Date of Award

Spring 6-10-2025

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department

Geography

First Advisor

Jane Henderson

Second Advisor

Susanne Freidberg

Abstract

In 1957, the Brazilian government approved Law No.1310, establishing a free port in the city of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas. Politicians at the time argued that such a project was essential to help mitigate the unfortunate economic circumstances the state faced due to its geographical isolation. Ten years later, the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil expanded that mission through Decree No.288, thus creating what is now known as the Zona Franca de Manaus (ZFM, Free Trade Zone, or FTZ), an area with a series of fiscal incentives to foment industrialization in the Amazon region. The Zona Franca aimed to bring development to that area, then seen as an empty and miserable space ripe for intervention. The goal of this study is to better understand the geopolitical and internal conditions that enabled government officials to create such a narrative to justify development, as well as the specific tools they utilized to understand, depict, and manage the Amazon region. Specifically, this thesis examines the emergence of development discourse during the Cold War and the frameworks for economic policy it created, as well as how the Amazon was discursively transformed into an empty space ripe for development. The key question driving this thesis is: what discourses and depictions of the Brazilian Amazon were used to justify the creation of the Zona Franca de Manaus? The Zona Franca project and the push for “civilizing” the Amazon more broadly help illustrate that development discourse becomes a reality and then justifies further intervention over time, even across different groups on the political spectrum.

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