Editing Pará (section)

== History ==
In 1500, the Spanish navigator [[Vicente Yáñez Pinzón]] was the first European to navigate the mouth of the Amazon River.<ref name="Bueno1">BUENO, E. ''A viagem do descobrimento: a verdadeira história da expedição de Cabral''. Rio de Janeiro. Objetiva. 1998. p. 132 (in Portuguese)</ref> On 26 August 1542, the Spaniard [[Francisco de Orellana]] reached the mouth of the Amazon River waterway, by river from Quito, Ecuador.<ref name="Bueno">{{cite book | title=Brasil: uma história 2ª edição | publisher=Ática | author=BUENO, E. | year=2003| language=pt}}</ref> On 28 October 1637, the Portuguese [[Pedro Teixeira]] left Belém and went to Quito: during the expedition, he placed a landmark in the confluence of the Napo and Aguarico, in the current border between Ecuador and Peru, to Portugal, and later to Brazil, getting the possession of most of the Amazon, including all of the current territory of Pará.<ref name="Bueno" />

===Prior to European Arrival===
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Archaeologists divide the ancient inhabitants of prehistory Brazil into groups according to their way of life and tools: hunter-gatherers of the coast and farmers. These groups were subsequently named by European settlers as "Indians". There are archaeological records proving the human presence in Brazil and the region of [[Santarém, Pará|Santarém]] since 3000 BC.

[[Marajó]] people lived in farmers' huts or houses 3,500 years ago. These people knew ceramics, dyes, natural medicinal compounds; practiced [[slash-and-burn]] (to clear the land); and planted cassava. A reminder of their culture remains in Marajoara pottery, which has peculiar size and decoration. The period from 500 to 1300 was the height of the Marajoara culture.

===Formation of Grão-Pará and Maranhão===
{{see also|State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão}}
The region of the Amazon valley, by the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] (1494), was in possession of the Spanish Crown, the Portuguese expeditionaries, with the purpose of consolidating the region as Portuguese territory, founded the Fort of the Nativity ([[Forte do Presépio]]) in 1616, in [[Belém|Santa Maria de Belém do Grão-Pará]] (Saint Mary of Bethlehem of the Great Pará). The building was the first of the model on [[Amazon region|Amazon]] and the most significant in the Amazon territory until 1660. Despite the construction of fort, the occupation of territory was marked by early Dutch and English incursions in search of spices, hence the need of the Portuguese to fortify the area.<ref name="Bueno1" />

In the 17th century, the region, integrated into the [[State of Maranhão (colonial)|captaincy of Maranhão]], was prosperous with crops and livestock. In 1616 the captaincy of Grão-Pará was created, belonging to the Portuguese colonial state of Maranhão. In the same year the state of Grão-Pará and Maranhão transferred capital to [[Belém, Brazil|Belém]], forming and attaching the captaincy of Rio Negro in 1755 by creating the [[State of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro]].

In 1751, with the expansion to the west, the colonial state of Grão-Pará, which besides the captaincy of Grão Pará would host the captaincy of São José do Rio Negro (today the [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|State of Amazonas]]).

In 1823, the Pará decided to join the independent Brazil, which had been separated during the colonial period, reporting directly to Lisbon. However, political infighting continued. The most important of them, the [[Cabanagem]] (1835), decreed the independence of the province of Pará. This was, along with the [[Ragamuffin War]], the only to lift the [[Regency period (Empire of Brazil)|regency period]] when the power was taken. Cabanagem was the only revolt led by the popular strata.

===Cabanagem===
{{see also|Cabanagem}}
[[File:Cabanagem Belém 1835.jpg|250px|thumb|right|19th century engraving about the Cabanagem]]
Cabanagem, a popular and social revolt during the [[Empire of Brazil]], in the [[Amazon region]], was influenced by the French Revolution. It was mainly due to extreme poverty, hunger and disease that devastated the Amazon at the beginning of the period, in the former province of Grão-Pará, which included the current [[Amazônia Legal|Amazonian states]] of Pará, [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]], [[Amapá]], [[Roraima]] and [[Rondônia]]. The revolt spread from 1835 until January 1840, due to the process of independence of Brazil (1822), which did not occur immediately in the province due to political irrelevance to which the region was relegated by Prince Regent [[Pedro I of Brazil|Pedro I]]. After independence, the strong Portuguese influence remained stable, giving political irrelevance in this province to the Brazilian central government.

Indians, blacks, and mestizos (mostly poor class members), all named cabanos (cabins), teamed against the Regent Government and rebelled, to increase the importance of the region in Brazil's central government addressing the issue of poverty as one of the reasons. All lived in mud huts (hence the name of the revolt).<ref name="NYT4">{{cite web | url=https://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection=Americas&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=article#/Bel%C3%A9m%2C+Brazil/since1851/allresults/1/allauthors/oldest/ | title=THE BRAZILS.; The Don Pedro II. Railway Portion Built by American Contractors An Imperial Visit Miscellaneous News. | work=New York Times | date=July 16, 1860 | access-date=March 9, 2017 | author=From Our Own Correspondent - Print Headline}}</ref> At the bottom of the rebellion, there was a mobilization of the Brazilian Empire against the reactionary forces of the province of Grão-Pará in expelling the insurgents who wanted to keep the region as a Portuguese colony or territory independent. Many of the local leaders, who resented the lack of political participation in decisions of the centralizer of the Brazil government, contributed to the climate of dissatisfaction against the provincial government.

===Rubber cycle and mineral extraction===
After the revolt, the local economy grew rapidly during the 19th century and early 20th century by exploitation of rubber, the latex, by extracting it. At this period the Amazon experienced two distinct economic cycles with the exploitation of the same raw material.

The intendant Antônio Lemos was the main character of the urban transformation that Belém experienced, which came to be known as Paris n’America (Paris in the America), as a reference to the influence of the urbanization that Paris had experienced at the time, which served as the inspiration for Antônio Lemos.

During this period, for example, the city center was heavily lined with mango trees transported from India and development inspired by the model of Paris. With the decline of the two cycles of rubber (1870–1920 and 1940–1945),<ref name="NYT3">{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/americas/deep-in-brazils-amazon-exploring-the-ruins-of-fords-fantasyland.html | title=Deep in Brazil's Amazon, Exploring the Ruins of Ford's Fantasyland | work=The New York Times | date=February 20, 2017 | access-date=March 9, 2017 | author=By SIMON ROMERO}}</ref> came a distressing economic stagnation, which stopped in the 1960s and 1970s,<ref name="NYT">{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/magazine/an-epic-struggle-for-gold.html | title=An Epic Struggle for Gold | work=New York Times | date=June 7, 1987 | access-date=March 9, 2017 | author=By SIMONS, Marlise}}</ref> with the development of agricultural activities in the south of the state. From the decade of 1960s, but mainly in the 1970s, growth was accelerating with the exploitation of minerals mainly in the southeastern region of the state, as with iron extraction in the [[Serra dos Carajás]] and the [[Serra Pelada]] gold.<ref name="NYT2">{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/world/serra-pelada-journal-brazilian-miners-wait-for-payday-after-diet-of-bitterness.html?_r=0 | title=Serra Pelada Journal; Brazilian Miners Wait for Payday After Diet of Bitterness | work=The New York Times | date=August 23, 2004 | access-date=March 9, 2017 | author=By ROHTER, Larry}}</ref>