... of food crops. It was estimated during the 1920's that in the whole Amazon Region there was scarcely a hundred square miles devoted to any kind of agriculture, let alone the production of local supplies of food . In the interior many of the smaller towns whose names still appear on standard maps are entirely abandoned, engulfed in the rapidly advancing jungle. It is said in Brazil that if ... money is to be made from the most poverty-stricken of areas, the Syrian traders will make it. In the Amazon the Syrians had taken over most of the retail trading in the 1920's. By advancing loans ....

• Word Count: 3885
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate