Bahia

A state in Northeastern Brazil, Bahia has an area of 216,612 square miles. The population of 13,950,146 million (2006) is 67 percent mulatto, 27 percent white, and 11 percent black. The capital city is Salvador.

The Baía de Todos os Santos (All Saints Bay), discovered by Amerigo Vespucci in 1501, gave its name to the state. The Portuguese launched a plan to colonize Bahia in 1530. The main product was sugarcane, cultivated in the fertile soil of the Recôn-cavo, the region surrounding the bay. Cotton and tobacco were also grown, the latter a valuable item in the slave trade. The expansion of cattle raising led to the occupation of the interior of the state. The educational and cultural life of the colony was organized primarily by the Jesuits, who also worked on the conversion of the Indians to Christianity.

In spite of the Dutch invasion (1623–1624), the seventeenth century was the apogee of colonial life in Bahia, thanks to the expanding production of both sugar and tobacco, which responded to the higher demands in the European and African markets, respectively. The social structure was hierarchical, oligarchic, and repressive. Administrative positions were filled by whites, with the slaves brought from Africa constituting the labor force. Indian labor was used mostly in cattle raising in the interior. Salvador was the most important city of the colony until the second decade of the nineteenth century, when the coffee industry vaulted Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to paramount importance.

Due to strong resistance by the Portuguese, Bahia did not gain its independence (1823) until one year after the rest of the country did. Even though many baianos occupied prominent positions in the national administration, Bahia became a second-class province during the empire (1822–1889), primarily because of the declining importance of its exports. Economic stagnation lasted until 1907, when cacao, cultivated in the southern part of the state, became the major export.

The coming to power of Governor José Joaquim Seabra (1912), with his politics of national salvation aimed at ending the powerful oligarchies in the country, typified the ascension of sectors of the urban middle class to positions of command. The sugar barons, dominant in the earlier period, had lost both the economic power and the political influence that they had previously enjoyed. The administrative decentralization of the empire was replaced by centralized governments in the republic, which aimed to integrate a fragmented country.

Oligarchic and conservative, the government of Bahia opposed the Revolution of 1930. The political movement, however, stirred up popular demonstrations. The depression of the 1930s was extremely severe in the state, due to its heavy dependence on cacao exports, which fell drastically. Social instability and strike attempts were curbed by strong state repression. Bahia was then governed by Juraci Magalhães who, influenced by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, launched a small-scale program of public works and succeeded in enhancing the economic situation of the state.

The Estado Novo (1937–1945) of Getúlio Vargas installed a dictatorial government under which the states were ruled by intervenors appointed by Vargas. Otávio Mangabeira, who served as governor from 1947 to 1951, is considered the most outstanding political figure in the state after Rui Barbosa.

Agriculture and commerce remain the main activities of the state. After the creation of the Industrial Park of Aratu during the 1970s, however, Bahia became the industrial leader in the Northeast, although its capital-intensive industries have not created much local employment. Given Bahia's attractive beaches, more attention is being paid to the development of tourism.

Culturally, Bahia is known for its lasting influence from slave times. The Yoruba religious system of Candomblé as well as the martial art of Capoeira are distinguishing components of this region. In addition, it is the birthplace of some of Brazil's most famous artists and thinkers, including João Gilberto, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Luiz R. B. Mott.

See alsoGuangala .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Azevedo, Thales de. Povoamento da cidade do Salvador, 3rd edition. Salvador: Editora Itapuã, 1969.

Costa, Ana Alice Alcantara. As donas no poder: Mulher e política na Bahia. Salvador, Brazil: Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre a Mulher, FFCH/UFBA, 1998.

Kraay, Hendrik. Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s to 1990s. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.

Mattoso, Katia M. De Queirós. Bahia, século XIX: Uma provinia no Império, 2nd edition. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira,1992.

McGowan, Chris. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

Novais Sampaio, Consuelo. "Crisis in the Brazilian Oligarchical System: A Case Study on Bahia, 1889–1937." Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1979.

Reis, João José. Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, trans. Arthur Brakel. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Russell-Wood, A. J. R. Fidalgos and Philanthropists: The Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Bahia, 1550–1755. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

                              Consuelo Novais Sampaio