The history from the Brazilian state of Alagoas begins before the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese, when the territory was inhabited by the Caeté people. The coast of the current state of Alagoas, recognized since the first Portuguese expeditions, was also visited early on by vessels of other nationalities for the barter of brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata).
Within the Captaincies of Brazil system (1534), the territory was part of the captaincy of Pernambuco, and its occupation dates back to the foundation of the village of Penedo (1545), on the banks of the São Francisco River, by the donee Duarte Coelho Pereira, who encouraged the construction of sugar cane mills in the region. The area was also the location of the shipwreck of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help and subsequent massacre of the survivors, among them Bishop Dom Pero Fernandes Sardinha, by the Caeté people (1556), an episode that served as motivation for the war of extermination waged against this indigenous group by the Portuguese Crown. At the beginning of the XVII century, besides sugarcane plantation, the region of Alagoas was an expressive regional producer of manioc flour, tobacco, cattle and dried fish, consumed in the captaincy of Pernambuco. During the Dutch invasions of Brazil (1630-1654), its coastline became the scenario of violent combats, while the quilombos, formed by Africans escaped from the sugar cane mills in Pernambuco and Bahia, multiplied in the highlands of its countryside. Palmares, the most famous one, reached a population of twenty thousand at its peak. The territory became the Comarca of Alagoas in 1711 and was dismembered from the Captaincy of Pernambuco (decree signed by the King of Portugal, João VI, on September 16, 1817), given the importance of Alagoas to the Portuguese Court. Its first governor, Sebastião Francisco de Melo e Póvoas, took office on January 22, 1819.
During the Empire of Brazil (1822-1889), Alagoas suffered the consequences of movements such as the Confederation of the Equator (1824) and Cabanagem (1835-1840). The Provincial Law of December 9, 1839 transferred the capital of the Province from the City of Alagoas (today Marechal Deodoro, but it was once called Vila Madalena de Subaúma), to the village of Maceió, then elevated to a city.
The first Constitution of the State was signed on June 11, 1891, amidst serious political agitations that marked the beginning of republican life. The first two presidents of the Republic of Brazil, Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto, were from Alagoas and received tributes by having their names linked to the cities of Marechal Deodoro, in Alagoas (homage to Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca) and Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina (homage to Marechal Floriano Peixoto).
First inhabitants Before the arrival of the Portuguese, the coast of the current state of Alagoas was invaded by Tupi-speaking people from the Amazon. They expelled the former inhabitants, speakers of languages from the macro-jê linguistic trunk, to the inland of the continent. In the 16th century, when the first Europeans arrived on the coast of Alagoas, it was inhabited by the Tupi nation of Caetés.BUENO, E. Brasil: uma história. 2ª edição. São Paulo. Ática. 2003. p. 19.
Arrival of Europeans
Barra Grande must have been the first point in the territory of Alagoas visited by the Portuguese explorers, on the occasion of Américo Vespúcio's journey, in 1501. Although there is no reference to that port, excellent for the reception of ships coming from the north to the south, it is believed to have been the first contact with the land of Alagoas. On September 29, Vespúcio sighted a river that he called São Miguel;«Alagoas: História». Nova Enciclopédia Barsa volume 1 ed. São Paulo: Encyclopædia Britannica do Brasil Publicações Ltda. 1998. on October 4, he renamed the newly discovered river São Francisco, which today borders Sergipe and Alagoas.
In the following decades, the French walked along the Alagoas coast, trafficking brazilwood with the surrounding natives. Until today, the French port documents the presence of those people there.
Duarte Coelho, first donee of the captaincy of Pernambuco, made an expedition to the south; there are no documents to prove it, but there is evidence that it took place in 1545 and that it resulted in the foundation of Penedo, a city on the banks of the São Francisco river with a valuable artistic and cultural heritage that was the scenario of important events in Colonial Brazil.
In 1556, the bishop Dom Pero Fernandes Sardinha was returning to Portugal from Bahia when his ship sank in front of the inlet located in the current city of Coruripe. Sardinha was killed and devoured by the Caeté people, one of the numerous indigenous tribes that existed in the region. Popular belief states that the divine wrath dried up and sterilized all the soil stained by Sardinha's blood. To avenge him, Jerônimo de Albuquerque commanded a war expedition against the Caetés, destroying them almost completely and enslaving the survivors.
In 1570, a second expedition sent by Duarte Coelho and commanded by Cristóvão Lins explored the north of Alagoas, where they founded Porto Calvo and five sugar cane mills, of which two remain, Buenos Aires and Escurial. In the latter, in 1601, the English corsair Anthony Knivet, who had traveled overland after escaping from Bahia, where he had been a prisoner of the Portuguese, landed.
The Dutch War
In the beginning of the 17th century, Penedo, Porto Calvo and Alagoas were already parishes; however, they became villages in 1636. Due to its regional economy dependence on the sugar activity, sugar cane mills became the main centers of land occupation. From 1630 on, Alagoas, hit by the Dutch invasion, had its villages, churches and mills burned and pillaged.
The Portuguese reacted harshly. Beaten by successive setbacks, the Dutch weakened and thought about retreating, when the mamluk Domingos Fernandes Calabar arrived from Porto Calvo and joined them. He, being a great expert of the area, guided the Dutch in a new expedition to Alagoas. The invaders docked in Barra Grande, from where they went to various locations, always with great success. In Santa Luzia do Norte, the population, forewarned, offered resistance and, after a fierce battle, the Dutch retreated and returned to Recife. However, they achieved several victories in places such as the arraial of Bom Jesus, between Recife and Olinda.
Alagoas, Penedo and Porto Calvo: these are the main places where the battles took place in Alagoas' lands. Eventually, the Portuguese reclaimed Porto Calvo and captured Calabar, who died on the gallows in 1635. Clara Camarão, a native of Porto Calvo, also distinguished herself in the fight against the Dutch. She accompanied her husband, the indigenous soldier Filipe Camarão, in almost every battle, and recruited other women to lead them.
War of Palmares Around 1641, a Dutch leader affirmed that the region of Alagoas was almost depopulated; Maurice of Nassau thought of repopulating it, but the project did not succeed. At that time, tobacco was also produced in Alagoas, and the one from Barra Grande was considered of excellent quality. In 1645, the population participated in the nationalist movement, joining the fight under the command of Cristóvão Lins, grandson and namesake of the first settler of Porto Calvo. Once the Dutch were expelled from the territory of Alagoas, in September 1645, the population continued its fight against them, but now in Pernambuco territory.
At the end of the 17th century, the struggles against the black quilombos gathered in Palmares intensified. Two years later, after Domingos Jorge Velho's first attempts were frustrated, especially in 1692, the quilombo was defeated, with the simultaneous attack of three columns: one of Domingos Jorge, from São Paulo; another under the command of Bernardo Vieira de Melo, from Pernambuco; and the third, commanded by Sebastião Dias, formed by people from Alagoas. Palmares had begun to establish at the end of the 16th century, and resisted successive attacks for almost a century.
Palmares, one of the largest strongholds of fugitive slaves in colonial Brazil, initially occupied the wide area that stretched from the Cabo de Santo Agostinho to the São Francisco River, covered with palm trees. The area of the quilombo, progressively reduced over time, would be concentrated, by the end of the 17th century, in the still extensive region delimited by the villages of Una and Sirinhaém, in Pernambuco, and Porto Calvo, Alagoas and São Francisco (now Penedo), in Alagoas. The slaves had organized a true African-style state in the redoubt, with the quilombo consisting of at least 11 different settlements (mocambos) governed by oligarchs under the supreme leadership of King Ganga-Zumba. From 1667 on, there was an increase in the number of raids against the black people, first to recapture them, then to conquer the land they had seized. The attacks by sergeant-general Manuel Lopes (1675) and Fernão Carrilho (1677) were disastrous for the quilombolas, who were forced to accept peace under unfavorable conditions. Despite this setback, the fight would continue, led by Zumbi, Ganga-Zumba's nephew, against whose fierce hosts. After a first punitive expedition, in 1679, and several entries without major consequences, the bandeirante from São Paulo, Domingos Jorge Velho, hired by the governor of Pernambuco, João da Cunha Souto Maior, would finally return. In the first months of 1694, Domingos Jorge Velho managed to destroy the quilombo, with the help of troops from Alagoas and Pernambuco, commanded by Sebastião Dias and Bernardo Vieira de Melo, respectively. Zumbi would manage to escape, gathering new combatants, but, betrayed, would find himself surrounded by enemy forces, with about twenty of his men dying in battle, on November 20, 1695. After more than sixty years, the quilombo of Palmares, "the greatest protest against despotism that an unfortunate race has ever traced on the face of the world," would disappear, in the words of Craveiro Costa.
Creation of the comarca
Alagoas was already showing signs of prosperity and development, both economically and culturally. Its main product was sugar, but manioc, tobacco and corn were also cultivated, although to a lesser extent; leathers, skins and brazilwood were exported. The abundant forests provided wood for the construction of ships. In the convents of Penedo and Alagoas (now Marechal Deodoro), the Franciscans held courses and published sermons and poetry. All this was used to justify the royal act of October 9, 1710, which created the Comarca of Alagoas, installed in 1711. From then on, the judicial organization restricted the feudal authority of the lords, and even of the representatives of the metropolis; the comarca was being developed. In 1730, the governor of Pernambuco, proposing the extinction of the decadent captaincy of Paraíba to the king, highlighted the prosperity of Alagoas, with its almost fifty sugar cane mills, ten parishes, and appreciable income for the royal treasury. Besides sugar, the cultivation of cotton increased, which was introduced in the 1770s; in 1778, samples of woven cotton from Alagoas were already being exported to Lisbon. In Penedo and Porto Calvo, common fabric was manufactured for the use of slaves. In 1754, Friar João de Santa Angela published, in Lisbon, his book of sermons and poetry; it was the first work by a man from Alagoas. The population was growing, distributing itself in various activities. A demographic calculation, ordered to be made in 1816 by the public prosecutor Antônio Ferreira Batalha, registered a population of 89,589 people.
Independent Captaincy