History of São Paulo

The oldest carbon-14 data obtained to date suggest that the first human groups settled in the current state of São Paulo in the early millennia of the Holocene, between 11,000 and 9,000 years ago.

[1][2][3] This initial occupation was by nomadic indigenous peoples living in small camps, with a hunting economy that required a diversity of stone tools produced by lithic reduction, as well as instruments made from organic raw materials (such as bone and wood).

[2] By dominating the agriculture of carbohydrate-rich crops such as maize and cassava, such groups presented a higher demographic density, being the ancestors of the populations speaking languages related to the Macro- Jê and Tupi branches.

Although it is now known that these groups were related to the Macro-Jê linguistic branch, possibly ancestors of the current Kaingang, they were often associated with the Tupi-Guaraní-speaking peoples by the eighteenth-century São Paulo historiography.

[22] According to Monteiro:[23] ...the 'historical tradition' originated with Gabriel Soares de Sousa in the 16th century, who vaguely attributed to the Guaianá a territory that extended from Angra dos Reis to Cananeia.

At that point, however, Teodoro Sampaio had already solved the riddle: based on a careful study of the 16th century writers, the Bahian Tupinologist concluded that the Guaianá were indeed a non-Tupi group but were not the main inhabitants of the areas later colonized by the Portuguese (Sampaio, 1897 and 1903).On the other hand, archaeological and historiographical data from the 17th and 18th centuries have shown that the Guaianá were numerous in the village of São Paulo at that time, as they were captured by the bandeirantes expeditions to serve as slaves in the plantations.

Interested in establishing a place where he could catechize the natives away from the influence of white men,[26] Father Manuel da Nóbrega, superior of the Society of Jesus in Brazil, observed that a nearby region located on a plateau would be the ideal point, then called Piratininga.

[27] Although the quest for catechesis without the influence of the white man was a goal, what precipitated the move to the plateau was the need to solve the problem of feeding the indigenous people who were being indoctrinated, as Father Anchieta states:[28] For the sustenance of these children, manioc flour was brought from the countryside, from a distance of 30 miles.

In 1562, troubled by the alliance between the Tupiniquim and the Portuguese, the Tupinambás, united in the Confederação dos Tamoios, launched a series of attacks against the village on July 9,[31] in the episode known as Cerco de Piratininga.

Others, the vast majority, are countrymen, merchants with limited resources, and adventurous craftsmen of all kinds, seduced by the promises of the donatário or by the possibilities that the new continent offers them.Since the beginning, the occupation of the city's land was polycentric, with several villages, mainly Jesuit, but also from other ecclesiastical orders, around which the agglomerations began.

Thus, already in the first decades of the century, the Paulistans started to organize the bandeiras - large expeditions that went to the unexplored backlands of the colony - in search of Indian labor, stones, and precious metals.

In a short time, the bandeirantes became largely responsible for expanding the limits of the colony's frontiers, incorporating into Brazilian territory countless areas that, according to the Treaty of Tordesillas, belonged to Spain.

Bandeirantes became central actors in São Paulo's political history in the 17th century, and the explorers' local authority sometimes overrode the interests of the Catholic Church and the Portuguese crown itself.

With the end of the Restoration War, in which Portugal re-established its political independence from Spain, the inhabitants of São Paulo, mainly bandeirantes and merchants, feared they would be harmed since they had benefited economically from the traffic of indigenous people in the region of the Río de la Plata during the decades of the Iberian Union.

Other religious orders would settle in the city in the 17th century, such as the Franciscans, who in 1647 had inaugurated the convent (demolished in 1932, to make way for the Law School) and the church of São Francisco, in the homonymous square.

It was from the town that the historical expeditions of Fernão Dias Pais, Antônio Raposo Tavares, Domingos Jorge Velho, and Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva started.

In 1792, the opening of the Calçada do Lorena, an important engineering work of the colonial period, a road connecting the cities of São Paulo and Santos, would provide adequate conditions for the transportation of sugar and other foodstuffs produced in the countryside of the captaincy.

In 1765, the opera house of Pátio do Colégio was founded, the city's first theater, and in 1775 the Aflitos Cemetery was inaugurated, São Paulo's first necropolis, destined for the burial of the poor, slaves, and those sentenced to be hanged.

[63] Also from the 18th century are the Luz Monastery[64] (a convent for nuns built in rammed earth, based on Frei Galvão's 1774 project) and the Church of the Wounds of the Seraphic Father São Francisco (1787), among others.

During most of the 19th century, São Paulo preserved the characteristics of a provincial city but saw its development possibilities grow after the transfer of the Portuguese royal family to Rio de Janeiro.

The opening of the ports to friendly nations, decreed by João VI in 1808, gave a new boost to the economy of the São Paulo coast, while the countryside of the captaincy continued to register relative prosperity with the sugarcane plantation.

In 1830, journalist Libero Badaró, writer for the liberal Observador Constitucional (the city's second oldest periodical, founded in 1828), writes an article commenting on the 1830 Revolution in France, (that led to the deposition of Charles X), in which he urged Brazilians to follow the example of the French.

From the Paraíba Valley, the coffee plantations spread to the fertile lands (terra roxa, "red soil") of western São Paulo, previously occupied by sugarcane (Rio Claro, Campinas and Jaú), enriching the province.

[68] From the reign of Pedro II onward, the city gained new momentum with the development of the coffee economy: the commerce and service industry increased considerably, and an expressive bourgeoisie was formed.

A significant number of these immigrants settled in the capital, employing themselves in the first industries that were being established in the Brás and Mooca neighborhoods, based on investments from the profits made by entrepreneurs in the coffee-growing sector.

This change profoundly altered the city's landscape: its inhabitants considered the architectural styles from the colonial period as "old-fashioned" and "provincial", and started adopting the eclecticism made possible by masonry.

The great industrial boom occurred during the Second World War, due to the coffee crisis and the restrictions on international trade, which caused the city to have a very high growth rate until the present day.

The end of the First Brazilian Republic, as well as the successive economic crises that shook coffee as a commodity in the first half of the 20th century, represented a political milestone not only nationally, but also in the city of São Paulo itself.

[75] This rapid growth in the first half of the 20th century was due not only to foreign immigration but also to the arrival of Brazilians from various regions, mostly attracted by the demand for labor in the industries located in São Paulo.

It can be stated, without fear of error, that a house is built in São Paulo every 20 minutes!Currently, the growth in the city has been slowing down, due to the industrial development verified in other regions of Brazil.