History of Alagoas

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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.^[1] 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).^[2]

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.^[2]

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.^[2]

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^[2] 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).