Bandeirantes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bandeirantes were Brazilian colonial scouts who took part in the Bandeiras, exploration expeditions. Through these, the Bandeirantes expanded Portuguese America from the small limits of the Tordesilhas Line to roughly the same territory as current Brazil. This expansion discovered mineral wealth that made the fortune of Portugal during the 17th and 18th centuries.
[edit] Bandeiras
The Bandeiras were the expeditions by Paulistas and allied Indians to find precious metals and stones, new Indian slaves and runaway slaves.
Leaving from the then poor and tiny village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which was so unimportant to the Portuguese Empire that it even used the Língua Geral instead of the Portuguese language, the Bandeiras followed the course of the rivers -- in Brazil rivers flow from the edge of the altiplane in the coast inland -- and profited from the Union of the Crowns of Portugal and Spain to effectively invade the Spanish America territories which were then unimportant to Spain, their rich mines and Indian cities being in the western Andes mountains.
As a result of the Bandeiras, the Capitaincy of São Vicente became the basis for the vice-kingdom of Brazil and encompassed current states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Tocantins and both Northern and Southern Mato Grosso.
[edit] Naming in Brazil
Several buildings, monuments, streets, cities and highways have received the name:
- Bandeirantes highway system, in the state of São Paulo [1]
- Bandeirantes Railways (Ferrovia Bandeirantes - FerroBan), cargo railway network of São Paulo [2]
- Palácio Bandeirantes, the seat of the São Paulo State Government [3]
- Monumento às Bandeiras, stone sculpture group in the Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, one of the postcards of the city. [4]
- Universidade Bandeirante de São Paulo (UNIBAN), a private university in the state of São Paulo [5]
- Colégio Bandeirantes de São Paulo, a primary, secondary and technical school [6]
- Rede Bandeirantes de Rádio e Televisão (Rede Band), important media conglomerate seated in São Paulo [7]
- Banco Bandeirantes, a private bank [8]
- Bandeirantes Hospital [9]
- Federação das Bandeirantes do Brasil, Girl Scout Federation of Brazil [10]
- Bandeirantes Industrias Gráficas, a market leader in printing [11]
- Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a beach in Rio de Janeiro's southern district [12]
- Bandeirantes, Paraná, a township in the state of Paraná, Brazil [13]
- Bandeirantes do Tocantins, a township in the Tocantins, Brazil [14]
- Bandeirantes, a town in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil
- União Bandeirante Futebol Clube, a Brazilian football club
This is also the name of a 1960 movie, "Os Bandeirantes", directed by Marcel Camus. In the US, its TV title was "Gold of the Amazon". Its international title was "The Pioneers". It was also called "Rio Negro". [15] Original music by José Toledo. [16]
