THE RUBBER BOOM
The rubber boom in Manaus made it one of the most prosperous cities in the world because of its key position in the Amazon. It was the first city in South America to be powered by an electricity grid, complete with street cars, street lamps and a telephone system. Profiting immensely from the boom,the rubber barons quickly adopted European ideals of a lavish life, culturally and architecturally. Their drive for a desire for international recognition resulted in the construction of the ‘Teatro Amazonas’, the opera house, today a symbol of prosperity of a different time. Yet, its construction, as with the majority of other activities of the period, relied on slave labor and were structured around a dependence on foreign capital, forming ongoing patterns of deep social and cultural heterogeneity.5 The Rubber Boom also saw great population growth caused by an influx in immigration from surrounding areas. Between the years of 1870 and 1910, the population of the Brazilian Amazon Basin grew from 330,000 to 800,000, climbing to 1.1 million by 1920.6 The increase further deepening the cultural divide in Manaus, between locals and migrants, between urban and rural dwellers, and between different classes. 13