History of Ceará

Initially, a rural society was formed, based mainly on livestock and agriculture, which controlled almost every aspect of social life through its economic power and complex relations of parentage and patronage.

The so-called "coronéis" kept many dependents on their properties who provided them with services or gave them part of their production in exchange for owning a plot of land, in a semi-feudal regime.

Returning to the coast, he founded the Fort of São Tiago, on the banks of the Ceará River, and the settlement of Nova Lusitânia, but he didn't stay there long.

However, the heavy drought of 1605 to 1609 (the first recorded by local historiography) and persistent indigenous attacks led him to leave the territory on a painful journey, in which some soldiers and his eldest son perished from hunger and thirst.

Heading for the Fort of Reis Magos in Rio Grande do Norte and then Paraíba and Europe, Pero Coelho died in Lisbon, poor, after trying to collect payment from Portugal for services provided; the pioneering attempt to occupy "little Ceará" had failed.

European settlement only developed with the construction of the Dutch fort Schoonenborch, at the mouth of the Pajeú Creek, which in 1654 was taken by the Portuguese and renamed the Fortress of Nossa Senhora de Assunção.

Thanks to cattle ranching and the displacement of people from the more populated areas, almost the entire Ceará was occupied over time, leading to the creation of several important towns at the crossroads of the main roads used by the vaqueros, such as Icó.

One of the greatest examples of their resilience was the War of the Barbarians, in which natives from different tribes (Kiriri, Janduim, Baiacu, Icó, Anacé, Quixelô, Jaguaribara, Kanindé, Tremembé, Acriú) banded together to fight the Portuguese conquerors, bravely resisting for almost 50 years.

However, the strong repression of the imperial forces quickly defeated the rebel movement for several reasons: the military superiority of the troops, the low level of popular participation and the arrest or death of the main leaders.

After another period of drought, the Empire began social and infrastructure projects to alleviate the consequences of the scarcity, which resulted in the creation of the Dam and Irrigation Commission (now DNOCS).

[16][17] Due to the great difficulty in docking ships because of the rough seas, Fortaleza was a very poor anchorage, which made the jangadeiros an extremely important element for the local economy, since embarkation and disembarkation at the city's port had to be done by means of small boats known as jangadas.

[21] Thanks to the Salvation Policy promoted by President Hermes da Fonseca, who sought to weaken the regional oligarchies opposed to his power, Ceará was going through a turbulent and violent electoral campaign.

Since he didn't have the support of the Catholic hierarchy, Padre Cícero tried to prevent Juazeiro from suffering the same tragic end as Canudos and allied himself with the political power of the "coronéis", taking his place alongside the oligarchy of Nogueira Accioly.

After months of fighting, Padre Cícero's followers defeated Rabelo's troops and began a long march to Fortaleza, forcing him to resign from the government of Ceará.

[28] After the exile of its leader and creator Severino Sombra for his support of the Constitutionalist Revolution in São Paulo in 1932, the LCT lost power and many of its members became part of the Brazilian Integralist Action.

On his return from exile, Sombra abandoned the LCT and founded the Legionary Campaign, but it was unsuccessful, as the Catholic Church in Ceará was now supporting the AIB and left-wing workers' organizations were beginning to emerge in the state.

Similar to Canudos, it brought together around 3,000 people under the leadership of Zé Lourenço, a Paraíba native who had arrived in Juazeiro do Norte around 1890 and was a follower of Padre Cícero.

Advised by him to settle in the region and work with some of the itinerant families, Zé Lourenço rented a plot of land on the Baixa Danta site in the city.

[19] The group settled on the Caldeirão site in Crato, owned by Padre Cícero, the peasants formed a small collective and egalitarian society, prospering so much that they even sold their surpluses in neighboring towns.

An American base was set up in Fortaleza, changing local habits and exciting the population, who began to hold various acts, demonstrations and marches against Nazism.

The UDN and PSD, conservative and elitist parties, would dominate Ceará's political scene for decades, while the PSP, headed by Olavo Oliveira, would be, at least in the 1950s, the "balance" in electoral disputes.

For the state government, Raul Barbosa was elected, one of the people responsible, along with Ceará's parliamentarians, for the campaign to get the headquarters of the Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, founded in 1952, to move to Fortaleza.

[36] In 1958, Parsifal Barroso was elected with the help of the federal government to combat the problems caused by droughts; the main project was the Orós Dam, inaugurated in 1961.

[37][38][39] In 1963, Virgílio Távora was elected governor of Ceará and his administration was marked by the creation of the government's Plano de Metas, which aimed to modernize the state's structure with the expansion of the Port of Mucuripe and the transmission of energy from Paulo Afonso.

[40][41] In 1966, Plácido Castelo was elected by the Legislative Assembly and his government was marked by political persecution of deputies and various manifestations with the arrest and torture of students and workers, including bombings in Fortaleza.

The reorganization of state accounts - partly achieved by reducing civil service expenses through layoffs and salary cuts - guaranteed surpluses between 1988 and 1994, but the consolidation of the Real Plan led to a predominance of deficits.

The actions of the government, combined with the efforts of local businesspeople and the incentives of institutions of great importance in Ceará's recent economic history, such as the BNB and Sudene, were decisive for this performance.

[51] Tasso, elected again in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, concentrated his government's efforts on building and renovating major projects, such as the Port of Pecém, the new Fortaleza International Airport, the Castanhão Dam and Metrofor.

His government was characterized by the privatization of state-owned companies, the abolition of other agencies and the pursuit of neoliberal-inspired policies, with the downsizing of the administrative machine, the rationalization of investments and an increase in pension contribution rates.

[47] However, despite several advances in basic health and education and stable economic growth, the Tasso era did not change Ceará's problematic socio-economic structure, especially the lack of income distribution, which was strongly questioned.