Published on January 24, 2013 · Updated on November 3, 2026

Home » Culture, history and religion of the Brazilian Northeast » History of Northeast Brazil: summary and timeline

The history of Northeast Brazil is also the beginning of the history of Brazil: it was on the northeastern coast that the Portuguese arrived in 1500 and where the sugar society was born. Later, the region went through French and Dutch invasions, revolts, the cangaço, drought and migration, until it reached today’s industrial hubs. In this summary, you will therefore find the chronology of the history of Northeast Brazil, from the colonial period to the 20th century.

How the Northeast region was born

What we now call the Northeast is a recent idea. In fact, until the early years of the Republic, this part of the country was simply called the North, without distinction. Then, throughout the 20th century, the region was divided in several different ways.

Thus, today’s Northeast, with nine states, comes from the regional division of the IBGE adopted in 1970. As a result, different histories and cultures came to be grouped under a single name.

Even so, the most common way to tell the history of Northeast Brazil begins in 1500, when the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the coast of present-day Porto Seguro, in Bahia. See also the history of the Discovery Coast.

Watch the videos about the history of Brazil

Chronology of the history of Northeast Brazil

Year	Event
1500	Cabral’s fleet arrives in southern Bahia
1534	Creation of the hereditary captaincies
1549	Tomé de Sousa founds Salvador, the first capital
1612–1615	The French in Maranhão and the founding of São Luís
1630–1654	Dutch rule in Pernambuco
1684	Beckman Revolt, in Maranhão
1710–1711	Peddlers’ War, in Pernambuco
1798	Bahian Conspiracy (Tailors’ Revolt)
1817	Pernambucan Revolt
1823	Independence of Bahia, on July 2
1824	Equator Confederation
1835	Revolt of the Malês, in Salvador
1884	Ceará abolishes slavery
1896–1897	War of Canudos, in Bahia
1938	Death of Lampião, in Sergipe
1959	Creation of Sudene

Brazilwood, captaincies and Salvador

To the disappointment of the Portuguese, the land was lush but poor in the spices and metals they were looking for. Instead, its first source of wealth was brazilwood, which was used in Europe as a dye for textiles.

For about thirty years, the Portuguese visited the coast mainly to collect the wood, which also attracted smugglers and pirates from other countries. Then, in 1534, the Crown divided the colony into hereditary captaincies.

The system, however, failed. Only São Vicente and Pernambuco, also known as Nova Lusitânia, prospered, because sugarcane soon took hold there.

For this reason, the general government was created in 1548. The following year, Tomé de Sousa landed near Vila do Pereira, on the Bay of All Saints, and founded Salvador.

Meanwhile, many Tupinambá people of the Recôncavo were enslaved and catechized, while others fled to the interior.

The sugar society in the Northeast

It is not known precisely when sugarcane arrived in Brazil. However, by the second half of the 16th century, the sugar industry was already firmly established in the Northeast, and it would sustain the colonial economy for a long time.

Pernambuco and Bahia became the largest producers, thanks to their fertile land, their relative proximity to Europe and the good ports of Recife and Salvador.

Production was based on large estates, monoculture and slave labor, first Indigenous and later African. Thus, Salvador became one of the largest ports of arrival for enslaved Africans, until, in the 18th century, the gold of Minas Gerais shifted the center of the trade to Rio de Janeiro.

For this reason, the Northeast preserves strong traditions of African origin. In addition, the center of this society was the engenho (sugar mill): the masters lived in the casa-grande (the big house), and the enslaved people lived in the senzala (the slave quarters).

The French and the Dutch in the Northeast

In the 16th century, the Portuguese founded towns north of Bahia. In some areas, however, settlement only became firm in the following century, because of Indigenous resistance and invasions by other Europeans.

The French in Maranhão

From the early 16th century, the French traded brazilwood at various points along the northeastern coast. Later, in 1612, they founded São Luís, in Maranhão, to create Equinoctial France (França Equinocial), but they were defeated in 1615.

Next, in 1621, Portugal created the Estado do Maranhão (State of Maranhão), directly linked to Lisbon, and encouraged settlers from the Azores to move there.

The Dutch in Pernambuco

Attracted by sugar, the Dutch also invaded Brazil, financed by the Dutch West India Company. First, they attacked Salvador in 1624, but they were expelled the following year. Then, in 1630, they took Olinda and Recife.

From Pernambuco, they also took control of Rio Grande do Norte (1633), Paraíba (1634), Sergipe and Ceará (1637) and, for a short time, São Luís (1641–1644).

Comparison: French vs. Dutch presence

	French	Dutch
Where	Maranhão (São Luís)	Pernambuco and neighboring captaincies
When	1612–1615	1630–1654
Goal	To create a colony, Equinoctial France	To control sugar production
Who financed it	Nobles linked to the French Crown	Dutch West India Company
Legacy	The name and the traditional founding date of São Luís	Works in Recife, science, art and the end of the Portuguese sugar monopoly

In short, the French presence was brief and focused on colonization; the Dutch presence, on the other hand, lasted more than two decades and revolved around sugar.

Dutch Brazil and Maurício de Nassau

After years of war, Count Maurício de Nassau arrived in Recife in 1637 to govern the Dutch colony.

The period of Dutch rule remained in popular memory as a kind of golden age. Indeed, Nassau adopted religious tolerance, and Kahal Zur Israel, considered the first synagogue in the Americas, operated in Recife. Moreover, he brought scientists and artists such as Frans Post, Albert Eckhout and Zacharias Wagener, who portrayed nature and colonial life.

However, the fall in sugar prices and disagreements with the Company took Nassau back to Europe in 1644. Soon afterward, in 1645, the Pernambucan Insurrection began. Finally, after the Battles of Guararapes, the Dutch surrendered in 1654.

When they left, they took their knowledge of sugar to the Antilles. Consequently, Portugal regained Pernambuco but lost its sugar monopoly for good.

Beyond sugar: tobacco, cattle and cotton

Although sugar was the backbone of the economy, other products were also important. For example, tobacco from the Recôncavo Baiano was used as currency in the slave trade on the coast of Africa.

Cattle ranching, on the other hand, was born alongside the sugar mills and later advanced into the sertão. In this way, it occupied the interior and created the so-called “leather society”. Incidentally, Piauí is the only state that was settled from the interior to the coast, by cowboys who came from Bahia.

Finally, cotton grew at the end of the 18th century, driven by the English Industrial Revolution. Later, the American Civil War boosted production again, especially in Maranhão.

Revolts in the colonial Northeast and during the Empire

In the 18th century, sugar lost ground to production in the Antilles, and the gold of Minas shifted the economic axis to the Southeast. As a result, several revolts marked the region.

Colonial period

• Beckman Revolt (1684): in Maranhão, settlers rose up against the monopoly of the Maranhão Trading Company and against the limits on Indigenous enslavement.
• Peddlers’ War (1710–1711): sugar mill owners from Olinda fought against the merchants of Recife, most of whom were Portuguese.
• Bahian Conspiracy (1798): also called the Tailors’ Revolt, it combined social demands and independence for the first time.
• Pernambucan Revolt (1817): a republican movement that spread as far as Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará.

Independence and Empire

In Bahia, independence was not peaceful. In fact, it was only consolidated on July 2, 1823, with the defeat of the Portuguese troops. That is why, even today, Dois de Julho (July 2) is Bahia’s great civic holiday.

Then, in 1823, Pedro I dissolved the Constituent Assembly and, in 1824, granted the first Constitution. In response, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará formed the Equator Confederation, which was defeated within a few months.

• Cabanada (1832–1835): in Pernambuco, it called for the return of Pedro I, who had abdicated in 1831.
• Revolt of the Malês (1835): an uprising of Muslim Africans in Salvador.
• Sabinada (1837–1838): a republican movement in Salvador, which was harshly repressed.
• Balaiada (1838–1841): a popular revolt in Maranhão.
• Praieira Revolt (1848): liberals against conservatives in Pernambuco.

In addition, the abolitionist movement had great figures from the Northeast, such as Rui Barbosa, Luís Gama, Castro Alves, Joaquim Nabuco and Francisco do Nascimento, known as Dragão do Mar. Notably, Ceará abolished slavery in 1884, four years before the Lei Áurea (the “Golden Law” that abolished slavery in Brazil).

Coronelismo and cangaço

During the First Republic, coronelismo became consolidated: the power of the great landowners, called coronéis (colonels), a title inherited from the National Guard. With their jagunços (hired gunmen), they imposed their own will and traded favors, posts and protection for votes.

Feuds between families often ended in violence. For example, the assassination of the governor of Paraíba, João Pessoa, in 1930, was the trigger for the Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas to power.

On the other hand, the cangaceiros (the bandits of the cangaço) were independent gangs that attacked villages and farms in the sertão from the first decades of the 20th century until 1940. Even so, their nomadic life gave them a romantic aura.

The most famous of them, Lampião, was killed together with Maria Bonita and part of his gang in 1938, at Grota de Angico, in Poço Redondo (SE). Finally, Corisco, the last great cangaceiro, was killed in 1940.

The War of Canudos

In Os Sertões, Euclides da Cunha described the end of Canudos: in the last stronghold, only four defenders remained in front of thousands of soldiers.

Coming from Ceará, the lay preacher Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel, known as Antônio Conselheiro, preached for years in the sertão. Then, in 1893, he settled on the banks of the Vaza-Barris River, in Bahia, where the settlement of Canudos grew very quickly.

Rumors of an attack on Juazeiro led to the first military expedition, which failed. After that, two more were also defeated, and Canudos, accused of sheltering monarchists, became a national issue.

Finally, in October 1897, the fourth expedition, with thousands of soldiers, destroyed the settlement, and many prisoners were executed.

Drought, migration and new paths

Sugar was both the blessing and the curse of the Northeast: it brought wealth and culture, but it left behind a great concentration of land and inequality. Furthermore, long droughts left their mark on the sertão.

Because of this, many people from the Northeast migrated. First, they went to the rubber-boom Amazon, especially during the droughts of 1877 and 1915; later, they moved to the industries of the Southeast and to the construction of Brasília. In fact, the Northeast was the most populous region of the country in the 1872 Census, and today it is home to about 27% of Brazilians (IBGE, 2022 Census).

In 1959, the government created Sudene to plan regional development. At that time, under the IBGE division, Bahia and Sergipe were still part of the East region.

Today, the Northeast has hubs such as the petrochemical complex of Camaçari (BA), the textile industry of Fortaleza (CE), the port of Itaqui (MA), through which ore from Carajás is shipped, and the irrigated fruit farming of Petrolina (PE), in the São Francisco valley. Thus, between the archaic and the modern, the region continues to write its history.

Frequently asked questions about the history of Northeast Brazil

What is a summary of the history of Northeast Brazil?

It begins with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, then moves through sugar, invasions and revolts, and finally reaches the cangaço, drought and migration.

That is why the Northeast is called the cradle of Brazil.

Why did the Portuguese and the Dutch fight over the Northeast?

Because of sugar production, which was the colony’s greatest source of wealth in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Therefore, Pernambuco and Bahia were the main targets.

What is the difference between the French and the Dutch presence in Brazil?

The French presence was brief (1612–1615) and aimed to found a colony in Maranhão; by contrast, the Dutch presence lasted from 1630 to 1654 and revolved around sugar in Pernambuco.

In addition, the Dutch were financed by a trading company.

When was the Northeast region created?

The present-day region, with nine states, comes from the IBGE division adopted in 1970.

Before that, the area was simply called the North.

Which was the first state to abolish slavery?

Ceará, in 1884, four years before the Lei Áurea.

As a result, it became known as Terra da Luz (“Land of Light”).