Salvador da Bahia: History

Pre-20th-Century History

In 1549, Tomé de Souza landed on Praia Porto da Barra under Portuguese royal orders to found Brazil's first capital. With him he brought city plans, a statue, 400 soldiers and 400 settlers, including priests and prostitutes. He founded the city in a defensive location: on a cliff top facing the sea. After the first year, a city of mud and straw had been erected, and surrounding walls were in place to protect against attacks from hostile Indians. Salvador da Bahia remained Brazil's most important city for the next three centuries.

During its first century of existence, the city depended upon the export of sugarcane from the fertile recôncavo region at the northern end of Baía de Todos os Santos. Later, dependence shifted as tobacco cultivation and cattle ranching were introduced to the recôncavo and sertão (Bahia's backlands). These exports, topped off by gold and diamonds mined in the Bahian interior, provided Salvador with immense wealth, as is visible in the city's opulent baroque architecture.

African slaves were first brought to Salvador in 1538, and in 1587 historian Gabriel Soares tallied an estimated 12,000 whites, 8000 converted Indians and 4000 black slaves. The number of blacks eventually increased to constitute half of the city's population, and their uprisings threatened Salvador's stability several times.

After Lisbon, Salvador was the second most important city in the Portuguese empire and the glory of colonial Brazil, famed for its many gold-filled churches, beautiful mansions and festivals. It was also renowned as early as the 17th century for its bawdy public life, sensuality and decadence - so much so that its bay won the nickname Baia de Todos os Santos e de Quase Todos os Pecados (Bay of All Saints and of Nearly All Sins)!

Salvador remained Brazil's seat of colonial government until 1763 when, with the decline of the sugarcane industry, the capital was moved to Rio.

In 1798, Salvador was the stage for the Conjuração dos Alfaiates (Conspiracy of the Tailors), which intended to proclaim a Bahian republic. Although this uprising was quickly quelled, battles between those longing for independence and those loyal to Portugal continued in the streets of Salvador for many years. It was only on 2 July 1823, with the defeat of the Portuguese troops commanded by Madeira de Melo in Cabrito and Pirajá, that the city found peace. At that time, Salvador numbered 45,000 inhabitants and was the commercial center of a vast territory.

Modern History

For most of the 19th and 20th centuries the city stagnated as its agricultural economy - based on archaic arrangements for land distribution, organization of labour and production - went into uninterrupted decline.

In 1985 the cultural and historic significance of Salvador's historic center was recognised by Unesco, and the area was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site.

Recent History

Today, Salvador is Brazil's third-largest city, the largest in the Northeast. Only recently has it begun to move forward economically. New industries such as petroleum, chemicals and tourism are producing changes in the urban landscape, but the rapidly increasing population is still faced with major economic and social problems.

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