São Paulo: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Founded by Jesuit brothers Manoel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta in 1554, São Paulo remained a tiny provincial backwater for almost three centuries. However, it did serve as a base for groups of slave-trading pioneers, known as bandeirantes , who helped establish Portuguese control of Brazil's interior, including incursions into Spanish territory.

By the 18th century, the bandeirantes had turned their attention to mineral exploration, discovering gold mines in Minas Gerais, Goiás and Mato Grosso. São Paulo began to grow as a posting station for an increasing number of fortune hunters heading for the interior, as well as by traders who gathered sugar from nearby plantations for shipment to the port at Santos.

Upon Brazil's independence in 1822, São Paulo was declared a state capital, a decision that led to the founding of the Law Faculty - arguably Brazil's first public institution of higher learning. An increasingly important political and intellectual center, the city was soon leading the fight both to end slavery and to found the republic.

Meanwhile, the city's economic fortunes were taking off, as planters realized they could make themselves rich by replacing sugar with the world's new, favorite cash crop: coffee. Some of the mansions they built still line Avenida Paulista. To get the beans to international markets, railroads were built to the port city of Santos, as well as to other Brazilian cities. When slavery was abolished in 1888, the first great wave of immigrants arrived to work the plantations, first from Italy and Spain, and then Japan.

Modern History

Coffee prices plummeted at the beginning of the 20th century, but there was plenty of capital left from the boom days to fund the city's transformation into an industrial powerhouse, and the coffee-built railroad was improved and soon used to ship manufactured goods. Factory jobs attracted a new wave of immigrants from around the world. At the same time, a growing union movement made the city a hotbed for the political left, in the shadow of the growing power of industrialists and bankers.

By the 1980s, foreign immigration slowed significantly, but the city remained one of the fastest-growing in the world as laborers from drought-stricken northeast Brazil streamed in, seeking opportunities. Many of them found work building the city's new skyscrapers.

Recent History

Today São Paulo is the industrial engine that powers the Brazilian economy, though in recent years the shift has been towards more service and high-tech industries. São Paulo is also Brazil's financial center, and home to Latin America's largest stock exchange.

Brazil's tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity can be seen at its best in São Paulo, thanks to the various races that have been mixing it up there for several generations now. The results are certainly breathtaking, and today some of the most beautiful people in the world, it seems, can be seen strolling the city streets.

Despite its successes, São Paulo continues to grapple with major problems of traffic congestion (it's said to have the highest number of helicopter landing pads of any city in the world), poverty, crime (and associated police brutality), pollution and lack of green space. In May 2006 one of the worst general outbreaks of violence in São Paulo's history claimed the lives of 150 people, including police officers, gang members, prison guards, prisoners and civilians. This was sparked by the killing of 40 police officers by gang violence, reportedly ordered by imprisoned leaders of a criminal organization.

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