Editing Amazon River (section)

=== 20th-century development ===
[[File:Manaus-Amazon-NASA.jpg|thumb|[[Manaus]], the largest city in [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]], as seen from a [[NASA]] satellite image, surrounded by the dark [[Rio Negro (Amazon)|Rio Negro]] and the muddy Amazon River]]
[[File:Amazonia fotos aérea região de Manaus 2005 AM Brasil - panoramio (8).jpg|thumb|City of Manaus]]
[[File:Sitio de la Victoria regia, Leticia.JPG|thumb|Floating houses in [[Leticia, Amazonas|Leticia]], [[Colombia]]]]

Since colonial times, the Portuguese portion of the Amazon basin has remained a land largely undeveloped by agriculture and occupied by indigenous people who survived the arrival of European diseases.

Four centuries after the European discovery of the Amazon river, the total cultivated area in its basin was probably less than {{cvt|65|km2|sp=us}}, excluding the limited and crudely cultivated areas among the mountains at its extreme headwaters.{{sfn|Church|1911|p=790}} This situation changed dramatically during the 20th century.

Wary of foreign exploitation of the nation's resources, Brazilian governments in the 1940s set out to develop the interior, away from the seaboard where foreigners owned large tracts of land. The original architect of this expansion was president [[Getúlio Vargas]], with the demand for rubber from the Allied forces in World War II providing funding for the drive.

In the 1960s, economic exploitation of the Amazon basin was seen as a way to fuel the "economic miracle" occurring at the time. This resulted in the development of "Operation Amazon", an economic development project that brought large-scale agriculture and ranching to Amazonia. This was done through a combination of credit and fiscal incentives.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P6k-6rsy7toC&q=operation+amazon+1966&pg=PA32 |title=The Economics of Deforestation in the Amazon: Dispelling the Myths |last=Campari |first=João S. |year=2005 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |isbn=978-1-84542-551-7 |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130235652/https://books.google.com/books?id=P6k-6rsy7toC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=operation+amazon+1966&source=bl&ots=d21-mSw_X5&sig=8GsKcFxm_B_EP5NM6QwdcYl_Rk8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd_aLz3-_SAhWKPBQKHYl7BCsQ6AEIXTAP#v=onepage&q=operation%20amazon%201966&f=false |archive-date=30 November 2017}}</ref>

However, in the 1970s the government took a new approach with the National Integration Program (PIN). A large-scale colonization program saw families from northeastern Brazil relocated to the "land without people" in the Amazon Basin. This was done in conjunction with infrastructure projects mainly the [[Trans-Amazonian Highway]] (''Transamazônica'').<ref name=":0" />

The Trans-Amazonian Highway's three pioneering highways were completed within ten years but never fulfilled their promise. Large portions of the Trans-Amazonian and its accessory roads, such as [[BR-317]] (Manaus-[[Porto Velho]]), are derelict and impassable in the rainy season. Small towns and villages are scattered across the forest, and because its vegetation is so dense, some remote areas are still unexplored.

Many settlements grew along the road from Brasília to Belém with the highway and National Integration Program, however, the program failed as the settlers were unequipped to live in the delicate rainforest ecosystem. This, although the government believed it could sustain millions, instead could sustain very few.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrLl2LxX488C |title=The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon, Updated Edition |last1=Hecht |first1=Susanna B. |last2=Cockburn |first2=Alexander |year=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-02-263-2272-8 |language=en |access-date=23 May 2020 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102051617/https://books.google.com/books?id=XrLl2LxX488C |url-status=live }}</ref>

With a population of 1.9 million people in 2014, Manaus is the largest city on the Amazon. Manaus alone makes up approximately 50% of the population of the largest Brazilian state of [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]]. The racial makeup of the city is 64% [[pardo]] (mulatto and mestizo) and 32% [[White Brazilian|white]].<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/listabl.asp?z=cd&o=7&i=P&c=2094 |title=Síntese de Indicadores Sociais 2000 |publisher=[[Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics|IBGE]] |location=Manaus, Brazil |format=PDF |isbn=978-85-240-3919-5 |access-date=31 January 2009 |year=2000 |language=pt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614232328/http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/listabl.asp?z=cd&o=7&i=P&c=2094 |archive-date=14 June 2011}}</ref>

Although the Amazon river remains undammed, around 412 dams are in operation on the Amazon's tributary rivers. Of these 412 dams, 151 are constructed over six of the main tributary rivers that drain into the Amazon.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/may/06/more-400-dams-amazon-headwaters |last=Hill |first=David |title=More than 400 dams planned for the Amazon and headwaters |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 May 2014 |location=London |access-date=18 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729132329/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/may/06/more-400-dams-amazon-headwaters |archive-date=29 July 2017}}</ref> Since only 4% of the Amazon's hydropower potential has been developed in countries like Brazil,<ref name=Wohl/>{{rp|35}} more damming projects are underway and hundreds more are planned.<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150419-amazon-dams-hydroelectric-deforestation-rivers-brazil-peru |last=Fraser |first=Barbara |title=Amazon Dams Keep the Lights On But Could Hurt Fish, Forests |website=National Geographic |date=19 April 2015 |access-date=25 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729182257/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150419-amazon-dams-hydroelectric-deforestation-rivers-brazil-peru/ |archive-date=29 July 2017 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> After witnessing the negative effects of environmental degradation, sedimentation, navigation and flood control caused by the [[Three Gorges Dam]] in the Yangtze River,<ref name=Wohl/>{{rp|279}} scientists are worried that constructing more dams in the Amazon will harm its biodiversity in the same way by "blocking fish-spawning runs, reducing the flows of vital oil nutrients and clearing forests".<ref name="auto1"/> Damming the Amazon River could potentially bring about the "end of free flowing rivers" and contribute to an "[[ecosystem collapse]]" that will cause major social and environmental problems.<ref name="theguardian.com" />