Editing Cuiabá (section)

=== 19th century ===

Cuiabá was elevated to township status in 1818. It became the capital of the Province of Mato Grosso in 1835 under the [[Empire of Brazil]], replacing [[Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade]]. Many residents of Santíssima Trindade left for Cuiabá, leaving behind houses, commercial establishments, and slaves behind in the old capital.<ref name="ibge"/><ref name="menezes"/>

From the late eighteenth century, until the time of the [[Paraguayan War]] (1864–1870), the town remained small and was in decline. The war, however, brought some infrastructure and a brief period of economic boom, with Cuiabá supplying sugar, foodstuffs, and timber to the Brazilian troops. After the war, the town was once again forgotten by the rest of the country, to such an extent that the [[Brazilian Empire|Imperial]] and later the Republican governments of Brazil used to use it as a site of [[exile]] for troublesome politicians. Isolation allowed it to preserve many of the oldest Brazilian ways of life until well into the twentieth century.