The occupation of southern Brazil, currently called the South Region, followed a pattern somewhat different from the rest of the country. The presence of a subtropical climate restricted (although not unfeasible) the planting of typical crops in a hot climate, such as sugarcane or even coffee. This characteristic, together with the Portuguese strategy of occupying borders, attracted immigrants from other European locations. Instead of monoculture based on slave labor, the organization of properties that practiced polyculture with the use of family work was privileged.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the Luso-Brazilians settled in rural areas, based on activities pastoralists, while European immigrants in forest areas, from small properties rural areas. The Italians who settled in the region were located on the upper slopes of the Plateau (600 to 800 meters of altitude), founding cities such as Caxias, Garibaldi, Bento Gonçalves, among others.
In Santa Catarina there was the entry of German and Italian immigrants in the 19th century, while in the 20th century immigration was mixed, composed of national elements and descendants of Italian settlers from Rio Grande do South. The Germans concentrated in the Itajaí Valley, founding cities like Joinville, Blumenau and Brusque, while the Italians settled in the region of Vale do Tubarão, founding cities like Criciúma, Urussanga and Sideropolis.
In Paraná, immigration of Germans, Ukrainian Slavs and Poles took place during the 19th century. Italians and Dutch also migrated to the region, but to a lesser extent. In the beginning of the 20th century, there was an overflow of São Paulo coffee growing, attracting Japanese farmers, European and Brazilian settlers to the north of the state. Then there were disordered movements of caboclos and colonists, between Ponta Grossa and Maringá, based on the cultivation of herbs and pine forests.
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Until the first half of the 20th century, agriculture remained as the main economic activity in the states that make up the southern region. The first factories in the region emerged with the advent of small and medium-sized family businesses, still at the end of the 19th century, which in the following decades achieved greater development. Later, with incentives from the Brazilian government, from the 1950s onwards, to attract companies multinationals to the country, large corporations appeared in the region, seeking to take advantage of this atmosphere industrial.
Other factors that contributed to industrial development in the southern region were the reserves of raw materials and the potential for power generation, especially oil shale and mineral coal, used in thermoelectric plants and industrial boilers, and hydroelectric power, due to the characteristic of its rivers, (flowing and with waterfalls), the Itaipu Power Plant, in the Paraná.
Currently, the region has the 2nd largest industrial concentration in the country, with highly diversified locations in terms of industrial segments, especially in the surroundings of its capitals. Despite the migration of many farmers to the North and Center-West regions, agriculture still has a large share in the economy, especially cattle raising and cereal production.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SILVA, Julius César Lázaro da. "Economic History of the Southern Region and the Influence of European Migrations"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/historia-economica-regiao-sul-influencia-das-migracoes-europeias.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
