Brief History of Rio de Janeiro
The history of Rio de Janeiro goes back to January 1, 1502 when the Portuguese sailed into the Guanabar bay the first time. Tamoio people lived here in peace and harmony. The French had been there before but the story says nothing about this. In the 17th century Tamoio people was driven out of this beautiful bay, a few were left as slaves but most got away. Portuguese initially thought they had found a new flood, and therefore gave the name Rio de Janeiro which means January River. In 1807, Napoleon put 15 000 men in Brazil. Dom Jaņ fell in love so hard with Brazil that he was at this point declared Rio as the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal. Around 1600 Rio de Janeiro was a city of less importance. The turning point came when the golden age came to Minas Gerais, from 1710 the town was a shopping center and the city grew rapidly until the 1760 population was around 50 000 inhabitants. In 1763 Rio was then appointed as the new capital for Brazil at the expense of Salvador. Later in 1808 actually the city served as the capital of the Portuguese colonists as far away as China, India and Africa. From 1920 to 1950 Rio to experienced the Golden Age and was the capital until 1960.
Until 1904, Flamengo was the city's finest residential area in Rio, but when the tunnel to Copacabana was opened, it was appealing to the rich upper class, who immediately moved to the area and bought houses at Copacabana on a large scale.
As late as in 1946, Rio had a transformation , parts of Gunabara bay was filled in to provide more space. Flamengo park was established and new trafficveins between Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon was opened. A number of old houses in Rio, the old properties in Rio had to give way to the modern age.
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