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Maranhão
States
in the north-eastern region of Brazil. Bordered to the north
at thecoast of the Atlantic Ocean.
Neighbor states are Pará, Piauí and Tocantins.
Before the Portuguese settled there, there had already been
settlers from France and The Nethrlands, from which you can
see the marks until today. Because of this Maranhao has a
different accent.
Must
reads about this region are books like The Land of the Palm
Trees, by Gonçalves Dias, Casas de Pensão by
Aluísio de Azevedo, the play by Arthur de Azevedo,
Maranhão shines on the dunes of Lençóis,
an important area of environment preservation, and the tiles
of the big houses of São Luís.
Another
must see area of conservation is the delta of Parnaíba,
between the states of Maranhão and Piauí, with
its lagoons, desert dunes and lonely beaches and isla's, such
as the Caju island, with its rare birds.
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The
northern part of the state has lots of rivers and is
heavily forested, occupied by the eastern extension
of the tropical moist forests of Amazonas.
The Tocantins-Araguaia-Maranhão moist forests
occupy the northwestern part of the state, extending
from the Pindaré River west into the neighbor;
Pará state. The north-central and northeastern
part of the state, extending eastward into northern
Piauí, is home to the Maranhão Babaçu
forests, a degraded tropical moist forest ecoregion
dominated by the Babaçu palm. Much of the forest
has been cleared for cattle grazing and agriculture,
and the Babaçu palm produces edible oil which
is extracted commercially.
The
southern part of the state belong to the lower terraces
of the Brazilian Highlands, occupied by the Cerrado
savannas. Several plateau slopes, including the Chapada
das Mangabeiras, Serra do Tiracambu, and Serra das Alpercatas,
mark the state's northern margin and the outlines of
river valleys.
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The
climate is hot, and the year is divided into a wet and dry
season, extreme humidity being characteristic of the former.
The heath, however, is greatly modified on the coast by the
south-east trade winds.
The
rivers of the state all flow northward to the Atlantic and
a majority of them have navigable channels. The Gurupi River
forms the north-western boundary of the state, separating
Maranhão from neighboring Pará, and the Tocantins
River forms part the state's southwestern boundary with Tocantins
state. The Parnaíba River forms the eastern boundary
of Maranhão, but it has one large tributary, the Balsas,
entirely within the state. Other rivers in the state include
the Turiassu (or Turiaçu) which runs just east of the
Gurupi, emptying into the Baía de Turiassu; the Mearim,
Pindaré, and Grajaú, which empty into the Baía
de São Marcos; and the Itapecuru and Munim which discharge
into the Baía de São José. Like the Amazon,
the Mearim has a pororoca or tidal bore in its lower channel,
which greatly interferes with navigation.
The
western coastline has many small indentations, which are usually
masked by islands or shoals. The largest of these are the
Baía de Turiassu, facing which is São João
Island, and the contiguous bays of São Marcos and São
José, between which is the large island of São
Luís. This indented shoreline is home to the Maranhão
mangroves, the tallest mangrove forests in the world. The
coastline east of Baía de São José is
less indented and characterized by sand dunes, including the
stark dune fields of the Lençóis Maranhenses
National Park, as well as restinga forests that form on stabilized
dunes.
History
The
Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
in 1500 was the first known European who explored Maranhão,
but was granted to João de Barros in 1534 as a Portuguese
hereditary captaincy. The first European settlement, however,
was made by a French trading expedition under Jacques Riffault,
of Dieppe, in 1594, who lost two of his three vessels in the
vicinity of São Luís Island, and left a part
of his men on that island when he returned home. Subsequently
Daniel de La Touche, Seigneur de La Rividière was sent
to report on the place, and was then commissioned by the French
crown to found a colony on the island; this was done in 1612.
The French were expelled by the Portuguese in 1615, and the
Dutch held the island from 1641 to 1644. In 1621 Ceara, Maranhão
and Pará were united and called the "Estado do
Maranhao," which was made independent of the southern
captaincies. Very successful Indian missions were soon begun
by the Jesuits, who were temporarily expelled as a result
of a civil war in 1684 for their opposition to the enslavement
of the Indians. Ceara
was subsequently detached, but the "state" of Maranhao
remained independent until 1774, when it again became subject
to the colonial administration of Brazil.
Maranhão
did not join in the Brazilian declaration of independence
of 1822, but in the following year the Portuguese were driven
out by Admiral Lord Cochrane and it became part of the Empire
of Brazil.
São
Luís is the Brazilian state capital which most closely
resembles a Portuguese city. By the early 20th century São
Luís has about 30,000 inhabitants, and contained several
convents, charitable institutes, the episcopal palace, a fine
Carmelite church, and an ecclesiastical seminary. The historic
city center was declared by UNESCO a world heritage site in
1997.
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