Prehistory Prior to discovery and colonization by Portugal, Pernambuco was inhabited by numerous tribes of
Tupi-Guarani speaking indigenous peoples. The
Tupi peoples were a largely hunter-gatherer culture living in long houses who cultivated some indigenous crops, most notably
manioc (
Manihot esculenta), but lacked any metallic tools. Many elements of the Tupi culture were a shock to Europeans: among these, they bathed frequently, they eschewed wealth accumulation, practiced nudity, and warred frequently, primarily to capture enemies for communal, ritual cannibalism.
European contact Modern day Pernambuco includes the islands of
Fernando de Noronha, which precedes mainland Pernambuco's history since the islands were granted to Fernão de Laronha by King Manoel in 1502. Pernambuco was initially valued as a source of
Brazilwood (
Caesalpinia echinata) used in Europe for dyes. These Amerindians were eager to harvest and exchange brazilwood for axes, fishhooks and other goods offered by Europeans. The Portuguese crown granted a license to Fernão de Laronha in 1502. After the expiration of the license the trade in brazilwood was a driver of the exploration of Brazil. Brazilwood was highly valued and other European nations, particularly the French, soon sent ships to exploit this new dye wood. The French under
Bertrand d'Ornesan tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco in 1531. This fort was located at the border of Pernambuco and Itamaricá to the North. The Portuguese King responded by dispatching an armada under the command of Pero Lopes de Sousa. Pero Lopes defeated the French, destroyed their fort and built a new fort.
Portuguese settlement , a
World Heritage SiteShortly after the success in dislodging the French from Pernambuco's northern border with Itamaricá the Portuguese began to settle Brazil. King
John III of Portugal created the
Hereditary Captaincies in 1534, Pernambuco was granted to
Duarte Coelho, who arrived in
Nova Lusitânia (or "New
Lusitania") in 1535. Duarte directed military actions against the French-allied
Caetés Indians and upon their defeat in 1537 established a settlement at the site of a former Marin Indian village, henceforth known as Olinda, as well as another village at
Igarassu. Under his leadership sugar soon replaced Brazilwood as Pernambuco's most profitable export. Due to the cultivation of
sugar and cotton, Pernambuco was one of the few prosperous captaincies (the other notable one being
São Vicente).
Slavery In addition to requiring a lot of capital investment, refining sugar in the 16th century also required a vast amount of labor. Brazilian Indians were very useful to the Portuguese; both free Indians and enslaved Indians performed many useful services for the Portuguese settlers. This included helping with building Engenhos. However, Brazilian Indian culture was not well suited to the operation of sugar engenhos. Indian culture was not oriented to wealth accumulation. Stuart Schwartz expressed it, "Once a man had enough to eat and a few new tools and weapons, why should he want or work for more." 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 enslaved Africans from the late 17th century onward. Some of these slaves escaped the sugar-producing coastal regions and formed independent inland communities called
mocambos, including
Palmares.
Dutch conquest In 1630, Pernambuco, as well as many Portuguese possessions in Brazil, was occupied by the Dutch until 1654.
Jewish immigration in Mauritsstad (
Recife), the first synagogue in the Americas Under Dutch rule, Jewish culture developed in
Recife. Many Jews, having fled the
Inquisition in Iberia, sought refuge in the Netherlands. The Jewish community established themselves in Dutch Brazil and would later migrate elsewhere in the Americas. There are records that in 1636 a synagogue was being built in the city. A Jewish scholar from
Amsterdam,
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, arrived in
Recife in 1642, becoming the first rabbi on Brazilian soil and on the continent. In 1643, three years after the Portuguese regained the crown in the metropolis, Father
António Vieira – frowned upon, persecuted by the Inquisition and admirer of Aboab – recommended the King of Portugal occupy the capital of the New Christian and Jewish immigrants to help the depressed Portuguese finances
Portuguese reconquest The Portuguese reconquered Recife in 1654 and
Olinda regained its status of political center. However,
Recife remained the commercial /port city. Nowadays, it is credited that many inhabitants of Pernambuco's
agreste region have some Dutch ancestry. If the Dutch were gone, however, the threat of the now unified quilombo of Palmares remained. In spite of a treaty negotiated in 1678 with its ruler
Ganga Zumba, a war between the two remained.
Zumbi who became ruler following the peace treaty and later repudiated it, fought the Portuguese government until 1694 when soldiers brought from the south eventually defeated him.
Three centuries of the sugar cycle Throughout the remainder of the 17th century on to the 20th century much of life in Pernambuco was dominated by the patterns established by monoculture, latifundia, and slavery (until 1888). Sugar and cotton were grown on large plantations and rural society was largely divided into landowning elites and the impoverished poor. In addition, Pernambuco, except for a narrow coastland, is subject to periodic droughts. The boom and bust economy throughout this period is often exemplified as the "sugar cycle" when the international market for sugar is good, the economy booms, when the market is bad, it is hard times for all and particularly for the impoverished. Sugar has always been the principal example of the boom or bust cycle, but there has, from time to time been a similar cycle in cotton. Cotton was profitable during the U.S. War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the U.S. Civil War. Each time the bust in Pernambuco came when U.S. growers resumed their exports.
17th-century class conflict A sugar mill
engenho requires a large investment both to build and to operate. Much of the time the money is borrowed. Although there were other sources, one source that was a particular irritant to mill owners were the merchants of Recife. In 1710 this irritant resulted in the
Mascate War. This conflict set the
mascates from Recife against the establishment planters of Olinda It was led by the
Senhores de Engenho (owners of the sugar mills). It is an example of the continuing tensions between the senhores de engenho (the landed elites) in colonial Brazil and the merchants of Recife. The "War" (there was considerable shooting but little loss of life) has elements of class struggle. Olinda had, before the Dutch, always been the municipal seat. Recife, once merely a port facility for Olinda, had formerly consisted of a few modest dwellings, warehouses, and businesses catering to ships and seamen, but under the Dutch had been developed into a thriving center of commerce populated by wealthy, more recently arrived merchants to whom most of the landed aristocracy of Pernambuco were heavily indebted. After several excesses the king issued a new set of instructions to the governor. In 1715 the crown dispatched a new governor and the residents of Pernambuco finally felt the troubles were ended, though many families of the colony's elites were ruined.
18th century: mining eclipses sugar The discovery of gold in Minas Gerais late in the Seventeenth Century and the discovery of diamond displaced agriculture. In fact, for all the disruption caused by "gold fever" throughout the mining boom the value of sugar exports always exceeded the value of any other export. Nevertheless, among many other disruptions, gold shifted the focus South. Pernambuco, Bahia, and the entire Northeast were eclipsed by the South of Brazil and that shift in focus has never been reversed.
19th century: a province, then a state Pernambuco's response to the nationhood of Brazil seems to have been rebellion. Pernambuco was the site of some of the most important rebellions and insurrections in
Brazilian history, especially in the 19th century. See Also
Rebellions and revolutions in Brazil,
Pernambucan revolt,
Cabanada,
April Revolt (Pernambuco) At one point Pernambuco led much of the Northeast region in a very short-lived independent
Confederation of the Equator.
The end of slavery and the beginning of the republic In 1888, under the influence of increasingly urban society, and with the advocacy of intellectuals such as Pernambucan politician
Joaquim Nabuco, slavery was abolished. However, freedom for the slaves did little or nothing to improve life for the underclass. Economic downturns were used to cut wages, children were paid almost nothing, and violence ruled. In those days before antibiotics there were major epidemics, fourteen between 1849 and 1920.
20th century The twentieth century did bring better communication and transportation which would slowly allow development. But for the poor employed in the sugar industry, as late as the 1960s infant mortality in this labor segment was nearly half of live births. Politically, the century was dominated by two periods of dictatorship, ruled by
Getúlio Vargas for most of the period from 1930 to 1954. and the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985
Post-dictatorship progress Since the end of military rule, there is still an underemployed and under-fed underclass. However, quality of life has improved along with industrial development. Pernambuco has also become a major tourist destination. Statistics from the turn of the millennium show a sharp and continuing improvement. According to estimates from the
Global Burden of Disease Study, the
infant mortality rate declined 6.2 percent annually between 1990 and 2015: from 90.4 infant deaths per 1000 live births in 1990, to 13.4 deaths/1000 live births in 2015. The homicide rate in Recife, still higher than the average for Brazil, declined by about 6% per annum during the period from 2000 to 2012. Income inequality remains a problem; in 2000, the state had a Gini coefficient of 0.59, with wealth and resources being concentrated at the top. == Government and politics ==