Overview:-
- Rio de Janeiro Harbour, River of January, is considered as one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It has been known as one of the most beautiful natural harbors. People admired the geology so much that they said, “God made the world in six days and on the seventh, he concentrated on Rio .” The climate is wonderful. The beaches are free to everyone.
- Rio de Janeiro Harbour is located in Brazil on the south-western shore of Guanabara Bay. The bay is surrounded by the city of Rio, the second largest city and former capital of Brazil, along a strip of land between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.
- It is surrounded by mountains: Sugar Loaf Mt. (1,296 ft/395 m), Corcovado Peak (2,310 ft/704 m), and the hills of Tijuca (3,350 ft/1,021 m). The world famous statue of Jesus (38m) stands on the top of Corcovado Peak. The harbor was formed by the Atlantic Ocean, which wore out the soil and rocks along the coast.
- Rio de Janeiro Harbour was founded on Jan. 1, 1502. Portuguese navigators thought that the entrance of Guanabara Bay was the mouth of a river. Thus, they named it River of January. Years later (60 approximately), French traders came and inspected the area that the Portuguese established as the city of Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro. The French established a colony in 1555, but were expelled. The population increased and the city grew larger. In 1960, Rio de Janeiro no longer was the capital. The capital was changed to Brazilia.
- The city is thriving and attracts many tourists. The city of Rio is modernizing, starting from the early 1900s. The public sanitation is improving, though the harbors and the beaches may be crowded and polluted at times. Slums are found throughout the city. Tunnels have been dug, connecting the northern and southern areas of the city. The tunnel is the longest underground urban highway.
- Masses are held in a small chapel next to the famous statue of Jesus. The huge city can be seen by going to the highest points, on top of the mountains and looking down. From the months October till March, it may be misty because this is the rainy season. Evenings are even better. Evenings offer lights and stars glittering in the night sky. It mostly depends on the amounts of cloud and mist. Everyone is welcomed to Rio de Janeiro Harbour.
History
History- Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on 1 January 1502 (hence Rio de Janeiro, “January River”), by a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet, or under Gonçalo Coelho.Allegedly the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition.
- The region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri, Botocudo and Maxakalí peoples.
- In 1555, one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, now called Villegagnon Island, was occupied by 500 French colonists under the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. Consequently, Villegagnon built Fort Coligny on the island when attempting to establish the France Antarctique colony.
- The city of Rio de Janeiro proper was founded by the Portuguese on 1 March 1565 and was named São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, in honour of St. Sebastian, the saint who was the namesake and patron of the then Portuguese Monarch D. Sebastião. Rio de Janeiro was the name of Guanabara Bay. Until early in the 18th century, the city was threatened or invaded by several, mostly French, pirates and buccaneers, such as Jean-François Duclerc and René Duguay-Trouin.
- In the late 17th century, still during the Sugar Era, the Bandeirantes found gold and diamonds in the neighbouring captaincy of Minas Gerais, thus Rio de Janeiro became a much more practical port for exporting wealth (gold, precious stones, besides the sugar) than Salvador, Bahia, which is much farther to the northeast. On 27 January 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
- The city remained primarily a colonial capital until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro. The kingdom’s capital was transferred to the city, which, thus, became the only European capital outside of Europe. As there was no physical space or urban structure to accommodate hundreds of noblemen who arrived suddenly, manyinhabitants were simply evicted from their homes. There was a large influx of African slaves to Rio de Janeiro: in 1819, there were 145,000 slaves in the captaincy. In 1840, the number of slaves reached 220,000 people.
