Colonial history Rio

Colonial Period

Resisting the French presence in the region, the Portuguese, under the command of Estacio de Sa, landed on a hill between the isthmus of Dog Man and Sugar Loaf.  He founded, on 1 March 1565, the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro.

Once he conquered the territory in a small beach protected by the Sugar Loaf, he built a fort of earth, the embryo of the Fortress of Saint John.
The expulsion and final defeat of the French and their Indian allies, however, didn’t occur until January 1567.

The victory of Estacio de Sa subdued the remaining French elements (which, allied to Tamoios, were dedicated to trade and threatened the area in the Portuguese coast of Brazil).  He claimed ownership of Rio de Janeiro, rejecting from then on attempts of foreign invasions and expanding, at the expense of war, his dominion over the islands and the mainland.

The village was rebuilt on top of the hill of the Castle (completely devastated in 1922), the current center of the city. The brand new town was, in fact, the beginning of urban sprawl.

During almost all of the seventeenth century the city waved with a slow development.  A network of small alleys connected the churches to each other and also linked them to the palace and the Fish Market on the edge of the pier.  The main streets of the current center came from these alleys.

With about 30 thousand inhabitants in the second half of the seventeenth century, Rio de Janeiro became Brazil’s most populous city, and was of fundamental importance for the colonial domination.

This importance became even greater with the exploitation of deposits of gold in Minas Gerais in the eighteenth century.  This led to the consolidation of the city as the leading economic center and port. In 1763, the Portuguese minister Marquis of Pombal moved his headquarters of the colony from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
The coming of the Portuguese court in 1808 profoundly marked the city, then the center of decision of the Portuguese Empire, which was weakened by the Napoleonic wars. After the opening of ports, Rio de Janeiro became a prominent commercial center.

The first decades saw the creation of several educational establishments, such as the Military Academy, the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts and the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, in addition to the National Library – the largest collection of Latin America – and Garden Botanical. The first newspaper printed in Brazil, the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, came into service in that period. It was the only city in the world to host a European empire outside of Europe.

Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, when the government moved to Brasilia. Today it is the second largest city, after Sao Paulo. Between 1808 and 1815, Rio de Janeiro was capital of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarve, Portugal as it was officially designated at the time. Between 1815 and April 1821, Rio de Janeiro hosted the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve, after gifting part of Brazil to the United Kingdom.