The history and growth of Brazil can be viewed as the product of three transformations: colonization, modernization and contemporary globalization. These three processes are neither independent from one another nor wholly complete. Beginning with colonization, these transformations will be initially presented within a linear, chronological framework. However, their affects and relationships in history are often non-linear or ambiguous. Inevitably, there are moments where this structure will become insufficient, thus imparting anomalies and revelations inherent to the analysis.
This series of studies will begin with a review of the colonization of Brazil and an analysis of the settlement of Ouro Preto. Later, the study will also analyze the modern city of Brasilia and global city of Sao Paulo.
THE AGE OF EXPLORATION
During the Age of Exploration, the imperial nations of Western Europe invested much of their resources into the expansion of their empires, geographically and economically. Advancements in boat technology, cartography, astronomy and timekeeping made motivations realities.
In the early 15th century, the Portuguese first sailed down the coasts of West Africa, attempting to surpass the Saharan trade route and uncover access to the Mediterranean. By the end of the same century, they had rounded the Cape of Good Hope providing access to the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese were also searching for the trade route west through the Atlantic, which eventually led to their discovery of Brazil. Equally motivated, the Spanish funded multiple voyages for their share of the New World. As competition and claims grew between the Spanish and the Portuguese, the Church attempted to mediate conflicts between the two countries with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. This treaty gave the Portuguese much of the land that is now Brazil while Spain was awarded the remaining portions of South America.
At this time, maps of the continent were still under considerable development and conceptions of private territory varied (and continued to for over 400 years). For example, the Cantino Planisphere is a map recreated somewhere around 1501-1502 (it is not known by whom and when the original was created, but sometime after Pedro Álvares Cabral’s voyage and subsequent return). The map contains information about the discoveries Cabral, among others, had made during that time. Yet, within months of its recreation, the map was obsolete as a result of the constant flow of new information regarding the New World. It was only with the persistent pursuit of the New World that more accurate forms of mapping afforded the identification of new discoveries and the new demarcations of boundaries and ownership that followed.
Cantino PlanosphereSlavery
In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral and his fleet of 13 ships arrived at today’s Porto Seguro, down the coast of Salvador. The Portuguese left the land sitting until 1531 when the first settlers arrived in what is now Santos, organizing the first settlement of São Vicente. King Joao III developed a plan to spread out settlements along the coast as both a method of colonizing the country and a strategy for defense against competing explorers, namely the Dutch and French. Meanwhile, the native Indians still populated the interior of the country, frequently attacking settlements and threatening the stability of colonization. However, over time their efforts proved futile.
During the Brazil’s colonization, there was resistance from the native Indians. Despite their initial domination of the interior the population of the tribal people diminished over time. During the 17th and 18th centuries, bandeirantes or “groups of roaming adventurers” invaded the interior of the country, annihilating an extraordinary portion of the indigenous tribes while exploring the interior for riches. These invasions, including the foreign diseases brought with them, resulted in significant decreases in the native population. Those not lost to the bandeirantes were enslaved on sugar plantations, never to return home. Still, the scale of importation to and enslavement of Africans in Brazil far exceeds those of the indigenous peoples.
As early as 1550, African slaves dominated the slave market in Brazil. The Portuguese relied heavily on the African slave market as they found African slaves good workers with stronger immune systems. Nearly 40 percent of all slaves shipped to the New World came to Brazil, a total approximated at 3.6 million men women and children. Consequently, the social issues faced by present-day Brazil are in perpetual reference to its history.
For over three hundred years slavery was fundamental to the development of Brazil’s economy. Enslaved Africans indigenous people were essentially the free labor that fueled the sugarcane industry (Brazil’s first major industry) and later the mining and coffee industries. Slavery was officially abolished in 1888 by Princesa Isabel yet the problem was much more complex. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were now released onto the streets without a means of surviving and nowhere to go, often unskilled and illiterate. Large numbers of the newly freed population either died or sought refuge in urban areas. There are many critiques that suggest the abrupt and unplanned abolition of slavery that Isabel enacted was perhaps the worst response to the injustices done. This act alone significantly transformed cities throughout Brazil as it introduced new, unexpected social and functional complexities to the organization of cities.
Mining
The mining industry also affected the organization of many towns throughout Brazil. During the 18th century bandeirantes pushed inland discovering large deposits of gold, particularly in the present-day state of Minas Gerais. Settlements became cities overnight, lacking the complete planning rationale of doctrines such as the ‘Laws of the Indies’. These developments possess spatial qualities similar to those of planned cities, featuring centralized plazas and other articulated exterior spaces, but with more chaotic patterns of overall organization, often responding to local topography and primitive roads.
The state of Minas Gerais possesses many examples for study. After the gold rush ceased, mining town populations declined significantly; many were abandoned altogether. As a result of the emigration many colonial mining towns have been preserved and thus possess an important cross-section of the country’s past. Some of the most well preserved mining towns created during this time frame include Sabará, Mariana, São João del Rei, and Ouro Preto. All are in close proximity to one another and share similar spatial and organizational qualities. Ouro Preto stands out due to its well-preserved character of streets and squares as well as its large collection of Baroque churches.
OURO PRETO
History
Around 1700 bandeirantes from Sao Paulo searching gold and precious stones established the arraiais, or mining camps of Ouro Preto. The settlement expanded with the increasing mining and in 1711 Vila Rica de Ouro Preto was founded. Only ten years later, after the city received and influx of goods and services from around the world because of its growing wealth, Emperor Dom Pedro I decreed the town the capital of Minas Gerais state and renamed it simply, Ouro Preto.
Around 1750 gold extraction peaked, as did the population. In its prime, the city held around 100,000 inhabitants, twice the size of New York’s population during the same time period. Furthermore, a quarter of the population lived in the city center and the remaining lived in immediate surrounding area. During this time, many churches and civic buildings were constructed from the wealth pouring out of the mines. Following the peak, the economy collapsed, the city was reduced to a fraction of its peak population and the capital was relocated to Belo Horizonte in 1897. As a result, Ouro Preto and similar surrounding mining towns have been preserved in their original preindustrial character. For this reason, Ouro Preto still possesses a significant collection of historical Baroque architecture and its original organization remains nearly untouched. These conditions make Ouro Preto ideal for a comparative analysis to other major Brazilian cities, namely Brasilia and Sao Paulo.
Development
The development of the Ouro Preto was informed by multiple factors that are not entirely independent of one another. On the contrary, the creation and development of any city is typically a fluid transformation, a product of the many interrelated forces, antagonistic and combinative. Below, three factors are separated from one another for historical and analytical clarity with regard to the overall study.
First, the initial settlement of the area was established around an old colonial trail that spanned over the three centralized three hills of Ouro Preto. As the gold-mining economy flourished, the colonial trail developed into a major road connecting the coast to the interior. This path was used as a route through which gold and travelers made their way back to the coast, to the Portuguese Crown, and by which more bandeirantes made their way inland. Today, a portion of this route spanning over the three hills is still present in the form of some of the city’s primary streets, including Rua Direita and the main square, Praça Tiradentes.
Colonial Trail Second, the city grew out of the chaotic economic conditions of the gold rush. Colonization has always pursued some combination of wealth, political power and religious dominance. Yet, within the framework of imperialism, significant entrepreneurial opportunities arose. The entire Minas Gerais region was separated from the coast and the Crown. This distance, combined with the quantity of gold and the frenetic development that followed provided the opportunity to change one’s status, though this was more often than not dependent on “striking it rich”. The settlement in fact was so detached that an enslaved African King, Chico-Rei, managed to buy his own freedom, his son’s and ultimately his entire tribe (at least for a period of time). The city swelled with a variety of large groups all related to the mining industry including slaves, entrepreneurs, members of the Portuguese government and individual prospectors. Supporting the town itself were doctors, builders, cooks, artists etc. Ouro Preto became a melting pot and the unpredictable economic conditions disrupted traditional social hierarchies.
Igreja de Santa Efigênia dos PretosThird, as the city grew, the formation and function of the newly formed street followed patterns of pre-industrial urbanization similar to that of 17th and 18th century Western Europe. Generally speaking, in the pre-industrial city massing of buildings, often contiguous, form important circulation paths and definition to exterior space. These properties alone were fundamental to the formation of public space in the pre-industrial urban environment. In addition, materiality, ornamentation, and scale of buildings as well as the characteristics of the adjoining street play a role in indicating sociality of an urban environment. Characteristics of the pre-industrial city are articulated below in the analysis of Rua Direita, Praça Tiradentes, and the town’s Baroque architecture.
Pre-Industrial Western European Imports
Baroque architecture dates back to 17th century Italy and spread throughout Europe, slowly permeating other cultures including the Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The style itself was born out of a Counter-Reformation to the Catholic Church and found its niche as an expression of the church’s affluence. This highly sculptural architecture pursued an aesthetic sensitivity to light and color within the framework of plastic formal language. At the same time, the structures maintained their symbolic role, signifying the wealth and power of religious orders, and later, political powers. Examples can be found throughout Western Europe as well as the sea-faring nations’ colonial expansion. Ouro Preto is just of many examples in Brazil many examples that reveal the assimilation of Baroque architecture by colonial Brazilian culture.
There are at least 23 Baroque churches in Ouro Preto and nearly all are adorned with some form of Rococo painting or relief. Foreign artisans and their descendants occupied wealthy cities such as Ouro Preto, capitalizing on their wealth and motivation to express it through the design and construction of churches and civic buildings and monuments. Case in point is Antonio Francisco Lisboa, commonly referred to as Aleijadinho, an icon of colonial Brazil’s rich artistic heritage. He is recognized as the premier sculptor and architect in the Minas Gerais region during the 18th century.
Aleijadinho and other artists constructed the Ouro Preto during its flourishing era and adapted the imported architectural ideals to meet both the unique topography of the area and the diverse sections of the population, from government officials to entrepreneurs to slaves. As a result, churches can be found throughout every neighborhood of Ouro Preto. Still, the churches always relate to their context in the same manner. As the city is composed of continuous masses of buildings, defined as ‘ground’, exterior spaces are formed for the use of public activity, but also function as an opportunity for public display. Churches, monuments and civic structures are typical forms of public display. This pattern describes much of the urban organization of Ouro Preto. As described by James Holston: solid = ground = private, void = figure = public. Thus, the church becomes a focal and symbolic object within the public realm, completing a common organization of the Western European city during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis & Santuario de N.S. da Conceicao de Antonio Dia
Igreja de Sao Francisco de Paula & Igreja de N.S. do CarmoPraça Tiradentes is a large public space that marks the center of Ouro Preto and is named after Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, also known as Tiradentes (Tooth Puller). He was a dentist and revolutionary and to this day symbolizes freedom from the Portuguese Crown. After attempting to organize anti-government actions in Ouro Preto, his co-conspirators were exiled while he faced a death sentence. In 1792, his body was hanged in the city of Ouro Preto and a monumental statue now stands in the center of the plaza recognizing Tiradentes as a martyr of Brazil’s independence from the Portuguese Crown.
Four exterior walls and a large cobblestone-paved ground define the exterior space of the plaza. The east and west walls are contiguous commercial spaces, interrupted only by small streets (including Rua Direita on the west). The south end is completed by what was formerly the old municipal headquarters and jail, now the Museu da Inconfidência, while the north end marks the entry to the Museu de Ciência e Técnica, part of the Federal University of Ouro Preto which was once the Governer’s house until the capital was relocated. Together, the solid mass of buildings around the square create a void, or exterior space that is the quintessential solid-void, figure-ground relationship found in many Western European cities, including many of their colonies outside of the European continent. Located in the center of town and housing functions of government, finance and business, the square functioned as a space for the exchange goods, services, ideas, etc., and still does today; it was also a symbolic organization of the city. Though the baroque churches spread throughout Ouro Preto were constructed to express the opulence of its mining industry, Praça Tiradentes represented order, political power and communication.
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Rua Direita & Praça Tiradentes
The east and west walls are one, two and three-storey buildings. Many have probably been modified, rebuilt or filled in over time, but the much of the pattern of development has remained consistent: the first floor is always dedicated to a programmatic function that spills out into the street (commercial/retail), the exterior walls retain continuity despite changes in height, and materiality, scale and proportion are also consistent, i.e. windows, doors and ornamentation, forming a unified surface.
Rua Direita (officially Rua Conde de Bobadela) is perhaps the primary commercial street in Ouro Preto. The old, cobblestone-paved road ascends a steep hill terminating into the city’s center, Praça Tiradentes. At its base the road flattens out, changing names, but still following similar formal characteristics. Buildings line both of sides of the street varying from approximately 30’-40’ apart, with facades sharing the same plane, but slowly stepping up the step slope of the natural topography. The first floor of nearly all the structures is a store: restaurants, hotels and retail. On the second floor, many of the spaces have been converted from residential to office space or as an expansion of the first floor program. Many buildings are two stories tall, though some extend to three. The scale of the street is pedestrian, despite its current vehicular use. Most buildings all have small balconies, with intricately crafted metal guardrails and each of the buildings possesses unique characteristics of color, ornament and signage, despite sharing party walls (I butchered this one – deleted too much of the original sentence). There are virtually no contemporary buildings in Ouro Preto, much less on Rua Direita.
The relationship between public and private space in this context is simple to visualize. The solid, contiguous buildings function as both the residence and workspace for the working class, while simultaneously physically defining the public realm, that is, the outdoor rooms of the city. In other words, physical manifestation of private property (the buildings) not only defines the public realm, but also creates a space for it. The street functions in essentially the same manner today as it did hundreds of years ago.
Praça Tiradentes & Rua Direita
Ouro Preto Today
Ouro Preto’s population now amounts to over 65,000 inhabitants and boasts a strong tourist economy. It possesses metallurgic and mining industries, including Alcan, perhaps the most important aluminum factory in the country. The town is also home to multiple universities, including the established Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto.
Architecturally, the town has been well preserved, physically and functionally. In 1933 the country declared Ouro Preto a national monument and in 1981 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site, though some churches are in need of repair and maintenance. Visitors from all over the world continue to come to Ouro Preto and learn about Brazilian culture. Elementary students fill the churches, learn of the country’s independence and study the gems and minerals of the region. In the evenings, Rua Direita is packed with students from the local universities and many bars feature live music and dancing which pours out onto the streets. In the day, Praça Tiradentes buzzes with groups of children as well as roaming residents, tourists and business owners, while vendors and taxis fill the voids. At night, the plaza hosts live performances featuring traditional and contemporary genres of Brazilian music. At times, one can imagine the town as active as it once was centuries ago.
As noted previously, the organization of Ouro Preto is in many ways not unique, but is of Western European origin and thus similar examples can be seen in various forms throughout Brazil, as well as the rest of the occidental world. Yet, this organization remains an important departure point from which modernity set out to re-evaluate and reconfigure established patterns of social hierarchies, and thus the definition of public and private space. The nation’s capital, Brasilia is the result of such redefinition.
Panorama of Ouro Preto
