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 Rio De Janeiro - History

Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese explorer called Pedro Alvares Cabral in April 22, 1500. Cabral was actually trying to get to India to bring spices back to Portugal. Rio de Janeiro was discovered two years later by a Portuguese called Gaspar de Lemos. Lemos gave the name Rio de Janeiro because he thought he was in a river Rio, he was actually in a bay, his discovery occurred in the month of January (Janeiro). So, he decided to called his discovery Rio de Janeiro.

The Portuguese at the time did not show much interest in Rio de Janeiro, giving the French the opportunity to settle in. As the Portuguese interest started to increase, primarily in Rio de Janeiro, the French decided to send ships to reinforce their defences. These ships reached the Guanabara bay in 1555. The French decided to settle in an small piece of land surrounded by water. However, the French were not very organized and the lack of focus in their mission was a recipe for failure. The French leader was called Nicolas Villegagnon. He allowed mistreatment of the local Indians and religion divisions. The Portuguese realized that the French defences were weak due to the lack of leadership. The Portuguese then decided to invade the inland and expel the French out of Rio. This battle last for approximately two years.

The Portuguese decided to strengthen their defences to prevent an European invasion from sea and Indian attack by land. Portugal built about 860 forts. This was a significant number of forts built by the Portuguese between XVI and XVIII century. This fort craziness was to prevent foreign invasion through sea and to destroy pirate ship (mainly from England). Strategically, the Portuguese built these forts in a high location (to better see the enemies), and close to the sea (Attack the enemies at short distance). Rio De Janeiro, with 6 forts, was the place where the Gold was loaded in the ships to go to Portugal. The fort located in Recife (fortaleza das cinco pontas), was where Holland's invaders were subdued in 1654. But, even with all these forts, the country suffered many pirate attacks. The most famous pirate attack was in 1711. The French pirate called Rene Duguay-Trouin took advantage of a major fog to penetrate through the forts. They sacked the city for about two months until they were expelled by the Portuguese.

Perhaps the major mistake made by the Portuguese was to colonize Rio without regard to the local Indians. This caused the local Indians to become their local enemies. This was like having your enemies living in your own back yard. The Portuguese spent a lot of time and lost a lot of men fighting the local Indians.

The Rio population exploded by the end of the 19th century. This population growth was due to the European immigration and internal migration. The European migration was composed mostly by Portuguese, Italians and Germans. In fact, there are some small cities in the South of Brazil that the main language is German. The internal migration was mostly composed of African (ex-slaves) from coffee and sugar plantations in the North of Brazil. Also, internal migration from Brazilian states such as Bahia, Ceara and Recife was very high. This was due to the fact that Rio provided a better economic opportunity for them.

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