Rio de Janeiro History

In the year of 1502 Portuguese explorers sailed over to Brazil. Their mission: confirming the existence of the land Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed he'd discovered (reportedly by accident, as he'd been sent on an expedition to India, and got lost along the way, but that's another story).

This second journey was headed by André Gonçalves. He was the one who found the bay today known as Guanabara. Apparently he mistook it for the mouth of a river, rio, in Portuguese, the month was January (Janeiro), and the name stuck. By then Rio was inhabited by indians, who soon started to trade with the Portuguese. In addition to exotic birds like parrots and toucans, the funny-dressed visitors were also quite interested in pau-brasil. This native wood with a deep red color was used to dye fabrics in the XVI century.

Of course the relationship with the natives was not all roses. While Indians were no match to the modern weapons used by the Portuguese, some tribes had anthropophagic rituals that virtually terrified the Europeans. Up North, in the Amazon, they even had a technique to shrink skulls to the size of a tennis ball! The Indians also traded with the French and the Dutch, Portugal was not the only country with an interest in the new land.

Some historians claim that the first edification in Rio was built in an area known today as the Flamengo. It was a masonry house that Natives used to call Carioca . Nothing much came out of it, though, and the Portuguese did not give much importance to their finding for a while. Until the French decided to set foot here, that is. In 1555 Admiral Villegaignon landed in Rio to found in Brazil the Antartic France, a colony of French Calvinists. 

The Portuguese were not very happy with the idea, and thus sent Mem de Sá, who managed to expel the French in a mere two days, according to records. He left Rio and sailed back home, quite sure he had taught everybody a lesson. He should have known better, though as the French soon came back for more. In 1564, Estacio de Sá (a nephew) saw this second group of squatters with his very own eyes! This time it took them a full two years to finally get the area back to the hands of the Portuguese.