio was one of his three sons who came to Detroit to live and work for Henry Ford, and I and my siblings grew up in Michigan.
If ole Henry had only listened to the natives. No matter where or the situation, the locals know best.
This is the first I've heard of it. Very interesting!
In theory this was a great idea ... a bit like Esperanto (and who speaks that these days?). Some of the problems with Fordlandia were truly self inflicted. Banning things like football (in Brazil, of all places) and forcing the natives to eat American style food, among other things, and having a lack of empathy for local customs, etc. In the end, if you don’t listen to the locals, you’re fighting an uphill battle.
Hello from Canada, New subscriber, I find your videos very informative and interesting. Keep up the great videos, looking forward to the next one!
Ford was both brilliant and arrogant. Had he bothered to consult them (Brazil had excellent agronomists and plant scientists) he would have had more success. ironically, he did bring in rubber tree experts, and by 1943 they had developed a fire blight-resistant strain of rubber tree. Getulio Vargas liked and respected Ford, and eventually Ford hired Brazilian managers who were abled to adapt the FORD culture to the Brazilians. good exposition-and a warning to those who think you can "conquer" the amazon region. American billionaire D.K. Ludwig tried the same thins years later (Jari, 1970s), and was defeated as well.
Great video! Thank you
Agricultural experts to Henry Ford: " Your a long way from home"... "This is Brazil !
He might have succeeded if he understood “when in Rome do as the Romans”. (In this case When in Brazil...)
You have some of the best car content 👌
I didn't know roughly this City and it's amazing history ! Tks :)
Great research. Thanks for the video.
Interesting history lesson. Could you do one on Manaus? Thanks.
That was very interesting.
Very interesting thanks for the video
Man you should do one about the Hershey city in Cuba!
Very interesting. Too bad it didn't work out. It would have been great for both Brazil and Ford. Looks like they were able to learn from the original and Belterra was a much better project. What doomed them after WWII was the invention of synthetic rubber and other high grade plastics that also didn't need rubber by-products or derivatives.
Very interesting
love Ford and love Henry Ford! He was awesome and helped make America what it is today more than anyone else. So he had a failure - who doesn't? get over it
Good story