(Spring 2027)

This project traces comparisons and connections between the Amazon and the Mediterranean in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking its cue from the fact that throughout the rubber export boom that reshaped the region during this time, the Amazon was often referred to as the “Mediterranean of South America.” This moniker was based in part on speculations by geographers and geologists that the Amazon River basin had once been an interior sea, but it was also bolstered by ties of immigration and trade between these two aqueous regions. In addition to shedding light on a crucial moment of transition in the capitalist world-system, Rio-mar, Mare internum illuminates the historical processes through which transnational regions are (re)configured—in particular, regions where economic and political power revolves around water.