History of Manaus

The occupation of the place where Manaus is today took a long time, considering that it was difficult to access and the existence of riches (gold and silver) was unknown.

[3][4] The fighting only ceased when the Portuguese military began to connect with them through marriages with the caciques' daughters, starting the intense miscegenation in the region and giving origin to the caboclos.

[9] Manaus was founded in 1669 as a fortification to establish the Portuguese presence and protect the entrance to the Western Amazon from foreign invasions, especially by the Dutch and Spanish.

[8][10] The population increased considerably and, to assist with catechism, the missionaries (Carmelites, Jesuits and Franciscans) decided to build, in 1695, a chapel next to the fort in honor of Our Lady of the Conception.

During the period of the revolution, the combatants from the Alto Amazonas explored every part of the territory where there was a settlement, in order to attract a greater number of followers to the movement, resulting in the integration of the surrounding populations and the formation of the state.

The immigrants were mainly Portuguese, English, French, Italian and from other regions of America, leading to a demographic growth that required the city to undergo significant changes.

In 1892, the government of Eduardo Ribeiro started, who played an important role in transforming the city by drawing up and implementing a plan to coordinate its growth.

[19] Manaus began the 1900s with long, straight streets, paved with granite and lioz stones imported from Portugal, well-kept squares and gardens, beautiful fountains and monuments, a sumptuous theater, hotels, banks, palaces and all the refinements of a modern city.

[23] The development also provided a great circulation of ideas and allowed the emergence of a nucleus of doctors who were aware of the most advanced scientific discussions regarding the fight against tropical diseases.

[27] In 1910, the city was surprised by the very strong competition from natural rubber planted and extracted in Asia, which invaded the international markets at a vertiginous rate.

It was the end of the dominance of the export of the product from the natural rubber plantations of the Amazon (almost exclusively generated in Amazonas), and the beginning of a slow economic agony for the region.

[29] Alongside Cuiabá, in Mato Grosso, it is the capital that has grown the most economically in the last forty years, a fact explained mainly by the industrialization process in Manaus, which also attracted thousands of migrants who occupied the outskirts of the city in a disorderly way.

The huge urban and demographic expansion of Manaus in the 1970s had both positive and negative consequences for the municipality, which was forced to house more and more migrants from different Brazilian states and from the interior of Amazonas, attracted by a better quality of life.

[34] As a measure to counteract the large irregular occupations of plots in Manaus, the government began to create regular allotments for migrants arriving in the city.

During this period, environmental degradation increased, especially in the eastern and northern zones, since these areas of the city have suffered the most with river pollution, loss of biodiversity and native forest in recent years.

On July 10, 1980, thousands of people filled the Metropolitan Cathedral of Manaus and its surroundings to welcome Pope John Paul II, who met with church authorities and gave a speech.

1562 map of the Amazon River region.
Draft of the Fort of São José da Barra do Rio Negro, drawn by the German engineer João André Schwebel, on December 7, 1754, when Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado and his entourage were passing through Lugar da Barra on their way to Barcelos to set up the boundary demarcation conferences of the Treaty of Madrid . [ 8 ]
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Manaus , dating from 1858, traces its origins back to the old chapel of 1695, built by the Carmelite missionaries. In the photo, the Cathedral in the 1890s.
Amazon Theatre in 1906, the most significant expression of wealth in the city during the rubber era. [ 18 ]
Manaus was the second city in Brazil (after Campos , Rio de Janeiro ) to introduce electricity for street lighting. [ 19 ]
The Benjamin Constant Bridge , dating from 1893, is another classic example of the city of Manaus' strength during the rubber cycle. [ 20 ]
Historic building of the Cervejaria Miranda Corrêa.
Manaus, 1975. National Archives.
Port region of Manaus, c. 1970.