The 25th of January 2015 marks the 461st anniversary of São Paulo, the capital city of the state of São Paulo in south-eastern Brazil. Founded as a Jesuitical mission in 1554 by Father Manuel da Nobrega and Father Jose de Anchieta, it was originally named ‘São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga’ (Saint Paul of the Fields of Piratininga), after Saint Paul because the date celebrates his conversion to Christianism; and ‘Piratininga’ was the indigenous name for the plateau where the mission was established. The mission would gravitate around a college that served the double purpose of catechesis and education. Located near the river ‘Tietê’, it served as a base, once the Great Escarpment adjacent to the shore known as ‘Serra do Mar’ was surmounted, for the settlers’ and missionaries’ march from the seashore to the hinterland. During the first century of Portuguese colonization, São Paulo became the starting point of the ‘bandeiras’, expeditions designed to enslave indigenous peoples and to find precious metals and stones that reached as far as the western part of the Amazonian region. The leaders of these caravans became extremely influent and originated some of the most traditional families of São Paulo. The dimensions of what is now Brazilian territory partly results from the extension of such expeditions. In 1827, five years after Brazil had become independent from Portugal, the prestigious Faculty of Law in ‘Largo São Francisco’ was inaugurated and its graduates would constitute an important part of the country’s political and intellectual elite. Since then São Paulo developed into an important intellectual and political centre in Brazil. But only when coffee became Brazil’s vital export crop in the last decades of the 19th century and the coffee plantations expanded in the province of São Paulo did the city become a major centre of economic activity with concomitant population growth. Migration, both from Europe and internal, led to great expansion and diversification. The revenue accumulated by the coffee business fostered the industrialization process that by the middle of the 20th century would make São Paulo the country’s largest and most developed city and the capital of its most developed state. Since then it has become the hub of an immense megametropolis and one of the world’s global cities. Its vibrant and energetic urban core is characterized by an ever-growing maze of modern steel, concrete, and glass skyscrapers in newer hubs within São Paulo’s business centre, as well as in emergent outlying business districts. São Paulo by Numbers Area: 1,523 sq. km. Population: 10,000,000 Area of the metropolitan region: 7,944 sq. km. Population of the metropolitan region: 19,000,000 Students in higher education: 847,000 Average traffic jam on Friday evenings: 180 km Restaurants: 12,500, including more pizzerias than any city worldwide. Registered helicopters: 420 Japanese descendant community: 1,500,000 The world’s largest gay parade: 3,500,000 people in 2013 São Silvestre Race: 15,000 runners from about 20 countries Sources: britannica latinamericanhistory.about cidadedesaopaulo forbes fotossaopaulo.br Billionaire football club: Corinthians Number of Corinthians supporters: 27,300,000
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:00:02 +0000
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