Strategically placed on the Amazon
river estuary close to the mouth of
the mighty Rio Tocantins,
Belem
was founded by the Portuguese in
1616 as the City of Our Lady of
Bethlehem (Belem). Its original
role was to protect the river mouth
and establish the Portuguese claim
to the region, but it rapidly became
established as an Indian slaving
port and a source of cacao and
spices from the Amazon. Such was the
devastation of the local population,
however, that by the mid-eighteenth
century a royal decree was issued in
Portugal to encourage its growth:
every white man who married an
Indian woman would receive "one
axe, two scissors, some cloth,
clothes, two cows and two bushels of
seed".
Despite the decree, a shrinking
labour force and, in the 1780s, the
threat of attack by a large
contingent of Munduruku Indians
meant that Belem was deep in
decline before the end of the
century. In the nineteenth century,
it sank still further, as the centre
of the nation's bloodiest rebellion,
before the town experienced an
extraordinary revival as the most
prosperous beneficiary of the Amazon
rubber boom. By the end of the
nineteenth century, Belem was a
very rich town, accounting for close
to half of all Brazil's rubber
exports. At this time rubber was
being collected from every corner of
the Amazon. As a result of the boom,
thousands of poor people moved into
Belem from the Northeast, bringing
with them new cultural inputs such
as music and dance, and, of course,
the candomblé and macumba
Afro-Brazilian religions. After the
crash of 1914, the city suffered
another disastrous decline - but it
kept afloat, just about, on the back
of Brazil nuts and the lumber
industry.
The wealth generated by the
rubber boom is still evident in the
shape of the modern city, whose
elegant central avenues lead from
the luxuriant Praça da República
down to the port, past a historical
sector which is replete with
Portuguese colonial architecture.
It's a friendly city with a Parisian
feel and a surprisingly modern
skyline. Always warm and often hot
(and often wet, too), the climate
is generally very pleasant, with an
average temperature of 25°C. Belem
remains the economic centre of the
North, and the chief port for the
Amazon.
The City
The Praça da República , an
attractive central park with plenty
of trees affording valuable shade,
is a perfect place from which to get
your bearings and start a walking
tour of Belem's downtown and
riverfront attractions. The praça
...
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