Claiming to have come across a warlike tribe of natives, with whom he fought, he likened them to the Amazons of Greek mythology, and hence named the river Río de las Amazonas.

The rise of the Andes and the linkage of the Brazilian and Guyana bedrock shields, blocked the river and caused the Amazon to become a vast inland sea.

Three million years later, the ocean level receded enough to expose the Central American isthmus and allow mass migration of mammal species between the Americas.

Conflicting issues arose between what was granted by law in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), and the subsequent reality of colonial expansion: the Spanish, eastward from the Pacific coastal plains (though restrained by the Andes), and the Portuguese, westward (aided by the waterways and lowlands of the mighty Amazon).

The Treaty of Madrid (13 January 1750) – that determined the border between the Spanish possessions and southern Portuguese Brazil – had first enunciated the principle that new states, at the time of their creation shall have dominion over the lands that were settled as colonies.

The mouth of a great river was explored by Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, who reached it in February 1500, with his cousin Diego de Lepe.

In 1541, Spanish conquistadores Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana, from Quito, Ecuador, crossed the Andes Mountains and explored the course of the river to the Atlantic Ocean.

Starting about 1580, without effective occupation, English, Dutch, French (and even some Irish) searching for so-called Drogas do Sertão (spices of the backlands[Note 3]) had established some outposts upstream of the mouth of the Amazon.

Portuguese expansion westward and northward of the Tordesillas Line began from the frontier of the northernmost captaincy of Maranhão with the expulsion of the French from São Luis in 1615, and the founding of Belém at the mouth of the Amazon in 1616.

There are accounts of Portuguese Carmelite missionaries active in the Solimões area, upstream of the Rio Negro, as early as the 1620s, but permanent settlements weren't established for another 80 years, so the records are nebulous.

Soon after that the Portuguese bandeirante António Raposo Tavares, whose bandeira, leaving the captaincy of São Vicente travelling overland, reached the Andes, and following the Amazon River, returned to Belém, visiting a total of about 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi), between 1648 and 1651.

The first permanent Portuguese settlements in the region were Itacoatiara 176 km east of Manaus, founded in 1655 by Portuguese Jesuit Padre António Vieira as Mission of Aroaquis on the island of Aibi near the mouth of Lake Arauató, followed by São Gabriel, founded in 1668 as by Franciscan Friar Teodózio [or Teodósio] da Veiga and Captain Pedro da Costa Favela on the Rio Negro, near the mouth of the Rio Aruím.

The Royal Charter of 1693 divided Amazonia among the Jesuits, Carmelites, Capuchines and Franciscans: the Jesuits restricted their activities to the south bank of the Amazon upstream to the mouth of the Madeira; the north shore of the Amazon as far as the Trombetas fell to the Franciscans, to the mouth of the Rio Negro to the Mercedarians, and the Negro itself and the Solimoes to the Carmelites.

Within the project of occupying the Amazon hinterland, was formed the royal captaincy of São José do Rio Negro subordinate to Para, in Mar.

The boundary between the Portuguese and Spanish domination of the Amazon was eventually fixed at the Rio Javari (river that rises on the border between Amazonas state, Brazil, and Loreto department, Peru) by the Treaty of Madrid in 1750.

By the mid-18th century, the effective boundary between the two empires, the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru and Portuguese Brazil, had shifted to the area of the confluence of the Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers, in upper Amazonia.

Attracted by the rubber boom, they settled in important Amazonian cities such as Manaus, Tabatinga, Parintins, Itacoatiara and Barcelos, the first capital of Amazonas.

However, the economic gains were largely the result of great human suffering: untold thousands of enslaved Amerindian seringueiros (rubber tappers) died through disease and overwork.

Manaus, which already boasted as the capital administrative of the State, experienced a great population growth and the economic advancement, resulting mainly from exports of raw materials until then exclusively from Amazon Region.

With the wealth generated by the production and export of natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), the amazonian capital received large works such as the port of Manaus, the Amazonas Opera House, Palace of Justice, Reservoir of Mocó,[9] the first network of electric energy and public transport services as trams.

In its years of existence, the story of the Manaus Free Trade Zone is divided into four phases: the first, from 1967 to 1975, characterized the reference in the country's industrial policy for the import substitution of final goods and formation of the internal market; the second, from 1975 to 1990, was characterized by the adoption of measures promoting the domestic industry inputs, especially in the State of São Paulo (largest consumer at the time); the third, in 1991 and 1996, came into force on new Industrial policy and foreign trade, marked by the opening of the Brazilian economy, reducing the import tax for the rest of the country and emphasis on quality and productivity, with the implementation of the Brazilian policy quality and productivity (PBPQ in Portuguese) and Industrial competitiveness program; and the fourth and last, of the 1996–2002, marks its adaptation to a globalized economy scenarios and the adjustments demanded by the effects of the Real plan, as the movement of privatization and deregulation.

The chief commercial cities are Barcelos, Benjamin Constant, Eirunepe, Itacoatiara, Lábrea, Manacapuru, Manicoré, Parintins, and Tefé.

[23] The state achieved a very great population growth in the early 20th century, due to the golden period of rubber, and after installation of the Industrial Pole of Manaus, in the 1960s.

Nheengatu, an indigenous Tupian language, also has official status in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira and has a few thousand speakers in that region.

Amazonas economy was once reliant almost entirely upon rubber; today it has wide and varied industries, including the farming of cassava, oranges, and other agricultural products.

Over the last decades, a system of federal investments and tax incentives have turned the surrounding region into a major industrial center (the Free Economic Zone of Manaus).

Tourism is now focused on ecotourism, centered in the cities of Barcelos, Manaus, Parintins, Presidente Figueredo, and Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira.

Eduardo Gomes International Airport(MAO) in Manaus employs roughly 3,300 people, among employees of Infraero, public agencies, concession holders, airlines and auxiliary services.

Eduardo Gomes International Airport is Brazil's third largest in freight movement, handling the import and export demand from the Manaus Industrial Complex.

Other airports include Tabatinga International, and a further 31 domestic airports including Tefé (regular flights to Manaus by Rico Linhas Aereas), Parintins (Julio Belém), Coari, Lábrea, Manicoré, Novo Aripuanã, Borba, Itacoatiara, Presidente Figueiredo, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Cucuí, Iaguarete, Benjamin Constant, Eirunepé, and Boca do Acre.