São Paulo (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the state of São Paulo. The largest city in Brazil, it is also the most populous city in South America, the Americas, and in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres. The city exerts international influence in commerce, finance, culture, gastronomy, arts, fashion, technology, entertainment and media, having been listed by UNESCO's Creative Cities Network as a "City of Film" and the title of "World Capital of Gastronomy", and by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as an alpha global city. It is the largest urban area by population outside Asia and the most populous Portuguese-speaking city in the world. The city is named after Paul the Apostle and people from the capital city are known as paulistanos (while paulistas refers to people from the state of São Paulo more generally).
Founded in 1554 by Jesuit priests, São Paulo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the American continents. It played a strategic role during the Brazilian colonial period, serving as the center and starting point for the expeditions of the Paulista bandeirantes (pioneers) settlers for the territorial and economic expansion of the country; however, its economic opulence was consolidated during the Brazilian coffee cycle in the mid-19th century. From that period onward, it became the stage for landmark events in Brazilian history, such as the Cry of Ipiranga, the Modern Art Week, the 1932 Revolution, and the Diretas Já (Direct Elections Now) movement. In the 20th century, industrialisation consolidated its role as the main national economic hub, which made the city a cosmopolitan melting pot, home to the largest Arab, Italian, and Japanese diasporas in the world, with ethnic enclaves like Bixiga, Bom Retiro, and Liberdade, and people from more than 200 other countries. The city's metropolitan area, Greater São Paulo, is home to more than 20 million inhabitants and ranks as the most populous in Brazil and one of the most populous in the world. The process of conurbation between the metropolitan areas around Greater São Paulo also created the São Paulo Macrometropolis, the first megalopolis in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than 30 million inhabitants.
São Paulo is the largest urban economy in Latin America and one of the world's major financial centres, representing around 10% of the Brazilian GDP and just over a third of São Paulo state's GDP (the only Brazilian city to surpass the 1 trillion reais mark in GDP). The city is the headquarters of B3, the largest stock exchange of Latin America by market capitalization, and has several financial districts, mainly in the areas around Paulista, Faria Lima and Berrini avenues. Home to 63% of established multinationals in Brazil and the source of around one third of the Brazilian scientific production, São Paulo is among the top 50 science and technology clusters in the world. Its main university, the University of São Paulo, is often considered the best in Brazil and Latin America, while the city is regularly ranked as one of the best cities in the world to be a university student in the QS World University Rankings. The metropolis is also home to several of the tallest skyscrapers in Brazil, including the Alto das Nações, Platina 220, Figueira Altos do Tatuapé, Mirante do Vale, Edifício Itália, Altino Arantes Building, North Tower and many others. It is the state capital with the best basic sanitation, the second-most developed, according to the FIRJAN Municipal Development Index (2025), the sixth in the Social Progress Index (IPS) in Brazil, and the ninth most wooded in the country, which earned it the international titles of "Tree City of the World" from the United Nations (UN) and "Ibero-American Green Capital", in addition to recognition from Guinness World Records for the "largest food security program in the world".
The place of origin and/or disseminator of countless artistic, cultural, and gastronomic expressions, such as the caipira culture and cuisine, sertanejo music, Brazilian hip-hop and rock, and samba paulista, and the culinary matrix of creations like bauru, beirute, calabresa, coxinha, dadinho, parmegiana, pastel de feira, and picanha, the city is one of the main cultural, gastronomic, and entertainment hubs in the world. It is home to monuments, parks, and museums, such as the Latin American Memorial, Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo Museum of Art, Pinacoteca, Cinemateca, Itaú Cultural, Museum of Ipiranga, Catavento Museum, Football Museum, Museum of the Portuguese Language, and the Museum of Image and Sound. São Paulo also holds notable cultural events like the São Paulo Art Biennial, São Paulo Fashion Week, Lollapalooza, Primavera Sound, Comic Con Experience and the São Paulo Gay Pride Parade, the largest LGBT event in the world. São Paulo has also hosted many sporting events such as the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 1963 Pan American Games, the São Paulo Indy 300 and the NFL Brazil Games, in addition to hosting the annual Brazilian Grand Prix of Formula One and the Saint Silvester Road Race.
History
Pre-Cabraline period
The first organised human settlements in the modern-day state of São Paulo is belived to have taken place in the early millennia of the Holocene, between 11,000 and 9,000 years ago. The oldest archaeological artefacts ever discovered in the municipality of São Paulo come from the Morumbi site, theorised to be from around 3500 BC. The region of modern-day São Paulo, originally known as Piratininga plains around the Tietê River, was inhabited by the Tupi people, such as the Tupiniquim, Guaianás, and Guarani. Other tribes also lived in areas that today form the metropolitan region.
The region was divided in Caciquedoms (chiefdoms) at the time of encounter with the Europeans. The most notable cacique was Tibiriçá, known for his support for the Portuguese and other European colonists. Among the many indigenous place names that remain are Tietê, Ipiranga, Tamanduateí, Anhangabaú, Piratininga, Itaquaquecetuba, Cotia, Itapevi, Barueri, Embu-Guaçu, etc.
Portuguese colonisation
In 1532, Martim Afonso de Sousa founded the first Brazilian village of São Vicente on the coast of São Paulo. There, the first conflict between Europeans in South America took place, the Iguape War. Donatário of the Captaincy of São Vicente, Martim Afonso encouraged the occupation of the region.
The Portuguese village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga was marked by the founding of the Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga on 25 January 1554 founded to catechise the indigenous peoples. The Jesuit college of twelve priests included Manuel da Nóbrega and Spanish priest José de Anchieta. They built a mission on top of a steep hill between the Anhangabaú and Tamanduateí rivers.Rachel Lawrence: 2010, p. 183
They first had a small structure built of rammed earth, made by Native Indian workers in their traditional style. The priests wanted to evangelize these Indians who lived in the Plateau region of Piratininga and convert them to Christianity. The site was separated from the coast by the Serra do Mar mountain range, called "Serra Paranapiacaba" by the Indians.
The college was named for a Christian saint and its founding on the feast day of the celebration of the conversion of the Apostle Paul of Tarsus. Father José de Anchieta wrote this account in a letter to the Society of Jesus:
In 1562, troubled by the alliance between the Tupiniquim and the Portuguese, the Tupinambás, united and launched a series of attacks against the village on 9 July. The defence organised by Tibiriçá and João Ramalho prevented the Tupinambás from entering São Paulo, and forced their retreat on 10 July of that year.
On 22 March 1681, Luís Álvares de Castro, the Second Marquis de Cascais and donee of the Captaincy of São Vicente, moved the capital to the village of São Paulo (see Timeline of São Paulo), designating it the "Head of the captaincy". The new capital was established on 23 April 1683, with public celebrations.
Capital of the captaincy During the following two centuries, São Paulo remained a poor village isolated from the colony's centre of gravity, the coast, maintaining itself through subsistence crops. This isolation of São Paulo's isolation was mainly due to the fact that it was very difficult to climb the Serra do Mar on foot from the village of Santos or the village of São Vicente to the Piratininga Plateau. This ascent was made by the Caminho do Padre José de Anchieta. Mem de Sá, during his visit to the Captaincy of São Vicente, had forbidden the use of the "Caminho do Piraiquê" (today Piaçaguera), due to frequent assults by natives.
In the 17th century, men engaged in mineral exploration, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, and the capture of runaway slaves in the southeast, then known as "paulistas" or "sertanistas," mobilised the expeditions of the bandeiras. Generally departing from São Paulo, these expeditions followed river courses, establishing trails and support points that would later develop into cities. Although they contributed to the territorial expansion of the colony of the State of Brazil, they were primarily characterised by the capture of Indigenous people for enslavement, often through attacks on Jesuit villages and missions. The principal "bandeirantes" included Fernão Dias Pais, Manuel de Borba Gato, Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva (Anhanguera), Domingos Jorge Velho, Antônio Raposo Tavares, Nicolau Barreto, and Manuel Preto.
In 1640, the Jesuits' strong opposition to the bandeirantes' capture and commercialisation of Indian labour led to conflicts between the two groups, culminating expulsion of the Jesuits from São Paulo until 1653.
The discovery of gold in the region of Minas Gerais, in the 1690s, brought attention and new settlers to São Paulo. The Captaincy of São Paulo and Minas de Ouro (see Captaincies of Brazil) was created on 3 November 1709, when the Portuguese crown purchased the Captaincies of São Paulo and Santo Amaro from the former grantees. Although less profitable than mines in Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Goiás, the search for gold in the then São Paulo de Piratininga is regarded as the first mining attempt in Portuguese South America, motivating the creation (Casa de fundição) of a Foundry House in the first century of colonisation.
Conveniently located in the country, up the steep Serra do Mar escarpment/mountain range when traveling from Santos, while also not too far from the coastline, São Paulo became a safe place to stay for tired travelers. The town became a center for the bandeirantes, intrepid invaders who marched into unknown lands in search for gold, diamonds, precious stones, and Indians to enslave. The bandeirantes, which could be translated as "flag-bearers" or "flag-followers", mounted expeditions into the land with the primary purpose of profit and the expansion of territory for the Portuguese crown. Trade grew from the local markets and from providing food and accommodation for explorers. The bandeirantes eventually became politically powerful as a group, and forced the expulsion of the Jesuits from the city of São Paulo in 1640. The two groups had frequently come into conflict because of the Jesuits' opposition to the domestic slave trade in Indians.
On 11 July 1711, the town of São Paulo was elevated to city status. Around the 1720s, gold was found by the pioneers in the regions near what are now Cuiabá and Goiânia. The Portuguese expanded their Brazilian territory beyond the Tordesillas Line to incorporate the gold regions. When the gold ran out in the late 18th century, São Paulo shifted to growing sugar cane. Cultivation of this commodity crop spread through the interior of the Captaincy.