Before Europeans arrived in Brazil, the territory that is now the state of Paraíba was home to numerous indigenous tribes. Between the coast and the
Borborema Plateau, the main indigenous group was the
Potiguara (part of the larger
Tupi group), who lived along the
Paraíba do Norte river. The
Kiriri and
Ariús groups, meanwhile, lived further to the west, occupying the region between the Borborema Plateau and the
sertão.
Colonization and conquest In 1500, the Portuguese explorer
Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the northeastern coast of Brazil and claimed the territory of Brazil for the
Portuguese Empire as set out in the
Treaty of Tordesillas. It was not until 1534, however, that colonization began, spurred on by the increasing
French presence in the Northeast. In that same year, the King of Portugal,
John III, divided Brazil into fifteen
captaincies. Most of what is now the state of Paraíba became part of the
Captaincy of Itamaracá, which comprised a thin band of area stretching from the Tordesillas line at the far western extremity to the
Ponta do Seixas, the easternmost point of Brazil. The remaining portions of the state fell under the neighboring captaincies of Rio Grande to the north and Pernambuco to the south. Itamaracá, in contrast to
Pernambuco, continued to be troubled by French
piracy, especially of wood, animal skins, and
amber. Convents, churches, and sugar mills began to sprout up in the captaincy as the colonial population grew. Where once the Portuguese had had a relatively conciliatory relationship with the Tupi people, due in part to their usefulness as allies against other European powers (the French, Dutch, and Spanish), as well as to other hostile indigenous peoples, the growth of the colonies sparked tensions. The principal reasons for heightened tensions were the encroachment of settlers on indigenous territory, driven by the establishment of
sugarcane plantations and the increasing nutritional needs of a larger population; the new compulsory labor relations imposed by the Portuguese, which implied the abandonment of the indigenous agricultural production system, essential for the survival of the villages; and the fact that though they were banned from attacking Portuguese settlements, their own villages were subject to attacks from settlers searching for slave labor. Eventually, the tensions came to a head when the Potiguara people, urged on by the French, gathered around 2,000 tribesmen from Paraíba and Rio Grande and attacked the Tracunhaém plantation in 1574, killing all residents. The event had powerful reverberations in
Lisbon, leading to
King Henry creating the Royal
Captaincy of Paraíba, which was subordinate directly to the Portuguese Crown. At the time, eastern Paraíba was inhabited by the Potiguara people and their rivals, the
Tabajaras, who had moved there from the central region following a period of drought. The Tabajara joined the Portuguese and together they chased the Potiguara from the area, thereby completing their original mission. Having now conquered Paraíba, the colonists established the first Royal City in Brazil under the
Philippine Dynasty in 1585, named "Filipeia de Nossa Senhora das Neves" (today the capital of Paraíba,
João Pessoa). Additionally, to repel French invaders, they constructed the
Forte de São Tiago on the edge of the Paraíba do Norte river. when they arrived in the
Bay of Traição to treat their sick and bury their dead. Hendricksz was able to escape, fleeing to
Puerto Rico. During the battle, however, the Potiguaras suffered heavy losses of 600 to a thousand dead. which they had already conquered in 1630. The Dutch attempted the invasion anew on November 25, 1634, with the arrival of a squadron of 29 ships on the coast of Paraíba. Though reinforcements were sent to Paraíba from as far as Europe to repel the Dutch, the Portuguese had already been too weakened, and allowed the Forte de Santa Catarina and the Forte de Santo Antônio to fall into the hands of the Dutch. The Dutch then went to Filipeia de Nossa Senhora das Neves in search of Governor Antônio de Albuquerque, who was in command of the Portuguese troops. On Christmas Eve, they entered the city, but did not find Albuquerque; instead, they found empty streets and abandoned homes, a shell of the former city. With that final nail in the coffin — despite some ongoing resistance from the local population — Western expansion was also spearheaded by Catholic missionaries, who sought to convert the local indigenous population. One of the most important missionaries of this time was the priest Martim Nantes, who founded the village of
Pilar. On January 1, 1756, the Captaincy of Paraíba was dissolved and annexed to Pernambuco. This lasted until 1799, when it became the Captaincy of Paraíba again. At this time, some minor adjustments were made to Paraíba's borders, with a portion of its northern territory being given to
Rio Grande do Norte.
Revolt Throughout its history, Paraíba participated in various revolts. The
Pernambuco Revolution of 1817 stands out as an example; inspired by the
War of Independence in the
United States and the
French Revolution, its objective was to make Brazil an independent country. From its origins in Pernambuco, the revolution spread to the entire Northeast. In Paraíba, the movement arose in the southern municipality of Itabaiana and fanned out to the
agreste, sertão, and coast. The movement proved unsuccessful, though the struggle for independence continued on afterwards. The following five years (1818–1822) were marked by clashes between two rival factions: the cajás, also called patriots, who were revolutionaries, and the carambolas (realists), who were counterrevolutionaries. In 1822, Brazil finally became an independent country and Paraíba was turned into a province of the
Brazilian Empire of King
Pedro I. Two years later, Paraíba was implicated in the
Confederation of the Equator, which was an anti-authoritarian movement that started in Pernambuco. The movement was suppressed by Imperial forces, with some of the leaders sentenced to execution. Between the months of October and December 1874, Paraíba participated in the
Quebra–Quilos revolt, which was instigated by the replacement of the measurement system in Brazil with the
metric system. The uprising was mostly concentrated in rural areas and was characterized by several acts of violence, at the same time as the so-called
Religious Issue was gaining momentum. Paraíba also participated in the
Paraguayan War, with a force of three thousand men. In 1860, Paraíba had a population of about 212,000 people and suffered from several serious public health problems, including epidemics like
cholera and
yellow fever. One of the main causes of these issues was the lack of water in the largely
semi-arid climate of the province. In 1877, Paraíba was hit by the worst
drought in its history, accentuating poverty and prompting migration from the interior to the east. The PRC then remained in power for an additional two decades, until the end of the Old Republic in 1930. , governor of Paraíba from 1928 to 1930, the year of his assassination After the onset of the
First World War (1914–1918), the economy of Paraíba entered a crisis, mainly due to the drop in exports of one of the main agricultural products of the state,
cotton. It was during his government that Brazil celebrated its first centennial of independence. Dissatisfied with the current oligarchical system, in February 1926 a rebel group called the
Coluna Prestes entered Paraíba. The group faced resistance from the local population as they traveled through cities in the hinterland, including in
Piancó where a local political leader, Father Aristides Ferreira da Cruz, died during the clashes, becoming one of the Martyrs of Piancó. The sertão was also home to other groups operating outside the law, namely the
cangaço bandits (cangaceiros), the most well-known of which is
Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (Lampião). In 1928,
João Pessoa (the nephew of Epitácio Pessoa, the former president of Brazil) was elected as governor of Paraíba. Under his administration, cangaceiros in the interior of the state were persecuted and oligarchs were defied, generating discontent among the local landlords. This was especially the case with José Pereira Lima, a political leader of the municipality of
Princesa Isabel and an ally of presidential candidate
Júlio Prestes. With the invasion of the city of
Teixeira by the Paraíban police and the imminent invasion of Lima's own Princesa Isabel, on February 28, 1930, he proclaimed the independent "
Território de Princesa", which would only be subordinate directly to the federal government. On July 26, 1930, João Pessoa was assassinated by João Duarte Dantas. Generating great national commotion, especially among the states of the Liberal Alliance, It also resulted in the weakening of the armed movement in Território de Princesa, which became a part of Paraíba again on August 11, 1930, Between the 1930 revolution and Vargas' fall from power in 1946, the state of Paraíba was governed by ten federal appointees, the first being Antenor de França Navarro (1930–1932) and the last being José Gomes da Silva (1946–1947). In 1964, a
coup d'état by military forces deposed President
João Goulart from power and instituted a
military dictatorship. Pedro Gondim, the governor of Paraíba, had been allied with Goulart, resulting in his mandate being revoked and his political rights being suspended for ten years by the new administration. Among the local Paraíban population, opponents to the coup were arrested, exiled, tortured, or killed, with an amnesty only being granted in the late 1970s. The next few governors were all indirectly elected, either by the legislative assembly or the electoral college, until 1983 when
Wilson Braga was democratically elected governor. With the
constitution of 1988, Brazil returned to a democratic system of government. In 1997, the body of former president João Pessoa was transferred from Rio de Janeiro to the eponymous capital of Paraíba, where he was buried in a mausoleum built by the state government.
Twenty-first century In 2009, Governor
Cássio Cunha Lima was impeached after being elected two terms in a row. As such, the runner-up of the previous elections,
José Maranhão, who had already been governor from 1995 to 2002, was reappointed as governor of Paraíba. Despite the confirmation of Lima's impeachment by the
Superior Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral), he ran again in 2014, though he lost to the former mayor of João Pessoa,
Ricardo Coutinho, first elected in 2011. Between 2012 and 2017, Paraíba faced the worst drought in its recent history, which put more than 90% of Paraíba municipalities in a state of emergency and had significant ramifications for agriculture, electricity generation, and
water supply. In 2017, after years in the works, the east axis of the multi-billion dollar
São Francisco river transfer project was completed, allowing for water to be diverted to the Paraíba do Norte river. The goal of the project — the largest water infrastructure project in Brazil's history — is to alleviate the impact of droughts and water shortages in the semi-arid regions of the Northeast. ==Geography==