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Eastern South America is more diverse than the western Andean region. The heart of the continent is the huge Amazonian basin, one of earth's richest biological treasure troves. This ecological treasure house been protected by inaccessibility. The same is true for the people of the Amazon who fled deep into the rain forest jungle to escape the depredations of Portuguese slave hunters who moved up the Amazon from coastal settlements. The Amazon basin is the central part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries flowing from the eastern slope of the Andes. The source of the Amazon is Lake Lauricocha, a tiny lake in the central Peruvian Andes. The stream or small river flowing out of the Lake is still known as the Maranon although it is the upper course of the Andes. The Amazonian Basin covers an area of over 2.7 million milesē (6.9 million kmē) or about 40 percent of the entire continent. The Amazon is the greatest river on earth (by volume). The name refers to the women warriors of Greek myth. Spanish explorer Fransisco de Orellana in an expedition gone bad, sailed down the Amazon (1541). He encountered female warriors in Maranon and this was the inspiration for the great river's name. Orellana's expedition proved higly controversial because he broke off from the main force in Peru. But also he reported a large, highly developed population thriving in the Amazon. Scholars for centuries rejected these reports as fanciful. Archeologists are now finding evidence that is increasingly substantiating Orellana's account. The geological structure of the Amazon Basin is basically two large stable masses of Pre-Cambrian rock, the Guiana Shield or Highlands in the north and the Central Brazilian Shield or Plateau in the south. The Amazonian Basin is dominated by Brazil, the former Portuguese colony. This is because Portugal dominated the coastal areas and could easilt extend its influence up the river. The Spanish influence never extended beyond the Andes. The Andes stood between the Amazon and Pacific coastal ports.
It was a major effort to get to the small Andean tributaries and the laxk of an important gold resource meant that there waslittle allure. Several other countries have Amazonian territory, including most of the Andean countries. This largely on the fringe of the Amazonian Basin. The most important Andean country with Amazonian territory is Bolivia in the south. Brazil alone because of its control of the Amazon covers about half the South American Continent.
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