Brazil socio-geographic division
[1] In Northern Brazil, the main racial contribution was of the native Amerindians, with a smaller European and African influence.
The division by Socio-Geographic similarities is used mainly in universities and private companies, and it is little mentioned at regular school (grades 6–10).
They composed over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina's population in the late 18th century.
With the development of cattle in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, enslaved Africans began arriving in large numbers.
[5] After independence from Portugal (1822) the Brazilian government started to stimulate the arrival of a new wave of immigrants to settle the South.
To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised large tracts of land, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region.
Nevertheless, in the following years, a further 4,830 Germans arrived at São Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, with the immigrants establishing the town of Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg).
From São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo, the German immigrants spread into others areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to sources of rivers.
During the 1830s and part of the 1840s German immigration to Brazil was interrupted due to conflicts in the country (Ragamuffin War).
The most important ones were Blumenau, in 1850, and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state; these attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region.
In the next five decades, other 28 thousand Germans were brought to Rio Grande do Sul to work as small farmers in the countryside.
After initially settling in the government-promoted colonies, many of the Italian immigrants spread themselves into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul seeking further opportunities.
They created many other Italian colonies on their own, mainly in highlands, because the lowlands were already populated by Germans and native gaúchos.
Nowadays, the wine produced in these areas of Italian colonization in southern Brazil is much appreciated within the country, though little is available for export.
In 1875, the first Italian colonies were established in Santa Catarina, which lies immediately to the north of Rio Grande do Sul.
The State of Paraná received the majority of Polish immigrants, who settled mainly in the region of Curitiba, in the towns of Mallet, Cruz Machado, São Matheus do Sul, Irati, and União da Vitória.
In order to control the richness, the Portuguese Crown moved the capital of Brazil from Salvador, Bahia to Rio de Janeiro.
After independence and principally after 1850, Southeast Brazil was "inundated" by European immigrants, who were attracted by the government to replace the African slaves in the coffee plantations.
[10] The arrival of immigrants from several places of Europe, the Middle-East and Asia produced an ethnically diverse population.
[11] The population of Northeast Brazil is a result of an intensive race mixing, which has occurred in the region for more than four centuries.
The Northeast has been a poorer region of Brazil since the decline of sugar cane plantations in the late 17th century, so its economy did not require immigrants.
[12] Northern Brazil, largely covered by the Amazon rainforest, is the Brazilian region with the largest Amerindian influences, both in culture and ethnicity.
The contact between the Indians and the northeastern rubbers created the base of the ethnic composition of the region, with its mixed-race majority.
The Central-West Region of Brazil was inhabited by diverse Indians when the Portuguese arrived in the early 18th century.
