Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Catholic cut-throats); Jesuits and Franciscans - in their drive to found missions and
baptize the heathen - backed many
bandeiras
.
he journeys
bandeiras
made were often epic in scale, covering immense distances and
overcoming natural obstacles as formidable as the many hostile tribes they encountered.
It was the
bandeirantes
who pushed the borders of Brazil far inland, and also supplied
the geographical knowledge that now began to fill in the blanks on the maps. But the
most important way they shaped the future of Brazil was by locating the Holy Grail of
the New World: gold.
The gold rush
Bandeirantes
first found
gold
in the 1690s, at the spot that is now Sabará, in Minas
Gerais. As towns sprang up around further gold strikes in Minas, gold was also
discovered around Cuiabá, in Mato Grosso, adding fresh impetus to the opening-up
of the interior. By the mid-eighteenth century, the flow of gold from Brazil was keeping
the Portuguese Crown afloat, temporarily halting its long slide down the league table of
European powers. In Brazil the rush of migrants to the gold areas changed the regional
balance, as the new interior communities drew population away from the Northeast.
The gateways to the interior, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, grew rapidly. The shift was
recognized in 1763, when the capital was transferred to Rio from Salvador, and what
was then a filthy, disease-ridden port began its slow transformation into one of the
great cities of the world.
The Jesuits
Apart from the
bandeirantes
, the most important agents of the colonization of the interior
were the
Jesuits
. The first Jesuit missionaries arrived in Brazil in 1549 and, thanks to the
influence they held over successive Portuguese kings, they acquired power in Brazil
second only to that of the Crown itself. In Salvador they built the largest Jesuit college
outside Rome, and set in motion a crusade to convert the indigenous population. The
usual method was to congregate the indigenous tribes in
missions
, where they worked
under the supervision of Jesuit fathers. From 1600 onwards, dozens of missions were
founded in the interior, especially in the Amazon and in the grasslands of the southeast.
PADRE ANTÔNIO VIEIRA
The most remarkable defender of the indigenous peoples in colonial Brazil was
Antônio
Vieira
(1608-97), who abandoned his privileged position as chief adviser to the king in Lisbon
to become a missionary in Brazil in 1653. Basing himself in São Luís, he struggled to implement
the more enlightened indigenous laws that his influence over João IV had secured, to the
disgust of settlers clamouring for slaves. Vieira denied them for years, preaching a series of
sermons along the way that became famous throughout Europe, as well as Brazil. He didn't
mince his words: “An Indian will be your slave for the few days he lives, but your soul will be
enslaved for as long as God is God. All of you are in mortal sin, all of you live in a state of
condemnation, and all of you are going directly to Hell!” he thundered to settlers from the
pulpit in 1654. So high did feelings run that in 1661 settlers forced Vieira onto a ship bound for
Portugal, standing in the surf and shouting “Out! Out!” Vieira managed to return to Bahia in
1681, where he died sixteen years later, still campaigning for indigenous freedoms.
1632
1690s
1727
1756
Jesuit mission of
São Miguel Arcanjo
founded in the South
Gold rush in Minas Gerais
- the region booms
throughout the 1700s
Coffee introduced
to Brazil
Guaraní War: the
Portuguese and Spanish
destroy Jesuit missions
in the South
