There are two themes of the Brazilian government concerning the peripheral areas of the country. One is the need to establish Brazilian development in the isolated areas in order to prevent the political loss of those areas. There is zero probability of the loss of such areas but the concern is a real element of Brazilian politics. In the 19th century there was real concern about such political losses. After all Brazil did acquire territory that Bolivia claimed but had not developed.

The second theme was for the development of frontier areas as a outlet for the footlose poor of the Northeast and elsewhere. During bad times in the NOrthesast the citys of the South such as Rio de Janiero and São Paulo could usually expect a flood of poverty-striken migrants arriving to live in the shanty towns.

In the 1970's the Brazilian government decided to create a settlement program in the western state of Rondonia. The program was implemented by the building of a penetration road from the southeastern states to Rondonia. It was called BR364. It was unpaved and in the rainy season became impassable but it was enough to open Rondonia to a flood of migrants.

The program initially was to be a homesteading program in which a families would receive 100 acres of land. The families had to clear the land and build a house to get full title to the land. The government thought there would be tens of thousands of families participating in the project; instead it turned out that more than a million people moved to Rondonia. Later after major problems developed with the homesteading program the government switched to a program in which ranchers would be given large parcels of land on which they were to raise cattle. However, first the story of the homesteading program will be given.

The families participating in the program did cut the trees on their land and burn them. They built simple houses. They planted a variety of crops, but to their dismay none of them grew. The soil was sandy with only a thin layer of top soil. In the rainy season the land became flooded and there was severe siol erosion.

In the dry season the parched land was bare of vegetation and the winds picked what little top soil there was and blew it around. The air became so thick with dust that planes could not fly. After a couple of heart-breaking years most of the homesteaders moved, either to the little towns that were developing or on to the next state of Acre.

Another problem drove the homesteading from their land. There were native Amerindians in the region. They raided the homestead settlement taking supplies and sometimes burning the houses. They often killed the settlers' dogs. The attacks were not always a matter of conflicting uses of the land. Sometimes the attacks were tribal revenge for attacks carried out by Brazilian poachers operating in the territories where the Amerindians lived. It was a matter of tribal justice; if one of the members of one tribe kills a member of another tribe then the victim's tribe kills anyone of the other tribe regardless if that person had anything to do with the first killing.

The Amerindians were devastated by epidemics of childhood diseases like measles, mumps and chicken pox brought by the setter families. Influenza was also a major killer. The Brazilian Indian agency tried to reach the Amerindian tribes and innoculate them before they came into contact with other Brazilians. They were not always successful.

One of the tribal groups was called the Uru Eu Wau Wau. During the Rondonian settlement program about ten percent of this tribe died of epidemics before the innoculation program was implemented.

The Amerindian tribes were not the only native group in Rondonia to be adversely affected by the settlement program. There were rubber tappers (serengeiros) who were descendants of those Brazilians who had come into the region during the rubber boom of the late 19th century. Their way of living was compatible with the forest whereas that of the recent settlers was not.

(To be continued.)