Maranhão

This article covers the state in Brazil. For further meanings, see Maranhão (disambiguation) .

Maranhão
Symbols
flag coat of arms
Basic data
Country	Brazil
Capital	São Luís
surface	331,983 km²
Residents	6,574,789 (2010)
density	20 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	BR-MA
economy
GDP	13,984  million  R $ 2,354  R $ per capita (2003)

Coordinates: 5 °  S , 45 °  W

Maranhão , officially in Portuguese Estado do Maranhão , is a federal state in the northeast of Brazil . It borders the states of Piauí , Tocantins and Pará . The capital of Maranhão is São Luís . The population was estimated on July 1, 2019 at 7,075,181 inhabitants, who live on around 329,642.2 km² (2018).

geography

Maranhão is characterized by the abrupt transition of vegetation types: mangrove forests or sand dunes on the coast and steppe in the Sertão .

Cities and Landscapes

The coast of Maranhão

The capital São Luís is an important industrial city. As a port city, it is the end point of the railway line from the Karajá iron ore region . It has a colonial old town, which is gradually being restored as a World Heritage Site .

Alcântara is on the other side of the Baía de São Marcos . The city offers an extreme contrast of decaying former colonial size and high-tech in the form of the Brazilian spaceport.

Only a few kilometers south of São Luís, the impassable Baixada Maranhense begins around the mouth of the Rio Mearim . Hundreds of lakes like Lagoa Cajari or Lagoa do Viana make up the largest area of ​​natural lakes in northeastern Brazil.

Further to the west is the inaccessible nature reserve of Reentrâncias Maranhenses with extensive mangrove forests on hundreds of islands and peninsulas with pronounced tides.

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

In the northeast, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park ("Maranhão Bed Sheets ") encompasses an area of ​​sand dunes with embedded small lakes about 100 km long and 70 km wide. Near the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian desert is surprising. The Lençóis are easily accessible through the new road to Barreirinhas and experience a large influx of tourists. Boats can be used to reach Atins with access to the dune area and Caburé , where you can hike and swim by the sea or the river away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

20 km to the east and only accessible via the beach is Paulino Neves on the edge of the small sheets ( Pequenos Lençóis ) . Another, quiet place on the coast is Tutóia , the western starting point for boat trips in and through the island-rich Parnaíba Delta.

The hinterland of Maranhão

The municipality of Caxias in the eastern hinterland of Maranhão is called the Princess of Sertão , the city of Barra do Corda also has the title . It lives from rice cultivation and products from the Carnaúba , Buriti and Babaçu palm trees.

Santa Inês and Açailândia were able to develop into regional centers on the road to Imperatriz on the Rio Tocantins . This road, the BR-010 , connects Brasília with Belém, Imperatriz has meanwhile become the second largest and second most important city in the state.

The new Chapada das Mesas National Park can be reached via the city of Carolina , a little further south on the Rio Tocantins . There are numerous waterfalls, such as the Cachoeira da Pedra Caída .

Cities

Azulejo facade in the old town of São Luís

The largest cities with their population estimated as of July 1, 2019 are:

No.	Munizip	Residents
01	São Luís	1,101,884
02	Imperatriz	258,682
03	Sao José de Ribamar	177,687
04	Timon	169.107
05	Caxias	164,880
06	Codó	122,859
07	Paço do Lumiar	122.197
08	Açailândia	112,445
09	Bacabal	104,949
10	Balsas	94,887
11	Santa Inês	89,044
12	Barra do Corda	88,212
13	Pinheiro	83,387
14th	Chapadinha	79,675
15th	Santa Luzia	72,667
16	Buriticupu	72,358
17th	Grajaú	69,527
18th	Itapecuru-Mirim	68.203
19th	Coroatá	65,296
20th	Barreirinhas	62,528
21st	Tutoia	58,860
22nd	Vargem Grande	56,510
23	Viana	52,441
24	Zé Doca	51.714
25th	Lake Pedra	50,266

See also : List of municipalities in Maranhão

climate

The climate is tropical and humid. The mean minimum temperature is 21 ° C, the mean maximum 32 ° C. Between 1200 and 2000 mm of precipitation fall per year, humid in the west and semi-arid in the east . In the north there is the influence of the Amazon, in the south of the Sertão .

history

The area of ​​Maranhão has been inhabited for several thousand years. According to Mário Meireles , the first Europeans moored and traded on the coasts of Maranhão even before the official "discovery" of Brazil by Cabral . Called Diogo de Teive (1452), Gonçalo Taveira and João Vogado (1453), João Coelho (1493), Alonso de Ojeda , Juan de La Cosa and Américo Vespucio (1497) and Juan Vergara and Garcia Ocampo (1499/1500) .

The Portuguese King Dom João III awarded the Capitanía do Maranhão in 1534 to João de Barros and Fernão Álvares de Andrade , spice traders of the Crown, who in 1535 sent Aires da Cunha with 10 ships and 900 men on an expedition. They were shipwrecked, as was the next expedition by Luis de Melo e Silva in 1554. This ended the Portuguese attempts at colonization. As early as 1594, the French (until 1612) settled 500 men under Daniel de la Touche and founded the city of Saint Louis . In 1615 Portuguese troops from Jerônimo de Albuquerque defeated the French. In 1641, the bloodthirsty governor Bento Maciel Parentes was caught by surprise by 18 ships and their Dutch crew. The Dutch held the city of São Luís until 1644. The main products at the time were sugar cane , cocoa and tobacco .

In the 17th century, Jesuits brought the Christian message to the Sertão , where they founded 20 Indian villages. In 1760 they were expelled from the country. From then on the indigenous people were defenseless against the big landowners and slave hunters.

politics

See also : List of Governors of Maranhão

The 62nd and 63rd governors have been Flávio Dino de Castro e Costa, known under the politician name Flávio Dino , of the Partido Comunista do Brasil (PCdoB), who in 2015 was the predecessor Arnaldo Melo , since January 1, 2015 and after the re-election on January 1, 2019 of the Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB). His lieutenant governor was Carlos Brandão Junior of the Republicanos (REP)

The legislature rests with the Legislative Assembly of Maranhão of 43 elected MPs.

economy

The most important source of income is mining. The iron ore from Karajá ( Pará ) comes via a railway line and is exported from the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) port near São Luís, around 50 million tons annually.

Soy , rice , corn , cajú and manioc are grown .

Across from São Luís, near the colonial city of Alcântara, is the Brazilian space center Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara .

traffic

The main railway line leads to the Karajá ore region, 892 km away. It belongs to the Brazilian mining company CVRD. A branch leads from Açailândia to Imperatriz , the extension to Estreito is under construction, it should go to Balsas .

São Luís is connected to Timon and thus to the rail network of northeast Brazil.

In addition to the port of Itaqui, there are private ports owned by the CVRD and the aluminum smelter Alumar. In 2003, 68.5 million tons were imported and exported with 991 ships.

There are airports in São Luís and Imperatriz.

Culture

Reggae is popular in the cities .

In addition to the carnival , Bumba-meu-boi is the typical festival in June. It is of African-Indian origin and tells in a critical-satirical form the story of a slave who instructs her husband to kill the most beautiful bull so that she can eat her tongue in order to get pregnant. The landowner hires Indians to catch him. A doctor must resuscitate the bull. Everything will be fine and will end in a big party.

Typical dances are Tambor de Crioula and Tambor de Mina .

Handicrafts are made from the fibers of the Buriti palm.

environment

Forest fires

The wooded areas in Brazil are threatened by forest fires , which also applies to Maranhão, z. B. the indigenous reserve Araribóia and other nature reserves.

The information is based on satellite observation and is updated daily. The table has the snapshot of November 4, 2019 for 2019.

year	Fires in Maranhão
2013	12,814
2014	19,137
2015	20,834
2016	17,455
2017	20.172
2018	10,899
2019 (Jan.-4 Nov.)	13,749

Web links

Commons : Maranhão  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Maranhão Government Website (Brazilian Portuguese)
• Maranhão Legislative Assembly website (Brazilian Portuguese)
• IBGE : Maranhão - Panorama. In: gov.br. (Brazilian Portuguese, updated statistics from the Federal Statistical Office). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maranhão - Panorama. In: cidades.ibge.gov.br. IBGE , accessed September 3, 2019 (Brazilian Portuguese). 
2. ↑ Breno Machado dos Santos: Os Jesuítas no Maranhão e Grão-Pará Seiscentista. Paco Editorial, Jundiaí 2015, ISBN 978-85-8148-914-8 , p. 219.
3. ↑ José Coelho de Souza: Os jesuítas no Maranhão. Fundação Cultural do Maranhão, São Luís 1977.
4. ↑ Situação atual - Programa Queimadas - INPE. In: inpe.br. queimadas.dgi.inpe.br, accessed November 5, 2019 .