PORTO
VELHO - BRAZIL |
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Porto Velho is the
capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin.
The population is about 334,661 people.
Located at the border of Rondônia and the state of Amazonas, the town is an
important trade center of cassiterite, the mining of which represents the
most important economic activity in the region, and a transportation and
communication center. It is located on the eastern shore of the Madeira
River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River. |
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Officially founded on October 2, 1914, Porto
Velho was started by pioneers around 1907, during the construction of the
Madeira-Mamoré Railroad. After the railroad was completed, the local
population was about one thousand inhabitants; its buildings were chiefly
the railway's installations and the wooden houses of the Caribbean workers -
hence the name of the town's largest district by then, "Barbadoes Town",
nowadays called the "Alto do Bode".
During the first sixty years, the city's development was directly connected
to the railway's activities. The town prospered during the rubber boom, but
then when low-cost Malaysian rubber made rubber from the Amazon
uncompetitive, the region's economy ground to a halt. Cities like Santo
Antônio do Madeira, which had a tram line and a weekly newspaper by the time
of Porto Velho's foundation, are nothing but ruins nowadays. Porto Velho's
survival is associated with the better conditions of the area where it was
built, its easy access by the river, its harbor: these were all
considerations in the choice of Porto Velho as the capital of the newly-formed
Federal Territory of Guaporé, in 1943.
Only with the beginning of World War II there was another cycle of progress
in the region. When the Allied forces lost control over the Malaysian rubber,
Amazon's was needed by the war effort. This produced what is know in Brazil
as the "second rubber cycle". But when the war ended, the region's economy
once again came to an halt.
Porto Velho's modern history begins with the discovery of cassiterite around
the city, and of gold on the Madeira River, by the end of the fifties. Also,
the government's decision to allow large cattle farms in the territory began
a trend of migration into the city. Almost one million people moved to
Rondônia, and Porto Velho's population increased to three hundred thousand.
This intense migration caused much trouble for the city. For example, the
suburban boroughs are nothing but shanty towns, among many other problems.
The city now has its own university (Universidade Federal de Rondônia). |
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