Editing Amazon River (section)

=== Post-colonial exploitation and settlement ===
[[File:Casaamazonica.jpg|thumb|[[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]] state]]
{{multiple image
| align = right
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| width = 220px
| image1 = Centro de Manaus.jpg
| alt1 = [[Amazon Theatre]] opera house in Manaus built in 1896 during the rubber boom
| caption1 = [[Amazon Theatre]] opera house in Manaus built in 1896 during the rubber boom
| image2 = Catedral Metropolitana de Santarém, Santarém, Pará, 2007.jpg
| alt2 = Metropolitan Cathedral of Santarém, in Santarém, Brazil
| caption2 = Metropolitan Cathedral of Santarém, in [[Santarém, Brazil]]
}}
[[image:Iquitos-2012.jpg|thumb|upright|Iglesia Matriz in [[Iquitos, Peru]]]]
The [[Cabanagem]] revolt (1835–1840) was directed against the white ruling class. It is estimated that from 30% to 40% of the population of [[Grão-Pará Province|Grão-Pará]], estimated at 100,000 people, died.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://noticias.uol.com.br/licaodecasa/materias/fundamental/historia/brasil/ult1689u20.jhtm |title=Cabanagem (1835–1840): Uma das mais sangrentas rebeliões do período regencial |work=[[Universo Online]] Liçao de Casa |author=Renato Cancian |access-date=12 November 2007 |language=pt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102212940/http://noticias.uol.com.br/licaodecasa/materias/fundamental/historia/brasil/ult1689u20.jhtm |archive-date=2 November 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The population of the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin in 1850 was perhaps 300,000, of whom about 175,000 were Europeans and 25,000 were slaves. The Brazilian Amazon's principal commercial city, Pará (now Belém), had from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, including slaves. The town of Manáos, now Manaus, at the mouth of the Rio Negro, had a population between 1,000 and 1,500. All the remaining villages, as far up as [[Tabatinga]], on the Brazilian frontier of Peru, were relatively small.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}}

On 6 September 1850, Emperor [[Pedro II of Brazil]] sanctioned a law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon and gave the Viscount of Mauá ([[Irineu Evangelista de Sousa]]) the task of putting it into effect. He organised the "Companhia de Navegação e Comércio do Amazonas" in Rio de Janeiro in 1852; in the following year it commenced operations with four small steamers, the ''Monarca'' ('Monarch'), the ''Cametá'', the ''Marajó'' and the ''Rio Negro''.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Sobre Escravos e Regatões |url=http://www.snh2015.anpuh.org/resources/anais/39/1439329194_ARQUIVO_ANPUHSobreescravoseregatoes1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.snh2015.anpuh.org/resources/anais/39/1439329194_ARQUIVO_ANPUHSobreescravoseregatoes1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=11 December 2015 |language=pt}}</ref>

At first, navigation was principally confined to the main river; and even in 1857 a modification of the government contract only obliged the company to a monthly service between Pará and Manaus, with steamers of 200 tons cargo capacity, a second line to make six round voyages a year between Manaus and Tabatinga, and a third, two trips a month between Pará and Cametá.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}} This was the first step in opening up the vast interior.

The success of the venture called attention to the opportunities for economic exploitation of the Amazon, and a second company soon opened commerce on the Madeira, Purús, and Negro; a third established a line between Pará and Manaus, and a fourth found it profitable to navigate some of the smaller streams. In that same period, the Amazonas Company was increasing its fleet. Meanwhile, private individuals were building and running small steam craft of their own on the main river as well as on many of its tributaries.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}}

On 31 July 1867, the government of Brazil, constantly pressed by the maritime powers and by the countries encircling the [[upper Amazon]] basin, especially Peru, decreed the opening of the Amazon to all countries, but they limited this to certain defined points: Tabatinga – on the Amazon; Cametá – on the Tocantins; Santarém – on the Tapajós; Borba – on the Madeira, and Manaus – on the Rio Negro. The Brazilian decree took effect on 7 September 1867.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}}

Thanks in part to the [[mercantile]] development associated with [[steamboat]] navigation coupled with the internationally driven demand for [[natural rubber]], the Peruvian city of [[Iquitos]] became a thriving, cosmopolitan center of commerce. Foreign companies settled in Iquitos, from where they controlled the extraction of rubber. In 1851 Iquitos had a population of 200, and by 1900 its population reached 20,000. In the 1860s, approximately 3,000 tons of rubber were being exported annually, and by 1911 annual exports had grown to 44,000 tons, representing 9.3% of Peru's exports.<ref>Historia del Peru, Editorial Lexus. p. 93.</ref> During the [[rubber boom]] it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as [[typhus]] and [[malaria]], killed 40,000 native Amazonians.<ref>La Republica Oligarchic. Editorial Lexus 2000 p. 925.</ref>

The first direct foreign trade with Manaus commenced around 1874. Local trade along the river was carried on by the English successors to the Amazonas Company—the Amazon Steam Navigation Company—as well as numerous small steamboats, belonging to companies and firms engaged in the rubber trade, navigating the Negro, Madeira, Purús, and many other tributaries,{{sfn|Church|1911|p=789}} such as the Marañón, to ports as distant as [[Nauta]], Peru.

By the turn of the 20th century, the exports of the Amazon basin were [[Natural rubber|India-rubber]], [[cacao bean]]s, [[Brazil nut]]s and a few other products of minor importance, such as [[Fur|pelts]] and exotic forest produce ([[resin]]s, barks, woven [[hammock]]s, prized bird [[feather]]s, live animals) and extracted goods, such as [[lumber]] and gold.