Fordlândia

Fordlândia (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɔʁdʒiˈlɐ̃dʒɐ], Ford-land) is the name given of a district and its adjacent area of 14.268 km² in the city of Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. It is located on the east banks of the Tapajós river roughly 300 km south of the city of Santarém. It was originally established by American industrialist Henry Ford in the Amazon Rainforest in 1928 as a prefabricated industrial town intended to be inhabited by 10 thousand people to secure a source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations of the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Ford had negotiated a deal with the Brazilian government granting him a concession of 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi) of land on the banks of the Rio Tapajós near the city of Santarém, Brazil, in exchange for a 9% share in the profits generated. Ford's project was ultimately a total failure and the city was abandoned in 1934.