Gold rush in Minas Gerais
Bandeirantes from São Paulo found rich alluvial gold in the mountains of Minas Gerais, setting off a gold rush that drew hundreds of thousands of settlers and enslaved Africans into the interior of Brazil and filled the treasury of the Portuguese crown.
- Date
- between 1692 and 1698exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Vila Rica (Ouro Preto)today: Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil · Latin America
- Participants
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Threads
- History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
- Also known as
- Brazilian gold rush; Ciclo do ouro; Бразильская золотая лихорадка
The first finds were made in 1692–1693 by the bandeirante Antônio Rodrigues Arzão; in 1695 Manuel de Borba Gato found gold on the Rio das Velhas, and in 1698 Antônio Dias de Oliveira struck gold at the foot of Itacolomi Peak, where Vila Rica — today’s Ouro Preto — grew up. The sources date the first discoveries differently, so the date is shown as a range. Migrants from Portugal, among them New Christians, and from the sugar districts of the north-east poured into the mining region, where most of the work was done by enslaved Africans; by 1725 half of Brazil’s population lived in the south-east.
The crown levied a fifth of all gold (the quinto). The revenue financed the lavish reign of John V, whose most famous work is the palace-convent of Mafra. The centre of the colony shifted south, and in 1763 the capital moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. Within a few decades the easily worked deposits were exhausted.
Connections
Related events
- Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil29 March 1549 · Latin Americathe gold shifted colonial Brazil southwards; in 1763 the capital moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro
Same participants
- Insurrection of Pernambuco: the Dutch expelled from Brazil15 May 1645 – 26 January 1654 · Latin Americavia Kingdom of Portugal
- Lisbon earthquake1 November 1755 · Western and Central Europevia Kingdom of Portugal
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Brazilian gold rush
- Wikipedia (English): Minas Gerais
- Wikipedia (English): John V of Portugal
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бразильская золотая лихорадка
- Boxer C. R. The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society. — Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.
- Wikidata: Q4958632