A Geographical Analysis of Fordlândia

This article was originally an essay-style assignment which aimed to critically analyse a 'current affairs' article. The themes which were explored in the above mentioned article, whilst not directly acknowledged by the author, were post-colonialism and utopia; or more so a sense of a failed utopia on Henry Ford’s behalf. The article itself lacked any geographical analysis of the themes mentioned, thus the purpose of this article is to analyse the article and link it to appropriate themes and ideologies, as well as drawing upon the work of key figures within each topic.

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Background of Fordlândia

In 1927, Henry Ford purchased lands in the Tapajós River valley with the intention of building the first ‘business city’ in the Amazon; Fordlândi. It contained services such as a hospital and a school, as well as piped water, electricity and employment (Sena, 2008). It seemed like the perfect utopia. Ford’s aim was to trigger industrial revolution in the Amazon basin, similarly to what he had done in USA twenty years prior, however, upon the company’s arrival, they were faced with unforeseen environmental and cultural challenges, which led to its failure and Ford’s bad reputation internationally (Barkemeyer and Figge, 2010).

Tensions regarding living and working conditions of the indigenous workers began rising at the plantation. By 1931, Ford decided to send Archibald Johnston to manage the plantation who turned Fordlândia into a ‘typical American town’ (Collections of The Henry Ford, No Date). Eventually, local workers turned against Johnston too; they began rioting and protesting, they destroyed company machinery, and chased Johnston and his colleagues into a jungle threatening him with machetes. Further, the forced American lifestyle was far from similar to that of a Brazilian one. Despite this, Johnston re-established Ford’s authority in Fordlândia and the plantation at last through the introduction of punch clocks and enhanced prohibition (ban on production, import and sale of alcoholic beverages), which caused further conflict as it went against their way of life. In protest, they built their own brothel and bar and called it the “Island of Innocence” (Canales, 2020). According to his own collections, one of the main causes of the failure of Fordlândia was the lack of Ford’s understanding of the native culture and his attempt at trying to impose an American work schedule and lifestyle on native Brazilians, who were alien to it (Collections of The Henry Ford, No Date).

During WW2, Fordlândia continued producing rubber despite the lack of need for it. Eventually, a leaf disease epidemic alongside continuous conflict with the workers resulted in a drastic reduction of production. Ford didn’t give up and moved the plantation downstream to a fresh patch of soil in 1933, however, this plantation failed also. By the end of the war, Ford didn’t want to resume production in Fordlândia as synthetic rubber was introduced, therefore the need for his plantation disappeared (Canales, 2020). He gave up Fordlândia and its plantation to the Brazilian government in 1945, who continued rubber production. Fordlândia itself, remains abandoned to this day (Fig. 3) (Collections of The Henry Ford, No Date).

Geographical Themes: Utopia

Whilst one of the aims of the plantation was to produce rubber, which could then be used by Ford Motors in vehicle manufacturing, that wasn’t Ford’s main goal. The plan was to “cultivate Ford’s idea of the perfect American society based on his morals and ideology” (Canales, 2020), which made his plans seem very utopian. A utopia, as described by Pinder, is an “ideal society, state or commonwealth in which the problems of the present have been transcended” (Pinder, 2005:795). Utopian geography in a way, relates to imaginative geographies. Utopias are often thought of or described as imaginary worlds in another space or time. This idea is rooted from Thomas More’s 1516 book, ‘Utopia” (More, 1516). The phrase itself, is a play on Greek words which translate to ‘good place’ and ‘no place’, further highlighting its imaginative nature (Pinder, 2005).

Canales recognises the utopian nature of Fordlândia in the title of the article, calling it a ‘utopian city’ (Canales, 2020). Ford’s idea of his utopia was very particular, nostalgic in a way; a small, mainly white, Midwestern town, which he associated with his childhood (Weber, 2018). Fordlândia was an attempt to establish a picturesque American society in the middle of the Amazon (Canales, 2020). The Amazon is very different culturally, therefore it could be argued that he was trying to impose the Midwestern and mainly white culture upon the indigenous people, as he was well known for his racist and anti-Semitic ideologies. Some have consequently described his vision of Fordlândia as a culturally insensitive and paternalistic. Interestingly, despite Ford designing Fordlândia as his perfect utopia, he never once visited it; he ran the whole operation remotely from his home in Michigan and through his plantation manager (Weber, 2018).

The article from the get-go highlights the sense of Ford’s failed utopia; Fordlândia is now abandoned, which is stated in the title of the article (Canales, 2020). Whilst Ford was considered a great industrialist, he didn’t take a lot of things into consideration when planning his utopia, such as social or environmental conditions. In a book review of Greg Grandin’s “The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City”, Robinson states that “utopian ideals met Amazonian reality in scenarios that allow the reader to wonder how things could have gone so badly wrong for so long” (Robinson, 2010:239), which further highlights Ford’s failure in his utopia due to his lack of preparation, and some may argue, arrogance in assuming that things would be done the same way in the Amazon as they do in Dearborn, Michigan.

A key figure in utopian geography is Sir Thomas More who defined a utopia as a description of an imaginary ideal. More specifically, More’s Utopia (More, 1516) is a description of a social structure (Goodey, 1970). He was inspired by letters of Columbus, Vespucci and Poliziano which talked about the discovery of new worlds. More’s Utopia was also closely affiliated to Plato’s city in Republic (Plato, 375BC), as they both imagined alternative societies (Vieira, 2010).

Whilst More originally described a utopia as a self-contained island community with an ideal mode of government and shared culture and ways of life, over time the interpretation of a utopia has changed, and many authors have taken the concept as well as meaning and adapted it for themselves. He also wasn’t the first to write about such a concept, examples include, Christine de Pizan, who wrote “The Book of the City of Ladies” in 1405 (Pizan, 1405). Pizan was a well-known feminist and in this book, she painted the idea of a utopia where women were safe from patriarchy (Hodgkinson, 2016).

Fordlândia is an example of a utopia. Ford desired a self-contained community, which also met his American standards and aimed to meet those, which couldn’t be achieved back in America. He encountered many issues and whilst he aimed to provide the indigenous people with good conditions, things got lost in translation and Fordlândia, and consequently Ford’s utopia, failed. The question of whether utopia can be achieved is still argued to this day, and no known society is yet to have achieved this ideal state (Redd, 2015).

Geographical Themes: Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism aims to analyse the “critical connections between past and present, metropolis and colony, coloniser and colonised” (Blunt, 2005:176). It is an important part of historical and political geography. Specifically, the literary theory of postcolonialism traces European colonialism all over the world and the impacts it has on the colonised (Hamadi, 2014). Whilst this isn’t mentioned by the author, Canales, it is a theme which can be discovered upon further reading.

For a long time, Brazil had been the world’s main supplier of rubber, this was the case until the early 1900s. In 1876, Henry Wickham stole thousands of rubber plant seeds from the Amazon and smuggled them to England, to then redistribute them to European colonies in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia. Since the rubber tree thrives in warm and tropical environments, the colonial plantations of rubber performed well there and soon outperformed the traditional Brazilian ones. As a result, Brazil was no longer the main supplier of rubber and the rubber barons of the European colonies dominated the trade, consequently being able to set up a cartel which meant that they now had control of the prices. This wasn’t ideal for Henry Ford, who up until now had controlled most of the raw materials which went into the production of cars – it threatened his business and played a major role in his decision of building Fordlândia as he wanted to have his own supply of rubber. Brazil was eager to get back to being the world leader in production of rubber, and thus was more than happy to give Ford two million acres of land, where he could build his own plantation, even if it meant he was colonising them in the process (see Fig. 4, rubber trees in Fordlândia) (Weber, 2018).

Key figures within this theme include Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak or Homi Bhabha; all of which have undertook postcolonial analysis, but Said is said to be the most prominent figure within this field (Moore-Gilbert, 1997). In 1978, Said wrote one of his famous works, ‘Orientalism’, in which he wrote about how the West’s depiction of the East’s as ‘Oriental’, or ‘other’. He argued that orientalism is a “built-in system or method by which the West not only socially constructed and actually produced the Orient, but controlled and managed it through a hegemony of power relations” (Burney, 2012:23). He urged that the concept of ‘the Orient’ is purely a European invention, and a result of colonialism (Burney, 2012).

Postcolonialism could be considered as the reason for why there was a need for Fordlândia in the first place. Wickham, in a way, encouraged further colonisation of e.g., Sri Lanka or Malaysia, by metaphorically feeding them with rubber plantations so that the European colonisers, as in rubber barons, could make money. Ford would not have needed to build his own plantation if this was not the case, he did so in order to have full control of raw rubber material for Ford Motors (Weber, 2018). Whilst postcolonialism usually looks at the impacts of those colonised, and no doubt the rubber plantations in Sri Lanka had lasting effects on the colonies, in this case it is rather the knock-on effect it had which resulted in essentially the formation of another colony – an American colony in the Amazon

Conclusions

Taking everything into account, Fordlândia is an unfortunate story of Henry Ford’s failed utopia which was based on his ideals of a reminiscent, small and mainly white, American town. It could perhaps be argued that his racist and anti-Semitic views played a role in his perfect model of Fordlândia - a Midwestern and mainly white utopia. Certainly, the miscommunication between Ford and the people of the Amazon, as well as his forcefulness of American lifestyles on these indigenous people begs the question as to whether the reasoning behind Ford’s, in other words, colonisation of the Tapajós River valley was driven by things other than the need for control of the rubber industry. Further, themes such as postcolonialism also played a big role in the formation of Fordlândia as it could be argued that it is one of the main reasons why there was a need for Fordlândia in the first place.

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