Red Rubber, Bleeding Trees: Violence, Slavery and Empire in Northwest Amazonia, 1850-1933

This vivid ethno-history explores the complex transformation of north-western Amazonia by the rubber boom from 1850 to 1933. During this period, the region underwent rapid and violent incorporation into the political and economic systems of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Western Europe, and the United States. The author examines the historical myths and realities of north-west Amazonia before its incorporation and then shows how the Indians and environment were radically altered by the rubber boom and international trade. Not merely victims, the Indians both aided and resisted economic and environmental change in subtle and contradictory ways. In 1907 allegations of the systematic enslavement, torture, and murder of Indians by the rubber industry ignited an international scandal linking antislavery power Great Britain to human bondage and focused world attention on Amazonia until the outbreak of World War I.