History of Rio de Janeiro

Portuguese explorers arrived at Guanabara Bay in 1502 and in 1555 French colonists established a Calvinist settlement.

Native Americans from the Tupí family occupied the area at the time of European contact.

The French were expelled in 1567 by the Portuguese, who maintained a small colony based on subsistence agriculture, fishing, and the export of brazilwood and sugarcane until the beginning of the 18th century.

In 1704 the completion of a road from Rio to the gold mines of Minas Gerais made the city a major center of transportation, commerce, and wealth.

Rio was captured by the French in 1710 and the Portuguese paid a substantial ransom for its return.

The city’s fortunes rose in 1763 when the capital of colonial Brazil was moved to Rio from Salvador, a port city in northeastern Brazil known at the time as Bahia.

After Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies captured Lisbon, Portugal, in 1808, Rio became the seat of Portugal’s exiled royal family.

In the decade that followed, the city grew dramatically and took on a decidedly European flavor.

In 1822 it became the capital of the independent Brazilian Empire. With the overthrow of the monarchy in 1889, Rio was made the capital of the Brazilian republic.

Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing well into the middle of the 1900s, coffee cultivation expanded widely in the mountainous terrain surrounding Rio, fueling a commercial boom that enriched the city and its residents.

By 1900 Rio’s population had grown to about 800,000.
The global economic depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945) drastically reduced the flow of manufactured goods into Brazil, encouraging the development of national industries; many of these were based in Rio.

After World War II, Rio prospered from increasing commerce and international trade. During this period Rio attracted large numbers of migrants who came from small towns and rural areas of Brazil seeking jobs and better living conditions.

In 1960 the capital of the nation was transferred to Brasília, deep in the country’s interior. This marked a dramatic change for Rio, resulting in a loss of political status and prestige.

In addition, large amounts of federal aid—as well as related investment and jobs—were shifted to the new capital, undermining Rio’s economic dominance.

Nevertheless, the city’s population continued to mushroom until the 1980s, when growth tapered off.