A history of Goiânia officially began in 1933, when Pedro Ludovico, intervener from the state of Goiás, laid the foundation stone of what would become the new capital of Goiás. Previously, the state capital was the City of Goiás, but for structural and political reasons a new capital was created during the Vargas Era.
In the first years after its inauguration, the city of Goiânia It had few inhabitants, but with the arrival of the railway in the city in 1950 and the construction of Brasília, there was a large population increase in the 1950s and 1960s. Today the city is the largest economic hub in the state, in addition to being the city in Goiás with the largest population, with around 1.5 million inhabitants.
Read too: What is the history of Goiás?
Summary of the history of Goiânia
- The history of Goiânia officially began on October 24, 1933, when Pedro Ludovico, intervener appointed by Getúlio Vargas, laid the cornerstone of the new capital of Goiás.
- The City of Goiás, also called Goiás Velho, was the first capital of Goiás. Since the 19th century, some people have defended the proposal to build a new capital for the state.
- Two names were suggested for the new capital, Petrônia and Goiânia, with the second being chosen by the intervener.
- The arrival of the railway in the city and the construction of Brasília were responsible for the rapid population growth of Goiânia in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Currently Goiânia has the tenth highest GDP among Brazilian capitals, being the city with the largest population in the state of Goiás.
Background to the history of Goiânia
The history of Goiânia, or the territory where Goiânia is today, began thousands of years ago, when the first human beings arrived in this region of Brazil. One of the main archaeological sites in Brazil is located in Goiás, in the municipality of Serranópolis, in the south of the state. Several skeletons were found at this archaeological site and are considered the oldest in the Midwest. In 2023, archaeologists from PUC de Goiás announced that they found a 12,000-year-old human skeleton at the site.
These findings show that humans inhabited the Goiânia region more than 10 thousand years ago, probably living with American megafauna for centuries. The oldest populations in this territory were hunter-gatherers.
Over time, hunter-gatherer people gave way to pottery populations, who practiced agriculture. Before the arrival of Europeans Several people occupied Goiânia and the regions close to the capital, some of them practiced subsistence agriculture, mainly cultivating corn.
After the arrival of the bandeirantes in the region, at the beginning of the 18th century, several villages were built in Goiás. One of these villages was located in the current neighborhood of Campinas. In 1810, Campinas became a camp and, in 1907, it became a municipality. With the construction of Goiânia, Campinas became a neighborhood of the new capital.
Foundation of Goiânia
The idea of building a new capital for Goiás was old. The idea existed since the beginning of the 19th century, when the City of Goiás was in crisis due to the decline of mining.
In 1930, Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954) came to power ending the hegemony of large rural landowners, known as colonels. The power of these oligarchies has gained strength since the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889. Vargas had as one of the main objectives of his government the march to the west, that is, to colonize western Brazil.
Vargas appointed politician Pedro Ludovico Teixeira as intervener in Goiás. Ludovico was a staunch critic of the Goiás colonels, being arrested during the Revolution of 1930 at the behest of these elites and then released, after the victory of Vargas and his group.
He was the intervener who began work on the construction of the new capital of Goiás. The construction of the new capital met the objective of the Vargas government, to create infrastructure in the Midwest region for people to migrate there.
The construction of the city also had a political factor. The city of Goiás was politically controlled by the Caiado family since the beginning of the 20th century. The family was part of the old oligarchies, which were overthrown by Vargas in 1930. The construction of the new capital, far from the old one and with new civil servants, would remove powers from the Caiado family, which in fact happened. A popular saying at the time stated: “if we can’t take the Caiados out of the capital, let’s take the capital away from the Caiados”.
In 1932, research for the construction of the new capital began to be carried out. The following year, the location of the new capital was chosen, on a flat piece of land, close to the Botafogo stream. In the same year, the architectural project for the new city was approved, with the Palácio das Esmeraldas as its central point, which would be the seat of the state government. The three main avenues of the new city, Avenida Goiás, Tocantis and Araguaia, would start from in front of the palace. Like this, the cornerstone of the work was laid by Pedro Ludovico on October 24, 1933, this is considered the anniversary date of the capital of Goiás.
On August 2, 1935, a decree created the municipality that was named Goiânia. In 1937, a new decree transformed the municipality of Goiânia into the new state capital. The city was officially opened in 1942, on July 5.
Since the 1970s, the governors of Goiás have held a symbolic ceremony in which they transfer the capital of Goiás to their former headquarters, Goiás Velho. The tradition aims to preserve the history of the state and disseminate it to new generations.
→ Choosing the name of Goiânia
When Pedro Ludovico laid the cornerstone of Goiânia on October 24, 1933 and work on the new city began, the name of the new city had not yet been chosen. In the same year, the newspaper “O Social”, from the City of Goiás, promoted a competition among its readers to choose the name of the new capital.
Two names were suggested for the new capital: Petrônia, in honor of Pedro Ludovico and the emperor, Dom Pedro II, and Goiânia, related to the name of the state, Goiás. In the contest, the name Petrônia was chosen by more than 90% of the people who voted. Despite that, Pedro Ludovico Teixeira decreed in 1935 that the city was called Goiânia, ignoring the name that related to its name..
The word “Goiânia” is also related to the indigenous word “goyanna”, which means “place with many waters”. In fact, Goiânia can be considered a city of water, there are more than 80 springs and several streams.
Also access: History of Colônia Santa Marta — the leper colony built near Goiânia in the 1930s
How was the transfer from the capital to Goiânia?
It was from 1935 onwards that the first state bodies were transferred from the City of Goiás to the new capital, Goiânia. Later that year, the Military House, the General Secretariat of the State and the Government Secretariat were transferred to the new capital. Other state bodies were transferred to the new capital in the following years. In 1942, the ceremony officially transferred the new capital to Goiânia.. At that time, all state bodies were already functioning in the new capital.
Expansion of Goiânia
In 1940, the capital Goiânia had a population of approximately 48 thousand people, ten years later the population was 53 thousand inhabitants. In this period, the arrival of the railway in the capital of Goiás in 1950, as well as the construction of Brasilia, was responsible for a large increase in the population of the capital.
In 1960, the population of Goiânia reached 150 thousand inhabitants, an increase of 182% in ten years. After this boom in the 50s and 60s, the city's population growth slowed and continued with growth of approximately 15% in each decade. Currently Goiânia has a population of just over 1.4 million inhabitants.
Today Goiânia is the main economic hub of Goiás, with the tertiary sector, related to commerce and provision of services, being the most important in the city. The secondary sector is also prominent in the municipality, with several food, pharmaceutical, printing, metallurgical and civil construction industries.
Curiosities about the history of Goiânia
- Goiânia is considered the greenest capital in our country. In the city there are several squares and parks.
- In the city of Goiânia there are 94 square meters of green area for each inhabitant; the city is only behind Edmonton, Canada, which has around 100 square meters of green space per inhabitant.
- The Urban Complex of Goiânia, with a total of 22 buildings, was listed as a historical heritage site by Iphan in 2003. Most of these buildings are in the city center and date back to its foundation.
- There is currently no airport in Praça do Avião and Setor Aeroporto, but in the 1930s, the region was home to an airport that took workers and materials for the construction of the new capital.
- Goiânia has the largest number of Art Deco buildings in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, second only to Miami, in the United States.
- The pit dog is a type of traditional snack bar from Goiânia. It has been considered intangible cultural heritage of Goiás since 2020. There are currently almost 2 thousand pit dogs in Goiânia.
Image credits
[1]Collection of Eduardo Bilemjian / Wikimedia Commons (reproduction)
[2]Angela_Macario/Shutterstock
[3]Angela_Macario/Shutterstock
[4]Judson Castro/Shutterstock
Sources
ARAÓZ, Horacio Machado. Mining, Genealogy of the Disaster: Extractivism in America as the Origin of Modernity. São Paulo: Elefante, 2020.
ASSIS, Wilson Rocha Fernandes. Goiás history studies. Goiânia: Palavrear, 2019.
PALACIN, Luís. MORAES, Maria Augusta de S. History of Goiás. São Paulo: Vieira and Lent Casa Editorial, 2003.
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/historia-de-goiania.htm