São Paulo (city)

V

Recreation

Diverse recreational activities characterize São Paulo. The Botanical Gardens and the São Paulo Zoo are located about 14 km (about 9 mi) south of the city center. Nearby visitors can drive through the Simba Safari on a 4-km (3-mi) route observing African animals in the open air. The world-renowned Butanta Institute, a research center specializing in the study of snakes and snake venom, is also a popular tourist attraction. Ibirapuera Park, about 6 km (about 4 mi) south of the downtown, is the city’s largest park and a major recreational focus for its residents. One of the city’s most famous landmarks, the obelisk and mausoleum honoring those who fought in a 1932 revolt against the federal government, is adjacent to the park.

VI

Economy

São Paulo’s economy is very diverse. The metropolitan region forms the largest industrial and commercial center in Brazil and in Latin America. While precise statistical estimates vary, it is likely that about one-half of the nation’s industrial output comes directly from the São Paulo metropolitan area. In some sectors this concentration is even greater: The state accounts for over three-quarters of the country’s output of machinery, electrical goods, and rubber. Well over half of the nation’s 50 largest industrial firms are located in São Paulo state, and most of these are located in the city itself. Its manufactures include a diverse range of products and goods. Heavy industry includes motor vehicles, machinery, electrical equipment, computers, and chemicals, while consumer goods include textiles, processed food, pottery and china, furniture, and household utensils. This industrial concentration was even more intense in past decades, but the decentralization of industrial activities to other urban centers in São Paulo state, like Campinas, Sorocaba, Jundiaí, Cubatão, and Ribeirão Prêto, has reduced the metropolitan region’s dominance.

Commercial activities, including banking, finance, and corporate headquarters functions, are clustered in the São Paulo urban area. The city is often the site of major commercial and industrial trade shows. These draw national and international participants and are held in the massive Anhembi Park Exposition Center. The city also serves a rich agricultural hinterland, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the nation. Soybeans and especially coffee are of great commercial significance.

The city’s economic importance has also made it a national transportation hub. The port of Santos, about 60 km (about 40 mi) to the south on the Atlantic Ocean, is the nation’s largest port. Most of São Paulo’s international commerce, as well as an important segment of internal commerce, moves through it. The port is linked to the city by two highways and a railroad line. São Paulo has a total of four railroad stations that provide service to both regional and national destinations. The city also has three airports: Congonhas, which is located 9 km (6 mi) south of the city center and provides commuter flights to Rio; the Guarulhos International Airport, which is 19 km (12 mi) northeast of the downtown area; and the Viracopos Airport, located about 100 km (about 60 mi) northwest of the city. The city has an extensive subway, with three lines providing service to most of the core area of the metropolis.

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VII

Government

São Paulo, like all municipalities in Brazil, is governed by an elected mayor and a municipal council, which are responsible for primary education, basic health services, solid-waste collection and disposal, and municipal upkeep, including streets and parks. Municipal funding comes from taxes on property and services, as well as revenue sharing from state and federal sources. The São Paulo metropolitan area does not have a coordinated regional government. Rather, governance is fragmented among the municipalities that comprise the metropolitan area, but the São Paulo state government provides strong leadership and coordination for regional planning and development.

VIII

Contemporary Issues

Despite its wealth and power, the São Paulo metropolitan area suffers from a range of problems. The city is congested, traffic often moves at a snail’s pace, and the air is frequently smoggy and polluted. Vast slum areas are home to at least 4 million of the metropolitan area’s residents. Incomes are very low for many families. Street crime is common in poorer residential areas and in the downtown core.

IX

History

In 1554 two Jesuit priests founded a small mission on the site that became São Paulo. During its first several hundred years of existence, the city grew only modestly. It achieved notoriety as the home of the bandeirantes—adventurous explorers and frontiersmen who mounted large-scale and extensive expeditions into the interior of the continent. Over the next 150 years, from about 1600 to 1750, the bandeirantes roamed what are the now the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Mato Grosso in search of Native American slaves, gold, diamonds, and other riches. These expeditions had an enormous impact on São Paulo and the future nation of Brazil. They extended the geographical limits of Brazil deep into the interior of the continent, far beyond those originally envisioned by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). The treaty was an agreement between Portugal and Spain, sanctioned by Pope Julius II in 1506, that established boundaries defining the overseas territories of the two countries (see Line of Demarcation). The bandeirantes opened up new transportation and communication routes between the coast and the continent’s interior, helping to establish new settlements and build greater unity among Brazil’s far-flung peoples and communities.

Despite the considerable wealth brought to São Paulo by the bandeirante expeditions, the city grew slowly. It was officially recognized as a city in 1711, but for much of the 18th century São Paulo’s economy revolved around subsistence agriculture, local crafts production, and limited government functions.

The city began a process of dramatic change after Brazilian independence in 1822. The establishment of the Law Academy in São Paulo in 1828 initiated a process that changed the city from a provincial backwater into a major urban center. The Law Academy attracted professors and students from all over the nation, bringing many new people and ideas to the city. It also fueled the growth of a wide range of cultural activities, such as theater, arts, and literature.

The city’s fortunes blossomed with the introduction of coffee cultivation into the cool, fertile uplands of São Paulo state in the 1850s. A steady demand for coffee on the world market soon led to an economic boom in São Paulo and a dramatic expansion of the areas under cultivation. A railroad link to the Atlantic port of Santos was completed in 1867 and five years later another railroad line linked São Paulo with new coffee-growing regions in the interior.

The wealth generated on the coffee plantations fueled urban growth, industrialization, and banking and financial services in São Paulo. The labor intensive nature of coffee cultivation, especially harvesting, led the state government to encourage the immigration of foreign laborers in 1832. By the mid-1930s, some 1.5 million European immigrants—including Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Slavs, and Spaniards—and over 200,0000 Japanese had settled in the state. After initially living in rural areas, many of the immigrants moved to the city of São Paulo.

São Paulo’s population grew from just 32,000 in 1872 to about 600,000 in 1920. Far-sighted businessmen and political leaders capitalized on the coffee boom to diversify the city’s economic base. They invested heavily in hydroelectric power plants and in manufacturing facilities—first for consumer goods and later for heavy manufacturing. During World War I (1914-1918), São Paulo was frequently cut off from traditional sources of manufactured goods in Europe and North America, which allowed local industries to meet the demand for these products and provided a boost for the city’s manufacturing economy.

Against a backdrop of widespread political unrest throughout Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s, São Paulo underwent a major political revolt in 1932. After Brazilian President Getulio Vargas appointed an outsider as governor of the state of São Paulo, ensuing protests and political maneuvering led to an armed uprising among the state’s residents. The state declared its independence in May 1932 and the state government quickly fielded an army of nearly 40,000. After clashes with federal forces numbering almost 75,000, the uprising was put down by the Brazilian government in October 1932.

By 1940 São Paulo’s population stood at more than 1.3 million. Strong population growth continued into the next decades; in 1950 and 1960 the city’s population was 2.2 and 3.8 million respectively. The city’s excellent transportation links, a ready supply of inexpensive hydroelectric power, a solid financial and banking infrastructure, and a skilled and hardworking labor force all contributed to the city’s dramatic growth after World War II. By 1960 São Paulo had surpassed Rio de Janeiro in population and industrial production. By the late 20th century, São Paulo was the largest city in South America and had the biggest industrial concentration in Latin America.

The city’s growth slowed in the 1970s and 1980s as many Brazilians fled the increasingly crowded and pollution-plagued state capital for booming interior cities such as Bauru, Campinas, and Ribeirão Prêto. During the 1980s the population of the city of São Paulo grew by 13 percent, while the population of the state’s interior grew by 33 percent. São Paulo’s relative economic importance lessened as thousands of people migrated to the state’s interior. In 1970 the city of São Paulo was generating two-thirds of the economic production of the state of São Paulo; by 1995 the city was producing less than half of the state’s economic output. [update end]

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