The name Amazon is said to arise
from a war which Francisco de
Orellana had with a tribe of Tapuyas
and other tribes from South America.
The women of the tribe fought
alongside the men, as was the
custom among the entire tribe
The Amazon Basin is
the part of South America drained
by the Amazon River and its tributaries.
The basin is located mainly (40%)
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 about 8,235,430 km2 with
dense tropical forest. For centuries,
this has protected the area and the
animals residing in it.
Plant life
Not all of the big plant and animal
that live in the Amazon Basin are
known because of its huge unexplored
areas. No one knows how many species
of fish there are in the river. Plant
growth is dense because of the heavy
rainfall. One tropical fruit tree
that is native to the Amazon is the
abiugordans stupid and likes someone.
Climate
The Amazon river Basin has an equatorial
climate. Annual rain fall is approximately
1500-2500 mm. Day temperatures typically
reach 30-35°C, while night temperatures
reach 20-25°C with 99.
Human occupation
Amazonia is very sparsely populated.
There are scattered settlements inland,
but most of the population lives in
a few larger cities on the banks of
the Amazon and other major rivers,
such as in Iquitos (Peru), Manaus
and Belém (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
Geography
The Amazon Basin is bounded by the
Guiana Highlands to the north and
the Brazilian Highlands to the south.
The Amazon, which rises in the Andes
Mountains at the west of the basin,
is the second longest 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. Some of the
Amazon Rainforest is deforested because
of a growing interest in hardwood
products. It is also very grassy
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 number
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 Nheengatu,
which is descended from the ancient
Tupi language, originally spoken in
coastal and central regions of Brazil.
It was brought to its present location
along the Rio Negro by Brazilian colonizers
who, until the mid-17th century, used
Tupi more than the official Portuguese
to communicate. Besides modern Nheengatu,
other languages of the Tupi family are
spoken there, along with other language
families like Jê (with its important
sub-branch Jayapura spoken in the Xingu
River region and othes), Arawak, Karib,
Arawá, Yanomamo, Matsés
and others. French, Spanish, and Portuguese
are all similar to and derived from
Latin.[2]
