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Northeast Region, Brazil
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The Northeast Region is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory.
The Northeast Region has about 51 million people, which represents 28.9% of the total number in the whole country. Most of the population lives in the urban area.
The biggest cities are Salvador, Fortaleza and Recife, which are the regional metropolitan areas of the Nordeste, all with a population above a million inhabitants.
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Encyclopedia
The Northeast Region is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory.
The Northeast Region has about 51 million people, which represents 28.9% of the total number in the whole country. Most of the population lives in the urban area.
The biggest cities are Salvador, Fortaleza and Recife, which are the regional metropolitan areas of the Nordeste, all with a population above a million inhabitants. The people who live there, are from there, or have family in the Brazilian Northeast, are called nordestinos.
Salvador International Airport, Recife International Airport and Fortaleza International Airport connects Northeast region with many Brazilian cities and also operates some international flights.
The Northeast is home to the several universities.
Geography and climate
Geographically, the Nordeste consists chiefly of an eroded continental craton with many low hills and small ranges. The highest peaks are around in Bahia, whilst further north there are no peaks above . On its northern and western side, the plateau fall steadily to the coast and into the basin of the Tocantins River in Maranhão, but on the eastern side it falls off quite sharply to the coast except in the valley of the São Francisco river.
The escarpment serves an extremely important climatic function. Because for most of the year the Nordeste is out of reach of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the easterly trade winds blow across the region, giving abundant rainfall to the coast but producing clear, dry conditions inland where the escarpment blocks moisture flow. This gives rise to three distinct regions, the zona da mata on the coast, the agreste on the escarpment, and the sertão beyond.
Zona da mata do Nordeste (Atlantic Rainforest zone)
On the humid eastern littoral, before European settlement was a long thin area of tropical rainforest with species completely different from those found in the much larger Amazon rainforest, known as the Mata Atlantica. Because of the fact that the climate was extremely suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane, however, very little of the forest remains today. For many years, sugar cane cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazil's economy, being superseded only when coffee production developed in the late nineteenth century. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had and maintain tremendous political influence.
Agreste
Since the escarpment does not generate any further rainfall on its slopes from the lifting of the trade winds, annual rainfall decreases steadily inland. After a relatively short distance, there is no longer enough rainfall to support tropical rainforest, especially since the rainfall is extremely erratic from year to year. This transitional zone is known as the agreste and because it is located on the steep escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. Today, with irrigation water available, however, the agreste, as its name suggest, is a major farming region despite containing no major city.
Sertão Nordestino (North-Eastern Backlands)
People who live in these arid areas generally don't have enough water for their subsistence and need to walk long distances to obtain it. Many times these people, who are generally poor, give up and go to live in the big cities like São Paulo, Recife, Salvador or Rio de Janeiro. A well known case is that of the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who lived in Pernambuco, and moved early in childhood with the family to Santos, where he worked in the streets in his teens. A well-known Brazilian poet named João Cabral de Melo Neto, who was born in Recife, wrote poems such as Morte e Vida Severina, Cemitério Pernambucano, and A Educação Pela Pedra, that illustrate well the bleak living conditions of these arid backlands.
History
The Northeast was primarily inhabited by indigenous peoples, mostly from the Tupi-Guarani family, who, before the colonial era, helped Europeans with the extraction of brazilwood from the coastal rainforest (or mata atlântica) in exchange for spices. But as colonization and commercial interest intensified in the region the number of Indians became drastically reduced due to the constant battles with the owners of the large sugar mills. Conflicts arose because the settlers had displaced the native inhabitants and then tried to enslave them as labor in the fields. The Portuguese colonials then considered the idea of importing black African slaves to use as manual labor. To this day culture in Northeast Brazil remains fully permeated by this African influence.
The Northeast was the first area of discovery in Brazil, roughly 1,500 Portuguese having arrived on April 22, 1500 under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral at Porto Seguro, in the state of Bahia.
The coast of the Northeast was the stage for the first economic activity of the country, namely the extraction and export of pau Brasil, or brazilwood. Brazilwood was highly valued in Europe where it was used to make violin bows (especially the Pau de Pernambuco variety) and for the red dye it produced. Countries like France, who disagreed with the Treaty of Tordesillas, (a papal bull decreed by the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI in 1493 which sought to divide the South American continent between the Spanish and the Portuguese), launched constant attacks against the coast with the objective of stealing the wood.
French colonists not only tried to settle in present-day Rio de Janeiro, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique episode), but also in present-day São Luís, from 1612 to 1614 (the so-called France Equinoxiale). The Dutch, also opposed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, plundered the Northeast coast, sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured Salvador. From 1630 to 1654 the Dutch set up more permanently in the Northeast and controlled a long stretch of coast that was most accessible to Europe without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil were in a constant siege despite the presence in Recife of the great Maurice of Nassau as governor.
Slave resistance began during the colonial era, in the seventeenth century, and eventually led to the formation of quilombos, or settlements of runaway and free-born African slaves. The Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest and most well-known of these settlements, was founded around 1600 in the Serra da Barriga hills, in the present state of Alagoas. Palmares, at the height of its power, was an independent, self-sustaining republic, hosting a population of over 30,000 free African men, women and children. There were over 200 buildings in the community, a church, four smithies, and a council house. Although Palmares managed to defend itself from the Dutch military and the Portuguese colonials for several decades, it was finally taken and destroyed and its leader Zumbi dos Palmares was captured and beheaded. His head was then displayed in a public plaza in Recife.
Besides being Brazil’s main sea port, Brazil's center of the African slave trade, a center of the sugar industry, and the seat of the first Catholic bishop of Brazil (in 1552) the city of Salvador was also the first general seat of government in Brazil as it is strategically located in the center of the eastern coast of the country. The government in Salvador sought to centralize power in an effort to support the various captaincies, geographical subdivisions that preceded the present states of Brazil, which at this time were in a state of crisis. Salvador remained the colonial capital until 1763 when it was succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era.
Demographics
Ethnic groups
The population of Northeast Brazil is a result of an intensive race mixing. According to the 2006 census, people of multiracial (European, Amerindian and African) background make up 62.5% of the population, while those of total or predominantly Black ancestry account for 7.8%. This region was not heavily affected by the wave of European immigration that took place in Southern Brazil during the 19th century - the Northeast was (and still is) the poorest part of Brazil, therefore there was no incentive for new immigrants to stay. Since the late 19th century, many people from this region have moved to the richer parts of Brazil (mainly São Paulo).
The mixed ethnic composition of the population has its roots in the 16th century. The Portuguese settlers rarely brought women, which led to relationships with indigenous women. Later, interracial relationships occurred between Portuguese settlers and African slaves, brought primarily from Angola, Nigeria and Benin; as a result, there is today a predominance of Mulattoes (those of African and European ancestry) in the coastal regions. Salvador, Bahia is considered the largest Black city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being Brazilians of African ancestry. In the interior, there is a predominance of people having a mixed Indigenous and European ancestry.
Economy
Its economy is mainly based on the production of sugar, cocoa and cotton; as well as the extensive cattle breeding. Some time ago, at São Francisco River Valley (between States of Bahia and Pernambuco), fruits for export started being produced too. At the seaside and the continental platform of the Region, the main activity is the exploitation of oil, which is later processed in the State of Bahia. Major industries (clothing, food, small machinery) are in the main metropolitan areas of Northeast.
Official reclamation activities have spurred the construction of numerous dams and hydroelectric projects, especially on the São Francisco River. In the 1960s a successful extensive regional economic development program to address social unrest and counter-effect its harsh and picturesque history, peopled by leather-garbed cowboys, bandits (cangaceiros), and religious fanatics. Development of tourism is a concerted, on-going effort. The São Francisco River is responsible for the regional production of energy and it also bathes the states of Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas and Pernambuco. The Northeast is rich in natural beauties with its beaches of clear and warm water. Beyond the tourism, the Northeast also develops its industrial sector. Every day, important investors from many countries come to this region to search for new opportunities. The governments try to motivate the incoming of new investments, based on the needs of its states.
Trivia
- Vehicles: 5,950,732 (March/2007)
- Telephones: 6,309,000 (April/2007)
- Cities: 1,793 (2007)
- Mobile Phones: 28,544,123 (January/2007)
Education
Portuguese language is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English and Spanish are part of the official high school curriculum.
Educational institutions
Tourism and recreation
Tourism has grown significantly in the Region in the last decades, showing the high potential of each State.
Besides the capitals, most coastal cities of the Northeast Region have innumerous natural beauties, such as the Abrolhos Marine National Park, Itacaré, Comandatuba Island, Costa do Sauípe, Canasvieiras and Porto Seguro, in the State of Bahia; the Marine National Park of Fernando de Noronha, in the State of Pernambuco; tropical paradises, such as Canoa Quebrada and Jericoacoara, on the coast of Ceará, as well as the places to practice free flight, as Quixadá and Sobral; and Lençóis Maranhenses, embellishing the coast of Maranhão State, among many others. In the interior area, National Parks of Serra da Capivara and Sete Cidades, both in the State of Piauí; João Pessoa, in the State of Paraíba; Chapada Diamantina, in the State of Bahia; and many other attractions.
The economy is based on tourism (in coastal or historical cities) or agriculture. The tourist industry is based largely on the beaches, which attract thousands of tourists per year, not only from other regions of Brazil but also many from Europe (especially Italy and Germany), the U.S.A., and Australia.
Urban Areas x Rural Areas
Nordeste's major cities are almost all on the Atlantic coast. Some exceptions can be seen, however, like Petrolina, Pernambuco, which lies immediately south of the São Francisco River (one of the few rivers that crosses the sertão and doesn't dry in the arid periods of time which can be quite long). Another example is the city of Teresina in the state of Piauí, a city notorious for its sweltering heat.
Good rural areas are scarce and generally they are all near the coast, or in the west of Maranhão, and are mainly used for exportation products. In the semi-arid areas of the Northeast Region, rural areas do exist, but rain is scarce in the region; rural areas in the interior are generally based on subsistence agriculture. Fazendas (large farms) are common in the interior, where cattle-rasing and the cultivation of tropical fruit is often practiced. Also, in the areas where water is scarce local politicians often use the promise of irrigation projects as a bargaining chip to win elections.
Culture
Nordeste has a rich culture, with its unique constructions in the old centers of Salvador, Recife and Olinda, dance (frevo and maracatu), music (axé and forró) and unique cuisine. Dishes particular to the region include carne de sol, farofa, acarajé, vatapá, paçoca, canjica, pamonha, moqueca capixaba, quibebe, bolo de fubá cozido, sururu de capote and many others. Salvador was the first Brazilian capital. The festival of São João (Saint John), one of the festas juninas, is especially popular in the Northeast, particularly in Caruaru, in the state of Pernambuco and Campina Grande, in the state of Paraíba. The Bumba-Meu-Boi festival is also popular, especially in the state of Maranhão. During the Bumba-Meu-Bói festival in the city of São Luis do Maranhão and its environs there are many different groups, with elaborate costumes and different styles of music, which are called sotaques: sotaque de orquestra, as the names implies, uses an orchestra of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, banjos, drums, etc; sotaque de zabumba employs primarily very large drums; and sotaque de matraca, a percussion instrument made of two pieces of wood that you carry in your hands and hit against each other. Some matracas are very large and are carried around the neck. Most major cities in the Northeast also hold an off-season carnaval, such as the Carnatal in Natal or the Fortal in Fortaleza.
Infrastructure
International Airports
Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport is located in an area of more than 6 million square meters between sand dunes and native vegetation. The road route to the airport has already become one of the city’s main scenic attractions. The airport’s use has been growing at an average of 14% a year and now is responsible for more than 30% of passenger movement in Brazil’s Northeast. Nearly 35 thousand people circulate daily through the passenger terminal. The airport generates more than 16 thousand direct and indirect jobs, to serve a daily average of over 10 thousand passengers, 250 takeoffs and landings of 100 domestic and 16 international flights.
In addition to domestic and regional services, the airport has non-stop flights to Lisbon, Madrid, Frankfurt, Montevideo, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Asunción and Miami. Its IATA airport code is SSA and it is the sixth busiest airport in the country, the first in northeastern Brazil, behind Congonhas International, Guarulhos International, Juscelino Kubitschek International, Santos Dumont Regional and Galeão International.
Guararapes International Airport.
The new Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre International Airport has been open since July 2004 and has 52 thousand square meters of area.
The largest airport in the North and Northeast regions, Guararapes had its capacity expanded from 1.5 million to 5 million passengers a year. There are currently 64 check-in counters, versus the former terminal’s 24.
The shopping and leisure area was also totally remodeled, within the “Aeroshopping” concept, which transforms an airport into a center for business, comfort and high-quality products and services. The commercial spaces will be occupied in steps and the final total will be 142 shops.
Since 2000, Recife has had the longest runway in the Northeast, at 3,305 meters. Its extension permits operations with jumbo jets, such as the Boeing 747-400, which can carry 290 passengers and 62 tons of cargo, with endurance to fly nonstop to anywhere in South and Central America, Africa and parts of Europe, the United States and Canada. Current domestic destinations include most major cities in Brazil, and there are also international flights to Paris, France, Lisbon, Portugal and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Pinto Martins International Airport is situated in Fortaleza. The passenger terminal is air conditioned and has four levels. The basement level has parking for 1,000 cars as well as automatic teller machines and a stop for regular city buses.
The ground level has 31 check-in counters, airline offices, car rental agencies, special tourist information, a juvenile court bureau to facilitate travel of minors, a National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) office, information counter, passenger arrival area and access to two taxi stops.
The second level contains shops, a food court and domestic and international boarding lounges. The top floor has a beer garden and panoramic deck overlooking the maneuvering apron with a view of the Fortaleza skyline. The apron is 152,857 square meters and can accommodate 14 aircraft at once in pre-established positions (“boxes”).
The scheduled airlines operating out of Fortaleza are Cabo Verde Airlines (code-sharing with TAP), TAM, Varig, Vasp and TAP. The airport also frequently receives domestic and international charter flights. The passenger terminal, opened in 1998, was designed to have a useful life of 50 years. The former terminal, called the General Aviation Terminal, is now used for general aviation and the fire brigade. The control tower is located alongside.
Construction of a cargo terminal is the next big step planned by Infraero. The new terminal will have roughly eight thousand square meters, boosting the cargo storage and handling capacity fourfold. Plans then call for the new terminal to be integrated with highway and railroad links.
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