São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga

It was founded as a religious mission and a Jesuit Royal College by priests José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega on January 25, 1554 (the date of the first mass and the anniversary of Saint Paul's conversion).

But with English and French privateer ships just off the coast, the Portuguese Crown believed it needed to protect claims to this territory.

To share the burden of defence, the Portuguese King João III divided the coast into "captaincies", or swathes of land, 50 leagues apart.

Fearing attacks by the numerous Amerindian tribes, João III discouraged development of the territory's vast interior.

[1] Twenty-two years later the Tibiriçá Chief and Jesuit missionaries Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded the village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga 68 kilometres (42 mi) inland from São Vicente.

Located just beyond the Serra do Mar cliffs, above the port city of Santos, and close to the Tietê River, the new settlement became the natural entrance from the South East coast to the vast and fertile high plateau to the West.

[2] The inhabitants of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, called Paulistanos, were very poor.