Rio de Janeiro History

During 1501 and 1502, the Portuguese had their first expedition to the Brazilian coast and they visited places in Rio de Janeiro like Angra dos Reis and Guanabara Bay. The most important product they were looking for was pau-brasil, which was very abundant in that area. For this product, French ships frequently visited the area and tried to establish commerce relationships with the Indians. In 1534, with the institution of the hereditary capitanies, Rio was separated into two capitanies: São Tomé and São Vicente. In 1545, the former returned to the King after frequent attacks from the Indians. The latter prospered thanks to the plantations of sugar cane; however, this progress was mainly concentrated on the south part of the capitany, around the villages of São Paulo and São Vicente.

Later on in 1555, the French occupied the area surrounding Guanabara Bay and established the Antarctic France. Between 1555 and 1565, combats took place between the Portuguese and the French and in 1565, the French got thrown away from that territory. Tomé de Souza established the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Later on, several villages were established along the coast (Cabro Frio, Campos dos Goitacazes, Angra dos Reis, Macaé, Parati and São Pedro da Aldeia) and Rio was declared one of the administrative centers of the colony (the other one was Salvador); all this for protecting Rio from invaders but also to populate the area.

The pau-brasil depleted and the economy grew at a very slow pace. Cabro Frio initiated the exploration of the marine salt, an activity that has been developing since then. The culture of sugar cane was not very popular in other areas however, at the end of the 17th century it was the most important production in all Rio. The biggest farms were in the Campos area where the production of sugar is very important even nowadays.

At the end of the 17th century, in Minas Gerais they found gold and in order to eliminate contraband and facilitate taxation, the King of Portugal determined that all of the gold production must be exported through the port of Rio de Janeiro. Many villages appeared between the port and the mines path although the production focused at Minas Gerais. Rio suffered many changes as the population grew, a new free working class appeared and the plantations diversified greatly.

A few decades later, in 1763, the city of Rio became the only administrative capital of Brazil, which showed the great importance the city gained through the last decades. The king moved the whole court to Rio de Janeiro because of the Napoleonic Wars. Rio developed in terms of urbanization and so the city gained the status of noblèsse, which gave the city a unique cultural atmosphere. In 1822 when Brazil gained independency, Rio became the capital of the Empire. Although all of the capitanies turned into provinces, the capitany of Rio de Janeiro retained a unique status as it were ruled directly by the Emperor.

Rio became the largest urban center in all Brazil and the city with the fastest growth: economical, social and cultural – all of them made Rio de Janeiro the most popular brazilian city. Paradoxically, the gained independence was the reason why the gold production declined. The resources now redirected to an entire new product - coffee. The city of Rio de Janeiro was bountiful in idle working force and had a very developed commerce structure not to mention plenty of land. During the 1860s, the commerce with coffee represented 50% of the Brazilian exports. More than that, the production of coffee represented 70% of the entire Brazilian coffee production. Later on, the richest Brazilian state became São Paulo thanks to the even better conditions to grow coffee. The transportation of the coffee was more efficient with the introduction of the railroads toward Petropolis - inaugurated in 1854. The railroad network further developed in Campos, Rio Bonito, Itaboraí, Vassouras as well as other cities.

In 1889, they proclaimed the republic but the very important culture of coffee was losing serious ground. The reason for this was because the erosion became a very significant problem and the soil was less fertile in comparison with other areas. The most important reason for this was that the farmers from Rio had a dependency on the salves while São Paulo already brought immigrants. For this reason, in 1888 slavery was abolished, many farms established in Rio went bankrupt. Rio suffered from an important economical decline and in the same time, São Paulo and Minas Gerais became the most important Brazilian states.

In 1960, Brasilia became the capital and the city of Rio de Janeiro returned to the States of Guanabara. 15 years later the States of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro unified and Rio de Janeiro became a city again.