History of Pernambuco - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The history of Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...

begins before the discovery of Brazil, when the current state of the territory was populated by Tabajara

Tabajara

Tabajara is a nation of indigenous people, who had lived in interior of the Ceará, specially in Serra da Ibiapaba. This name means lord of village from taba village, and jara lord; according to José de Alencar....

Indians.

Colonial Period: the province of Pernambuco

In 1501, when the expedition of Gaspar de Lemos

Gaspar de Lemos

Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean....

founded trading posts along the coast of the Portuguese colony in America, then begins the process of colonization of Pernambuco

Portuguese colonization of the Americas

Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Earth, outside Europe, in 1494 into Spanish and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and colonization...

. Years later, Cristóvão Jacques

Cristóvão Jacques

Cristóvão Jaques , also known as Cristóvão Valjaques Algarve, cerca 1480 - after 1530, was a Portuguese noble of Aragonese descent....

was incubated to defend the coast of Pernambuco against vessels of other nations. The factory of Cristóvão Jacques, erected at the entrance of the Canal de Santa Cruz, Itamaracá

Itamaracá

Itamaracá is an island and a city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Atlantic Ocean. The name means "stone shaker" in Tupi, from the words itá and mbara'ká . Itamaracá has a total area of 65.41 square kilometers and had an estimated population of 18,658 inhabitants in 2009 according with IBGE...

, aimed to establish a bond with the natives, seeking information about possible riches within and repel possible attacks from other nations to the Brazilian coast . The French under Bertrand d'Ornesan

Bertrand d'Ornesan

Bertrand d'Ornesan, also Bertrand d'Ornezan, Baron de Saint-Blancard, was a French admiral in the service of King Francis I of France...

tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco in 1531. In 1534, the captaincy of Pernambuco

Captaincy of Pernambuco

The captaincy of Pernambuco was one of the subdivisions of Brazil during the colonial period. At the time of the Independence of Brazil it had become a province and, after the Proclamation of the Republic of Brazil, with the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution of 1891, it became the "state...

was given by King João III of Portugal to Duarte Coelho Pereira

Duarte Coelho Pereira

Duarte Coelho was a nobleman, military leader, and Portuguese colonial administrator. He was the first grantee of the captaincy of Pernambuco and founder of Olinda.- Biography :...

. Coelho Pereira, an influential navigator and soldier, was the illegitimate son of the noble family from Entre-Douro e Minho. He directed military actions against the French-allied Caetés

Caetés

The Caetés were an indigenous people of Brazil, linguistically belonging to the Tupi people.During the 16th Century, this tribe inhabited the Brazilian coast from the mouth of river São Francisco to the island of Itamaracá, by the River Paraíba, in an area limited, in the north, by the land of the...

Indians and, upon their defeat in 1537, established a settlement at the site of a former Marin Indian village, henceforth known as Olinda

Olinda

Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...

, as well as another village at the Igaraçu River, and would later help establish Recife

Recife

Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...

. In addition, he started the cultivation of sugar cane, which would have an important role in the economic history of the country.

The captaincy of Pernambuco originally stretched for 60 league

League (unit)

A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...

s between the Igaraçu River

Igaraçu River

The Igaraçu River is located in the city of Parnaíba in the north of the state of Piauí in Brazil .The river has sections classified as Environmental Protection Area by ICMBio.- External links :*...

and São Francisco River

São Francisco River

The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...

, and was called New Lusitania

Colonial Brazil

In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...

. He was responsible for most of the sugar production, the so-called white gold, in America and one of the most flourishing captaincy.

During the Colonial Period

Colonial Brazil

for centuries the captaincy

Captaincy

A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

of Pernambuco was the most prominent of Brazil, due to growing sugar cane. The importance and influence of the then captaincy was evident already in mid-1550, when the governor-general Sousa

Sousa

-Surname:*Sousa *John Philip Sousa, American bandleader and composer, writer of America's national march*Francis Newton Souza, Indian artist and founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group of Bombay...

oversaw all of the captaincies of the colony, except that of Pernambuco, by the requirement of its donee Duarte Coelho

Duarte Coelho Pereira

Duarte Coelho was a nobleman, military leader, and Portuguese colonial administrator. He was the first grantee of the captaincy of Pernambuco and founder of Olinda.- Biography :...

.

In 1595, the coveted captaincy already suffered a severe blow. The English privateer James Lancaster

James Lancaster

Sir James Lancaster was a prominent Elizabethan trader and privateer.Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. In his early life, he was a soldier and a trader in Portugal...

took the village of Recife

Recife

by assaulting and plundering the wealth brought inside for a month. Sails with no less than fifteen ships crowded the looting. One of the biggest booty in the history of piracy.

Dutch rule

In 1630 the Netherlands West Indies Company

Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...

(WIC) turned their interests to the most promising of the captaincies of the Portuguese colonies in the Americas. With the Iberian Union

Iberian Union

The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...

(1580–1640) the Netherlands, first dominated by Spain after having achieved its independence through a struggle against Spanish rule, at the same time would take the loss for the failure at Bahia

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

. They sailed on December 26, 1629 from São Vicente, Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

, a fleet of 66 ships and 7,280 men toward Pernambuco

Pernambuco

Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...

.
In February 1630 the Flemish fleet sighted Pernambuco on the horizon; most of the fleet went to the north of the captaincy because the port of Recife

Recife

was well fortified and garrisoned by artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

. The landing took place on the shore of Pau Amarelo

Paulista

Paulista is a city in Pernambuco, Brazil, population according to IBGE/2009, 319.373 people making it the 4th most populous city in PE). Its near 6 cities plus the ocean and has the highest HDI of the metro area. It is the birthplace of footballer Rivaldo, and is also famous for its beaches;...

. A weak resistance was organized at the crossing of the Rio Doce, but soon defeated by the superior numbered Dutch. Olinda

Olinda

Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...

also did not oppose major setbacks. The few structures of defense and military disorganization contributed to a faster fall of the Portuguese defense. Then the invading troops went into the village of Recife

Recife

, which would oppose a higher resistance due to already being built strong.

By 1654 the captaincy came under the dominion of the West Indies Company. Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...

passed through important cultural, economic and social government of Count Maurice of Nassau. Olinda was a difficult point of defense; according to Dutch design, it was abandoned and burned by the Flemish troops. Nassau's government built Maritania or Mauritsstad (present day Recife

Recife

on delta islands, which had similarities to Holland's topography. Unlike Olinda, the low swamplands of Mauritsstad were easier to defend. Nassau's Dutch administration was noted for advancements in urbanism, culture, and science. Under Nassau's command, the future Recife would surpass Olinda in regional importance with the construction of bridges, schools, infrastructure and sanitation. The Dutch legacy is still recognizable, 500 years later, in Pernambuco's people, accent and architecture.

The occupation was strongly resisted and the Dutch conquest was only partially successful. The Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

, who allowed sugar production to remain in Portuguese hands, regarded suppression of Palmares important, but they were unsuccessful. Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, count of Nassau, was appointed as ruler of the Nieuw Holland. This change of tack by the government, almost entirely from exploitation by Portugal to something closer to a colony of settlement, some colonists did rebel against Portugal. Among them, we have the name of Domingos Fernandes Calabar

Domingos Fernandes Calabar

Domingos Fernandes Calabar was a plantation owner in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, an ally of Dutch Republic who invaded the Northeast of Brazil....

, who fought against the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

resistance until the end of his life.

Due to the cultivation of sugar and cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

, Pernambuco had become one of the few prosperous captaincies (the other notable one being São Vicente). With the support of the Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...

, sugar mills (engenho) were built and a sugar-based economy developed. In 1612, Pernambuco produced 14,000 tons of sugar; in the 1640s, more than 24,000 tons of sugar were exported to Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

alone. While the sugar industry relied at first on the labor of indigenous peoples, especially the Tupis and Tapuyas, high mortality and economic growth led to the importation of African slaves from the late 17th century. Some of these slaves escaped the sugar-producing coastal regions and formed independent inland communities called mocambos

Mocambos

The mocambos were village-sized communities mainly of runaway slaves in colonial Brazil, during the Portuguese rule....

, including Palmares

Palmares

Palmares may refer to:*Palmares, Pernambuco, a municipality in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil*Palmares Paulista*Palmares Canton, a canton in the province of Alajuela in Costa Rica...

Pernambuco Uprising

On May 15, 1645, meeting on the São João Plantation, 18 insurgent leaders in Pernambuco signed a commitment to fight against the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

rule in the captaincy. With the agreement signed, thus started the counter-attack on the Dutch invasion

Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...

. The first major victory of the insurgents took place on the Mount of Tabocas

Battle of Tabocas

The Battle of Tabocas, also known as the Battle of Mount Tabocas, was fought between the Dutch and the Portuguese army.The battle took place in Mount Tabocas, in the Hereditary Captaincy of Pernambuco, on August 3, 1645, and was won by the Portuguese forces...

(now located in the municipality of Vitória de Santo Antão

Vitória de Santo Antão

Vitória de Santo Antão is a city in the State of Pernambuco, in Brazil, located at -Geography:* State - Pernambuco* Region - Zona da mata Pernambucana...

) where 1200 mazombos insurgents armed with guns, sickles, sticks and arrows defeated 1900 well-armed and well trained Dutch, in an ambush. The success has given leading Antonio Dias Cardoso

Antonio Dias Cardoso

Antonio Dias Cardoso served as the President of the Democratic Movement of Angola until he joined the MPLA in 1975.Cardoso was born in Luanda. He was arrested in 1961 by the Portuguese Secret Police and exiled to Cape Verde....

the nickname Master of Ambushes. The Dutch who survived went on to Recife

Recife

, and again defeated by an alliance of mazombos, Indian

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

s native and black slaves.

They retreated back to the fortification

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Pontal de Nazaré, Sirinhaém, Rio Formoso, Porto Calvo and Forte Maurício, was successively defeated by insurgents. Finally, Olinda

Olinda

Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...

was recovered by the rebels. Surrounded and isolated by a rebel band that became known as New Holland, going from Recife

Recife

to Itamaracá

Itamaracá

, the invaders began to suffer from lack of food, which led them to attack cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

plantations in the villages of São Lourenço, Catuma, and Tejucupapo. On April 24 in 1646, there was the famous Battle of Tejucupapo, where peasant women armed with farm implements and arms drove out the Dutch invaders, humiliating them permanently. This historic fact established itself as the first major military participation of women in defense of the Brazilian territory.

On April 19 in 1648, the Dutch broke the siege, turning to Cabo São Agostinho. The site was the scene of two important battles of Brazilian military history - the two Battles of Guararapes

First Battle of Guararapes

The First Battle of Guararapes was a battle in a conflict called the Pernambucana Insurrection, between Dutch and Portuguese forces in Pernambuco, in a dispute for the dominion of that part of Brazil.-The Beginnings:...

. The fate of the invaders was sealed with the second Battle of Guararapes

Second Battle of Guararapes

The Second Battle of Guararapes was the second and decisive battle in a conflict called Pernambucana Insurrection, between Dutch and Portuguese forces in 1649 at Jaboatão dos Guararapes in the state of Pernambuco, ending the Dutch occupation of Brazil....

, but the invaders remained surrounded by 1654. On January 20 that year, the last Dutch defenses were penetrated, forcing the invaders to conclude a treaty of surrender. After 24 years of Dutch rule over Pernambuco, after 62 hours of negotiation, on January 27 in 1654 in Campina da Taborda, the Dutch

Netherlands

surrendered unconditionally, delivering 73 keys of Recife to the victorious Pernambucanos.

The uprising was a milestone in Pernambuco, Brazil, both militarily and with the consolidation of ambush and guerrilla tactics, the socio-politically, with the increase of miscegenation between the three races (black African, white European and native Indian) and the beginning a sense of nationhood.

Jews in Pernambuco

The first Jewish families arrived in Recife in 1635, when Pernambuco was under Dutch rule

Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...

, had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants and was the richest Brazilian captaincy

Captaincy

A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

. Pursued by the Catholic Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula, they came attracted by the religious freedom that the Dutch began to settle on land taken from Portugal.

In Recife, the Jews entered the branch of the trade that would soon dominate: during the rule of Count Maurice of Nassau, for example, they controlled 40% of sugar exports sugar from Pernambuco to the Netherlands and Germany.

They have also played an important historical role. That they erected in the 17th century, the first synagogue in the Americas

Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue

Kahal Zur Israel , located in Recife, Brazil, was the first Jewish congregation in the New World. It was established by immigrants from the Netherlands and joined by New Christians who were already living in the colony. There is now a museum on this site of the oldest synagogue site in the...

, in house number 197 Rua do Bom Jesus, in the neighborhood of Old Recife

Recife Antigo

Recife Antigo is the historical section of central Recife. It is located on the Island of Recife, near the Recife harbor. This historic area has been recently recovered and now holds several clubs, bars and a high-tech center called Porto Digital.-History:Recife Antigo consists of the initial...

The first manifestation of Hebrew literary (three sentences that reported the suffering and trials passed by the Jewish people) was written by Isaak Aboab Foonseca who was the first rabbi in the Americas.

The Jewish community also left its mark on the formation and layout of the city of Recife

Recife

: they have built over 300 houses and duplexes, schools, cemetery and the first bridge Recife (a Buarque de Macedo) was commissioned by Maurice of Nassau to a Jew, Baltazar Fonseca.

Many habits today are grown by Pernambucano heritage left by the Jews: paint the house at the end of the year; fix her up on Fridays; buy goods in installments at the front door, among others.

After the expulsion of the Dutch in 1654, the Jewish community in Pernambuco again suffered religious persecution by the Portuguese

Portugal

and left Brazil.

Of the 150 families who left Recife to Amsterdam

Amsterdam

, a group of 23 Jews ended up with their boat (the ship Valk) intercepted by Spanish pirates and imprisoned in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

.

Soon after the group was released by the crew of a French ship bound for North America and left in September 1654 in New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....

, was a village of 1,500 inhabitants.

It was this group of Jews that left Recife who founded the first American Jewish community and helped build what is now New York City.

In addition to these pioneers, other Jewish families would come to Recife in 1910, mostly from Russia. In 1998 the old house where ran the Recife synagogue was expropriated by the city to host, after being restored, the Centre for Documentation and Research in Jewish history.

Pernambucano revolts and conspiracies

Pernambuco was the scene of several riots, revolutions and conspiracies in general inspired by the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

by Freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

and Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

. European ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity were scattered among the more fortunate Pernambucanos, usually the aristocrats of the literary devices of cane sugar. Pernambuco even existed a few months as the Republic of Pernambuco, the result of the 1817 revolution. Although the latest revolution dating from the middle of nineteenth century, all of which profoundly influenced the state, and still do - the current flag, for example, was established in the 1817 revolution.

Brazilian Independence

Independence from Portugal was not accepted right away, soon after D. Pedro I declared Brazilian Independence he would have to consolidate his power in Brazil.

Cabanada was a popular revolt in 1832 in the areas of forest and Agreste of (with reflections in the neighboring state of Alagoas

Alagoas

Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...

), against the government of the .

Regency. The rebels, in general, were humble people who lived in huts, a fact which gave rise to the name of the movement, which began after the abdication of Dom Pedro I.

The government mobilized a large contingent to meet the rebels, but the fighting became meaningless with the emperor's death in 1834. The rebels were dominated in 1835.

Cabanada is also called the movement that resulted in the ouster of President of the province of Alagoas, Bernardo de Sousa Franco, October 5, 1844. The rebels (about a thousand armed men) were commanded by Vicente Tavares da Silva (known as Vincente de Paula), but the movement was extinguished in little over a month by troops led by Brigadier General Antônio Correia Seara.

The Magical Kingdom

A fanatical movement appeared at the site of Pedra Bonita near Vila Bela and the city of São José do Belmonte

São José do Belmonte

São José do Belmonte is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The population in 2009, according with IBGE was 34.118 inhabitants and the total area is 1479.96 km².-Geography:* State - Pernambuco* Region - Sertão Pernambucano...

, in the interior of Pernambuco

Pernambuco

, in 1836, one year after the state suffered a major drought. It begun with the preaching of the Blessed João Antônio, according to which King Sebastião would "disenchant" and return

Sebastianism

Sebastianism, one aspect of the sleeping king folk-motif, is part of the Portuguese and Brazilian mythology and culture. It means waiting for a hero that will save Portugal and lead it to the Fifth Empire, and known as Eu nacional...

to distribute wealth among the people.

Blessed João was soon followed by a legion of fans, but, pressured by Catholic priests, gave up the initiative. Two years later, João Ferreira, brother of Blessed João Antônio, restarts the movement with the same promises of creating the Magical Kingdom.

The fanatical João Ferreira gathered his followers around a large rock, the Stone of the Kingdom, and says that in order for King Sebastião to relive the miracle of wealth, it was necessary that the great stone was completely stained with human blood.

Those who donate blood for the king's return would be rewarded: the old resurrected as youth; blacks would come back as whites and everybody, aside from the rich, would be immortal in the new life. Taken from their farms by drought, families camped around the rock and began to wait for the miracle.

João Ferreira proclaimed himself "king" and established customs of the community there formed. For example, each man could have several wives, but the "king" had the right of first night: he slept with the bride on the wedding night, and she returning the next day to her husband.

All other rules of conduct were also dictated by him. The attempt to dye the stone with human blood was put into practice for three days in May 1838. The first to be beheaded was the father of "King" João Ferreira.

Another 50 people were killed, mostly children. But even so, King Sebastião did not appear. The fanatics then decided to leave in procession, headed by João Ferreira. They found a patrol and were massacred.

20th Century

Cangaceiros

Independent armed groups emerged in the Brazilian Northeast, which used guerrilla tactics to fight and were wanting to avenge crimes against family members or friends as well as fight for food and ammunition to their members, and often working for landlords who evicted the workers of the estates that reacted against exploitation in the county.

They were formed by people of humble origin, usually from the field, under the leadership of a chief who imposed their own concept of morality, honor, justice and piety.

Gangs were pursuing isolated goals, sometimes even fighting among themselves, and had its heyday between 1922 and 1930, when terror spread throughout the semi-arid Northeast and were chased by troops from seven states; Bahia

Salvador, Bahia

, Sergipe

Sergipe

Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...

, Alagoas

Alagoas

, Pernambuco

Pernambuco

, Paraíba

Paraíba

Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...

, Rio Grande do Norte

Rio Grande do Norte

Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern region of the country, occupying the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. Because of its geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal...

and Ceará

Ceará

Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...

, the officials even using airplanes in repeated, unsuccessful, search attempts.

In the struggle to capture the leader of the most feared of these bands, Virgolino Ferreira da Silva, Lampião

Lampião

"Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião , was the most famous leader of a Cangaço band, marauders and outlaws who terrorized the Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s.-Biography:...

, the Brazilian government went on to publish wanted posters promising 50,000,000 réis

Brazilian real (old)

The first official currency of Brazil was the real . Its sign was Rs$. It was adopted as the official currency of Brazil in 1790, and remained in use until 1942, when it was replaced by the cruzeiro....

to whoever brought in Lampião "dead or alive."

Deeply knowledgeable of the caatinga

Caatinga

Caatinga is a type of vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in the northeastern part of Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation"...

, the gangs had support from local farmers, politicians, peasants and priests, not only for fear of the bandits, but for need of their services. The rank of Captain Virgolino Ferreira, for example, was given by Father Cícero do Juazeiro.

Besides Lampião, other bandits and outlaws have also became myths in the Northeast, outlaws like Antônio Silvino Corisco, o Diabo Louro, (the Blond Devil). The entry of women into banditry happened in 1930 when Maria Bonita

Maria Bonita

Maria Bonita is a romance novel, one of a trilogy, based on the story of Maria, the wife of João Lopes da Costa Pinho. João Lopes da Costa Pinho emigrated to Brazil from Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. Some say he arrived barefoot but he went on to be immensely wealthy, owning some 32 cattle and...

became fellow Cangaceiro and followed Lampião's gang. Although the highwaymen took momentum in the early 1920s, the existence of armed groups in the Northeast comes from colonial times.

And one of the first of outlaws ever heard was The Cabeleira

O Cabeleira

O Cabeleira is a 1876 Regionalist novel by Brazilian Romantic author Franklin Távora. Set in Pernambuco, during the 18th century, the novel tells the story of the cangaceiro José Gomes and his father Joaquim, and their adventures at the sertão of the Brazilian Northeast.-Adaptations:The book was...

, in the second half of the 18th century, was active in rural areas close to Recife

Recife

. According to scholars, one of the factors that contributed to the proliferation of gangs was the great drought that decimated the Northeast in 1877: extreme poverty and hunger caused thousands in the Sertão

Sertão

In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. In Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century...

, (hinterland), with no prospect of survival, to depart for plunder, paving the way for the world of cangaceiros.

Banditry is at the origin in the very form of colonization in the Brazilian Northeast, where, financed by the Crown, the pioneers invaded the Sertão, fell forests, landmarks and paid the gunmen and bandits to eliminate the native populations to react to the occupation of their land.

The private armies maintained by the Northeastern colonels who owned the land since the Captaincies

Captaincy

A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

also differed on almost nothing, its methods, the bands of outlaws. The highwaymen was one of the most turbulent and contradictory times in Brazilian history and still comes up in a heated controversy: that the outlaws would have been righteous if they didn't become bloodthirsty bandits.

The end of the cangaceiros took place in 1938, when Lampião's gang was slaughtered, on the banks of the São Francisco River

São Francisco River

The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...

in Angicos

Angicos

Angicos is a town and municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the Northeast region of Brazil.-References:...

, Alagoas

Alagoas

. Corisco, o Diabo Louro, survived until 1940, but almost without doing anything to keep the promise to "avenge the death of Lampião."

Cassava Scandal

It was one of the largest financial scandals in the history of Pernambuco, which occurred in 1980 at the Bank of Brazil in the town of Floresta

Floresta, Pernambuco

Floresta is a city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Situated at latitude 08º36'04" South and at longitude 38º34'07" West, being to an altitude of 316 metres...

, involving an amount of approximately $700 million and several influential people in the state.

The loans were made to the bank for allegedly planting cassava, then it is alleged that the drought had destroyed the plantations (which were never actually made) and no one was paying anything, and damages are covered by crop insurance. Even the bank manager was involved. In July 1981, the Pernambucano press denounced the hoax and then established a federal court inquiry into the irregularities.

On March 3, 1982, the District Attorney Pedro Jorge de Melo, who drove the process to investigate the irregularities, is assassinated in Olinda

Olinda

Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...

. The crime had national repercussions.

The trial of seven defendants for the death of the prosecutor, among them MP Major José Ferreira dos Anjos, begun on October 7, 1983 at the jury of Recife

Recife

, and ended on October 12, 1983, with sentences of 31 years imprisonment for each of the defendants.

On November 22, 1983, Major José Ferreira

José Ferreira

José Ferreira is a Portuguese Olympic fencer. He competed at the 1952 and 1960 Summer Olympics.-References:...

escapes from prison, a MP barracks, and is only recaptured on January 29, 1996, in the interior of Bahia

Salvador, Bahia

, and returned to prison in Recife. The process that would determine the diversion of money was never completed.

Colonial Period: the province of Pernambuco

Dutch rule

Pernambuco Uprising

Jews in Pernambuco

Pernambucano revolts and conspiracies

Brazilian Independence

The Magical Kingdom

20th Century

Cangaceiros

Cassava Scandal

See also