Amazon River basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. Image File history File links Amazon_river_basin. ... Image File history File links Amazon_river_basin. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... This article is about the river. ...

Geographic studies

The Amazon river basin is located mainly (50%) in Brazil, but also stretches into Peru and several other countries. The South American rain forest of the Amazon is the largest in the world, covering more than 7,000,000 km² (2 million square miles) with dense tropical forest. For centuries, this has protected the area and the animals residing in it. A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall. ...

Plant life

Not all of the plant and animal life of the Amazon is known because of its hugely unexplored areas. No one knows how many species of fish there are in the river. Dense plant growth occurs because rainfall and regrowth of leaves occur gradually throughout each year. There is a huge diversity of tree species, but trees of the Amazon usually have smooth, straight trunks and large leaves. WOOO! jmhgsdbqw

Amazonian indigenous peoples

The Amazon Basin includes a diversity of traditional inhabitants as well as biodiversity in both flora and fauna. These peoples have lived in the rain forest for thousands of years, and their lifestyles and cultures are well-adapted to this environment. Contrary to popular belief, their subsistence living methods do not significantly harm the environment. In the past few decades, the real threat to the Amazon Basin has been deforestation and cattle ranching by large transnational corporations. People that live here also consume an extremely small amount of energy generated by plants and primary producers. Their energy-use percentage in the world is nearly zero. This is potentially helpful to the environment. cock and balls....

History

The Amazon basin has been continuously inhabited for more than 12,000 years, since the first proven arrivals of people in South America. Those peoples, when found by European explorers in the 16th century, were scattered in hundreds of small tribes with no writing system except for the part ruled by the Inca Empire. Perhaps as many as 90% of the inhabitants died due to European diseases within the first hundred years of contact, many tribes perished even before direct contact with Europeans, as their germs traveled faster than explorers, contaminating village after village.

Upon the European discovery of America, the Portuguese and the Spanish signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the country into a large Spanish western part, which encompassed all of the then unknown North America and Central America, and western South America, the Portuguese had Eastern South America, what would become modern eastern Brazil. The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas, Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas), signed at Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain), June 7, 1494, divided the world outside of Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1550 km) west of...

By the late 17th century Portuguese/Brazilian explorers had dominated much of the Amazon basin because the mouth of the Amazon river lay within the Portuguese side, as well as the Brazilian inward exploration ventures such as the Bandeiras, which originated in São Paulo and conquered much of what is today central Brazil (states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás) and then proceeded to the Amazon. In 1750 the Treaty of Madrid certified the transfer of most of the Amazon basin and the region of Mato Grosso to the Portuguese side, hugely contributing to the continental size of what is now Brazil. This article is about the river. ... The Monument to the Bandeiras, a stone sculpture group by Victor Brecheret, located in São Paulo, Brazil Bandeirantes were participants in the Bandeiras, expeditions organised by the inhabitants of the then poor village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga together with allied Indians to enslave other Indians... Nickname: Motto: Non ducor, duco(Latin) I am not led, I lead Location in the São Paulo state. ... There is more than one Treaty of Madrid: Treaty of Madrid (1526), in which France renounced claims in Italy, surrendered Burgundy to Spain, and abandoned suzerainty over Flanders and Artois Treaty of Madrid (1670), in which Spain recognized British possessions in the Caribbean Sea, such as Jamaica and the Cayman... Flag of Mato Grosso See other Brazilian States Capital Cuiabá Largest City Cuiabá Area 903,357. ...

Brazilian General Rondon is also reckoned as a major 19th century explorer of the Amazon as well as a defender of its native peoples, the Brazilian state of Rondônia is named after him. Flag of Rondônia See other Brazilian States Capital Porto Velho Largest City Porto Velho Area 238,512. ...

In 1903 Brazil bought a large portion of northern Bolivia and made it its current state of Acre. In 2006 the new socialist Bolivian president Evo Morales talked about "getting it back. The Brazilians got it for the price of a horse". No action was taken and the two nations remain friendly. In the late 19th century, a US-Brazilian joint venture failed to implement the Madeira-Mamoré railway, in the state of Rondônia, with a huge cost in money and lives. Juan Evo Morales Ayma (born October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro), popularly known as Evo (IPA: ), is the President of Bolivia, and has been declared to be the countrys first indigenous head of state since the Spanish Conquest over 470 years ago. ... Flag of Rondônia See other Brazilian States Capital Porto Velho Largest City Porto Velho Area 238,512. ...

Intense deforestation began in the second half of the 20th century, population growth and development plans such as the failed Brazilian Trans-Amazonian Highway. In the late 1980s the Brazilian Chico Mendes, who lived in Acre, became internationally famous for his passionate defense of the forest and its people, especially after he was shot to death by farmers whose interests he harmed. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... The Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) is the third longest highway in Brazil, 4,800 km long, running through the Brazilian states of Pará and Amazonas. ... Chico Mendes on a river in Amazonia. ... Flag of Acre See other Brazilian States Capital Rio Branco Largest City Rio Branco Area 152 522 km² Population   - Total   - Density 557 526 3. ...

Demographics

The Amazon basin is inhabited by roughly 26 million people, of which 11 million on the Brazilian side. The two largest cities in the Amazon basin are Manaus (1.4 million, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas) and Belém (1 million, capital of the Brazilian state of Pará). Location in Brazil Country Brazil Region North State Amazonas Founded 1669 Government  - Mayor Serafim Corrêa (PSB) Area  - City 11. ... Nickname: Local da cidade de Belém, no estado do Pará State Pará County Belém Government  - Mayor Duciomar Gomes da Costa Area  - City 1,070 km²  (413. ...

Cities

Amazonia is not heavily populated. There are a few cities along the Amazon's banks, such as Iquitos, Peru and scattered settlements inland, but most of the population lives in cities, such as Manaus in Brazil. In many regions, the forest has been cleared for soy bean plantations and ranching (the most extensive non-forest use of the land) and some of the inhabitants harvest wild rubber latex and Brazil nuts. This is a form of extractive farms, where the trees are not cut down, and thus this is a relatively sustainable human impact. Look up city, City in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Iquitos is the largest city in the rainforest of Peru. ... Location in Brazil Country Brazil Region North State Amazonas Founded 1669 Government  - Mayor Serafim Corrêa (PSB) Area  - City 11. ... Binomial name Glycine max Soybeans (US) or soya beans (UK) (Glycine max) are a high-protein legume (Family Fabaceae) grown as food for both humans and livestock. ... // This article is about crop plantations. ... Ranching is the raising of cattle or sheep on rangeland, although one might also speak of ranching with regard to less common livestock such as elk, bison or emu. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... Binomial name Bertholletia excelsa Humb. ...

The land

The Amazon basin is bounded by the Guiana highlands in the north and the Brazilian highlands in the south. The Amazon, which rises in the Andes Mountains at the west of the basin, is the second largest river in the world. It covers a distance of about 6,400 km before draining into the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon and its tributaries form the largest volume of water. The Amazon accounts for about 20% of the total water carried to the oceans by rivers. Guiana (also known as the Guiana highlands or the Guiana shield) forms a portion of the northern coast of South America. ... Planes view of the Andes, Peru. ...

Languages

The most widely spoken language in the Amazon is Portuguese, followed closely by Spanish. On the Brazilian side Portuguese is spoken by at least 98% of the population, whilst in the Spanish-speaking countries there can still be found a large amount of speakers of Native American languages, though Spanish easily predominates.

There are hundreds of native languages still spoken in the Amazon, most of which are spoken by only a handful of people, and thus seriously endangered. One of the most widely spoken languages in the Amazon is Reengage, which is actually descended from the ancient Tupi language, originally spoken in coastal and central regions of Brazil, and brought to its present location along the Rio Negro by Brazilian colonizers, which until the mid-18th century used Tupi more than the official Portuguese to communicate. Other than modern Reengage, other languages of the Tupi Family are spoken there, along with other language families like Jê (with its important subbranch Jayapura spoken in the Xingu River region and others), Arawak, Karib, Arawá, Yanomamo, Matsés and others. French, Spanish, and Portuguese are all similar to and derived from Latin. The Tupi language group consists of 6 languages in the Tupi-Guarani sublanguage family: Tupi Antigo, Nhengatu, Tupinkin, Potiguara, Omagua, and Cocoma. ... The Negro (Spanish: black) River, the great northern tributary of the Amazon River and the largest blackwater river in the world, has its sources along the watershed between the Orinoco and the Amazon basins, and also connects with the Orinoco by way of the Casiquiare canal. ... The Ge languages (also Je, Ge, Jean, Ye, Gean) are spoken by the Ge, a group of indigenous peoples in Brazil. ... A workers mural in Jayapura, Indonesia Jayapura City (Indonesian: Kota Jayapura) is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. ... The Xingu River in Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. ... The Arawakan languages (also Arahuacan, Arawakanas, Arahuacano, Maipurean, Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúrean) are a hypothetical indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean. ... Arauan (also Arahuan, Arawan, Arawán, Madi, Arawa, Arauán) is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil (Amazonas, Mato Grosso) and Peru. ... The Yanomami (also spelled Yanomamö and sometimes written with an ogonek under the first a as Yąnomamö) are an indigenous people of Brazil and Venezuela. ... The Matsés are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. ...

Economy

Most people in the Amazon region live off fishing and basic agriculture, and especially in the southern part of the Brazilian side, cattle herding, which is extremely destructive of the forest. One important exception is the Zona Franca de Manaus (Free Zone of Manaus), created by the Brazilian government in the 1970s to implement light industries in the region, mostly electronics and motorcycles. Contrary to what might be believed, this light industrialization is very little pollutive and actually, according to some environmentalists, has helped save the rainforest around Manaus by creating job opportunities and education, thus driving people away from the heavily damaging subsistence and slash-and-burn agriculture. Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering. ... Politics of Brazil takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Brazil is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ... Location in Brazil Country Brazil Region North State Amazonas Founded 1669 Government  - Mayor Serafim Corrêa (PSB) Area  - City 11. ... Assarting in Finland in 1892 Slash and burn (a specific practice that may be part of shifting cultivation or swidden-fallow agriculture) is an agricultural procedure widely used in forested areas. ...

External links

• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law See Amazon River. Peace Palace Library]
• Save the Amazon rainforest
• Information and a map of the Amazon's watershed
• The Amazon basin : Fluvial ecosystems - Wetlands - Fluvial dynamics - Economic importance - An uncertain future (french)
• Amazon biogeography (French, English, Spanish)
• Amazon Alliance-For Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the Amazon Basin (English, Spanish)

Dense plant growth because the rainfall and regrowth of leaves occur gradually throughout each year. Huge Diversity of tree species but usually have smooth, straight trunks and large leaves.

• / Herndon and Gibbon Lieutenants United States Navy The First North American Explorers of the Amazon Valley, by Historian Normand E. Klare. Actual Reports from the explorers are compared with present Amazon Basin conditions.