(Portuguese / Dutch) Brazil: Notable Cities

Bahia (All Facts)

• Capital of (Portuguese) Brazil founded by Tome de Sousa

• In 1589, a supreme tribunal was created there allowing some administrative arrangements to be transferred from Portugal to Brazil

Rio de Janeiro (All Facts)

• In 1614, its governor made legal tender; which could be used to buy things or pay taxes

Recife (All Facts)

• It was the sugar capital of (Portuguese) Brazil

  • By 1630, production ran at some 10K tons of sugar a year

• The “Venice” of (Portuguese) Brazil, it was a port and series of islands established by the Portuguese

• Its capture by the Dutch in 1630 was part of a wider effort by the Dutch to control the Portuguese’s flourishing sugar plantations in the northeastern regions of the (Portuguese) Brazil during the Dutch-Portuguese War and Eighty Years’ War

• Port which the Dutch capture and took over, developed by the Dutch on the lines of Amsterdam,

  • with canals and tall town houses

  • in which architects, engineers, and artists all came from Holland to develop it

  • in which a policy of religious toleration was introduced, allowing Calvinists, Catholics, and Jews to practice their religion without interference

Minas Gerais (All Facts)

• Region of (Portuguese) Brazil which was historically known for a gold rush that occurred there in which

  • By 1697, adventurers of all sorts, unemployed from all over Portugal and (Portuguese) brazil with an eye to getting rich quick flocked to the namesake region where gold was discovered in its river beds and alluvial deposits in the hills nearby

  • The gold in the namesake region was easy to extract and a number of hopeful miners made their fortunes off of it as a result

  • Villages sprung up overnight with several thousand inhabitants in the namesake region

  • Portugal tightened its grip on the (Portuguese) Brazil as the excitement in finding gold increased as it was found in the namesake region