CEARA
HISTORY |
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Ceará was first colonised by the Portuguese in the middle of the 1600s, when
what is today Brazil was hotly contested by the Dutch and the Portuguese.
The area was invaded twice by the Dutch, in 1644 and in 1654. Both times the
settlers repelled them. Before being defeated, however, the Dutch founded
what is today Fortaleza. In 1661, the Netherlands formally ceded their
Brazilian territories to the Portuguese crown, ending conflict in the region.
The fight for Brazilian independence in 1822 was fierce in Ceará, with the
area being a rebel stronghold that incurred vicious retribution from
loyalists. |
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The reign of Dom Pedro II (see Empire of Brazil) saw great advances in
infrastructure in Ceará, with the number of telephones increasing by a large
amount, and with gas lighting becoming almost ubiquitous.
In 1960, a the Orós Dam, comparable in size to the Aswan Dam has supplied
Ceará with much of its water, and in 1995 construction began on the enormous
Castanhão Dam, which, when completed, will be able to hold 6.5 billion m³ of
water. |
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