In the northern extremes of Espírito Santo is Itaúnas, in the municipality of Conceição da Barra, which is a tourist location known for its sand dunes and forró tradition.

A more mainstream explanation is that the name is a metaphor for a corn-grower; Vitória Island is known to have been full of corn plantations in the early centuries of Portuguese rule in Brazil.

[citation needed] Espírito Santo was first inhabited by Amerindians, whose different tribes were usually semi-nomadic, but precolonial Brazil has no recorded history.

The Captaincy of Espírito Santo, a hereditary fief, was granted to Vasco Coutinho by Manuel I of Portugal around three decades after the Portuguese first landed in Brazil in 1500.

Emperor Pedro II, who was on good terms with the provincial president, visited the Espírito Santo in 1860, during one of his tours of Brazil.

After Cristiano Dias Lopes, Arthur Carlos Gerhard Santos, Élcio Álvares, and Eurico Rezende were chosen in this fashion, the military government slowly redemocratized, culminating in the adoption of Brazil's current 1988 Constitution.

Another reason for the subdued expansion was the colonial administration's prohibition of the laying roads leading into Minas Gerais, as gold could be smuggled through the state.

The volcanic islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz, 715 kilometers (444 mi) east of Vitória in the southern Atlantic Ocean, are part of Espírito Santo.

Espírito Santo's main cities (outside the Greater Vitória region) are Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Colatina, Linhares, São Mateus and Aracruz.

In the mountainous regions in the south and southwest of the state, the tropical climate is strongly influenced by altitude, and the average temperatures are lower.

Especially in the 16th century, several towns in Espírito Santo were founded with primarily Amerindian populations converted to Catholicism, such as Serra and Santa Cruz.

Like today's capixaba Italian community, they still hold on to many aspects of their ancestors' homeland's culture, as represented in festivals such as the Sommerfest in Domingos Martins.

Domingos Martins also hosts a Colonization Museum, where one can find old photos, artifacts, and documents pertaining to that settlement movement.

In the area of Santa Leopoldina, their dialect of Dutch, which they call Ollans but is in fact a variety of Zeeuws-Vlaams influenced by Pomeranian, is still spoken by about 20 speakers.

Espírito Santo, though, was still to play a significant part in the Brazilian abolitionist movement in the guise of its slave rebellion of 1848–1849, which required the intervention of imperial troops.

In 2020, Espírito Santo was the largest producer of Coffea canephora in Brazil, with a 66.3% share of the total (564.5 thousand tons, or 9.4 million 60 kg bags).

In the south, dairy farming is practiced, and milk is sold, through cooperatives, in the markets of Rio de Janeiro and Vitória.

The state's subsoil is rich in minerals, including oil, with considerable reserves of limestone, marble, manganese, ilmenite, bauxite, zirconium, monazites, and rare earths, although not all are being explored.

In mineral extraction, exploration of reserves of marbles, limestone, and dolomite is happening in the Cachoeiro de Itapemirim area.

[24] In 2012, the export basket of Espírito Santo was based on iron ore (52.49%), crude oil (10.87%), chemical pulp made of soda or sulphate wood (10.01%), stone or construction (5.58%), and coffee (4.42%).

In the urban centers of the capital and Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, practically all the main units of the Espírito Santo transformation industry are concentrated.

The 10 largest industrial companies in Espírito Santo are: Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (mining), ArcelorMittal Tubarão (steel mill), Samarco Mineração (mining), Aracruz Celulose, Fertilizers Heringer, ArcelorMittal Sul Fluminense (steel mill), Escelsa (electricity distribution company), Garoto (the largest chocolate factory in Latin America and the most important industrial food company of the state) and Sol Coqueria.

In 2018, $920 million were traded in the sale of cellulose to the foreign market, the third-strongest Espírito Santo product in the export balance.

São Mateus, north of Espírito Santo, was the best-city in the Southeast, as the sixth-largest producer of roundwood for paper and cellulose in the country.

Lately, a new type of tourism has gained prominence: gastronomic, in which typical capixaba cuisine, heir to different cultures, is appreciated.

[citation needed] The road system is organized from the BR-101, which crosses Espírito Santo from north to south, bordering the coast.

Tourist destinations include coastal areas such as Guarapari, Jacaraípe, and Manguinhos, and mountain retreats such as Domingos Martins.

The bay on which it is located is extremely narrow with rocks, reefs and mountains, making it challenging for freighters and maritime cruisers to reach the docks.

Since construction of its first section, finished in 1946, the airport has undergone several expansions and modernizations, but current demand has surpassed its capacity of 560,000 passengers a year.

[citation needed] The flag of Espírito Santo is a horizontal triband of blue, white, and pink, with the state motto, Trabalha e Confia (English: "Work and trust [God]"), written across the middle band.