Minas Gerais (, ; ; ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 census. Located in the Southeast Region of the country, it is bordered by São Paulo in the south and southwest; Mato Grosso do Sul to the west; Goiás and the Federal District to the northwest; Bahia to the north and northeast; Espírito Santo to the east; and Rio de Janeiro to the southeast.
The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a major urban and finance center in Brazil, being the sixth most populous municipality in the country while its metropolitan area ranks as the third largest in Brazil with just over 5.8 million inhabitants, after those of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Minas Gerais' territory is subdivided into 853 municipalities, the largest number among Brazilian states.
The state's terrain is quite rugged and some of Brazil's highest peaks are located in its territory. It is also home to the source of some of Brazil's main rivers, such as the São Francisco, Grande, Paranaíba, Doce and Jequitinhonha rivers, which places it in a strategic position with regard to the country's water resources. It has a tropical climate, which varies from colder and humid in the south to semi-arid in its northern portion. All of these combined factors provide it with a rich fauna and flora distributed in the biomes that cover the state, especially the Cerrado and the threatened Atlantic Forest.
Minas Gerais' territory was inhabited by indigenous peoples when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil. It experienced a large migration wave following the discovery of gold in the late 17th century. The mining of gold brought wealth and development to the then captaincy, providing its economic and cultural development; however, gold soon became scarce, causing the emigration of a large part of the population until a new cycle (that of coffee) once again brought Minas Gerais national prominence and whose end led to the relatively late industrialization process. Minas Gerais currently has the third largest GDP among Brazilian states, with a large part of it still being the product of mining activities. The state also has a notable infrastructure, with a large number of hydroelectric plants and the largest road network in the country. In politics, Minas Gerais's size makes it an important bellwether, having voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since democracy returned to Brazil in the 1980s.
Due to its natural beauty and historical heritage, Minas Gerais is an important tourist destination. It is known for its heritage of colonial architecture and art in historical cities such as Ouro Preto and Diamantina, São João del-Rei, Mariana, Tiradentes, Congonhas, Sabará and Serro. In the south, its tourist points are hydro-mineral spas, such as the municipalities of Caxambu, Lambari, São Lourenço, Poços de Caldas, São Thomé das Letras, Monte Verde (a district of Camanducaia) and the national parks of Caparaó and Canastra. In the Serra do Cipó, Sete Lagoas, Cordisburgo and Lagoa Santa, the caves and waterfalls are the main attractions. The people of Minas Gerais also have a distinctive culture, marked by traditional religious festivals and typical countryside cuisine, in addition to national importance in contemporary artistic productions and also in the sports scene.
Etymology
Two interpretations are given for the origin of the name Minas Gerais.João Batista de Almeida Costa. Os Berços de Minas Gerais The first interpretation is that the name simply means "General Mines", referring to a number of mines which were located in several areas of the region.
The second interpretation derives the name from the former name of the colonial province, "Minas dos Matos Gerais" ("Mines of the General Woods"), referring to two distinct regions encompassed by the state: the region of the mines (Minas), and the "general" region ("Matos Gerais" or "Campos Gerais", roughly meaning "General Fields"). The "general" region included the areas of sertão which were far from the mining areas.João Antônio de Paula: Raízes da Modernidade em Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte: Editora Autêntica, 2000
History Part of the history of the current state of Minas Gerais was determined by the exploration of the great mineral wealth found in its territory. Mining began in the 17th century and to this day remains important to the state's economy.
Prehistory and indigenous peoples
In the mid-19th century, Danish paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund discovered, in the Lagoa Santa region, human remains belonging to a population that lived there thousands of years ago, nicknamed the "Lagoa Santa People". The region of Minas Gerais was inhabited by indigenous peoples as long as 11,400 to 12,000 years ago, based on the estimated age of the Luzia woman, the name of the oldest human fossil found in the Americas. Luzia was found in 1974 in excavations in Lapa Vermelha, a cave between the municipalities of Lagoa Santa and Pedro Leopoldo, in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte.Feathers, James; R. Kipnis; L. Piló; M. Arroyo & D. Coblentz (2010) "How old is Luzia?
Based on the analysis of Luzia and her people's cranial morphology, it was theorized that they had Australoid features, having belonged to a population that arrived in the Americas before the ancestors of Amerindians. However, with the analysis of the genetic material of the human remains of the Lagoa Santa People, it was found that this prehistoric population had completely Amerindian DNA, therefore ruling out any relationship with Australasian populations and the theory that the peopling of the Americas was due to a wave of individuals with Australoid traits and another of Mongoloid individuals. The indigenous peoples of Minas Gerais, as well as throughout Brazil and South America, are descendants of the groups who migrated there through North America.
In the region of the municipalities of Januária, Montalvânia, Itacarambi and Juvenília, in northern Minas Gerais, archaeological excavations have led to estimates that the initial settlement occurred at Luzia's time. Starting in this period, cultural characteristics emerged, such as the use of stone or bone, the creation of cemeteries and small grain silos, as well as cave paintings. Later, about four thousand years ago, it is speculated that vegetable cultivation occurred, in particular corn, and that two thousand years ago, ceramic products were already being manufactured.
More than a hundred indigenous groups inhabited the current territory of Minas Gerais at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese. In the valleys of the Doce, Jequitinhonha and Mucuri rivers, people generally known as "botocudos" lived, such as the Maxakalis, Maconis, Naquenuques, Aranãs, Krenaks and Pataxós. Northern Minas Gerais was dominated by the Kiriris and Xakriabás. Center, western and southern Minas Gerais were inhabited by the Cataguás, who were the most numerous indigenous group in Minas Gerais' territory in colonial times, so much so that the region was known as "Campos Gerais dos Cataguases" in the time of the bandeirantes. The regions of Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba were inhabited by the Kayapos and Araxás, while the Zona da Mata was populated by the Puri. The region of Minas Gerais close to the border with São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás was occupied by the Bororós.
However, during the first centuries of the colonization of Brazil, the indigenous people of this region were captured by the bandeirantes to be enslaved and the groups that revolted were exterminated, which caused a great reduction in the indigenous population, leaving currently only five groups: the Xakriabás, Krenaks, Maxakalis, Pataxós and Pankararus, the latter coming from Pernambuco's hinterlands.
Colonial era
Initial settlement and gold rush
The first European expedition into Minas Gerais' territory was led by Spaniards Francisco Bruza Espinosa and Juan de Azpilcueta Navarro between 1553 and 1555, which left the coast of Bahia and traveled through northern Minas Gerais. In the following decades, other expeditions known as "entries", coming from the Brazil's northeastern coast, traveled through this same region, such as that of Sebastião Fernandes Tourinho in 1573. From the end of the 16th century, bandeirantes traveled the territory of Minas Gerais in search of gold and precious stones. Many of their expeditions were supported by the Portuguese Crown, among which those of Fernão Dias and his son-in-law Borba Gato, who left the village of São Paulo in 1674, stand out. In the 17th century, the colonization of northern Minas Gerais began, with the settlement of cattle herders, due to the expansion of livestock farming in the northeastern Sertão, and of bandeirantes, in search of precious stones and indigenous people to enslave.
Between 1692 and 1693, the bandeirante Antônio Rodrigues Arzão discovered the first gold deposits in the territory of Minas Gerais. In the following years, bandeirantes from the towns of São Paulo and Taubaté traveled through the Das Velhas region looking for gold. In 1696, Salvador Fernandes Furtado discovered gold on the banks of the Carmo river and built his camp there, which gave rise to the town of Nossa Senhora do Carmo (now Mariana). Two years later, Antônio Dias de Oliveira discovered gold at the foot of the Itacolomi Peak and founded his settlement there, the embryo of Vila Rica (currently Ouro Preto). In 1702, João de Siqueira Afonso discovered precious stones in the Rio das Mortes valley. Initially, gold was extracted from riverbeds, which forced miners to move as the deposits ran out. After some time, exploration also began to be carried out on mountain slopes, which forced the permanent settlement of miners, leading to the emergence of the first settlements.
The news of the discovery of gold soon spread, initiating a gold rush, and in the following decades hundreds of thousands of people eager for wealth, mainly Portuguese (which included New Christians), but also colonial Brazilians from São Paulo, Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro, settled in Minas Gerais. The arrival of large numbers of people in a short time led to epidemics and food shortages. In 1697, the Portuguese used enslaved African labor to start building the Estrada Real, the "royal road", that would connect the ports of cities of Rio de Janeiro and Paraty to the mineral-rich regions of Vila Rica, Serro, and, at the northernmost point, Diamantina.
São Paulo settlers considered themselves owners of the gold taken from the mines, claiming the right due to having discovered and conquered it, and did not want others to take possession of the mines. As a result, in 1707, they came into conflict with the Portuguese and other Brazilian settlers (nicknamed "emboabas", a Tupi term that means "one who offends"), causing the War of the Emboabas, which ended in 1709. The São Paulo settlers were defeated and many of them had to abandon the gold deposits in Minas Gerais, having to look for the metal in what is now the Central-West region of Brazil, finding it years later in Goiás and Mato Grosso.