São Paulo (city) - geography.

« The city is home to the São Paulo Museum of Art, which houses the best collection of Western art in Latin America, including originals of Rembrandt, Claude Monet, VincentVan Gogh, and Pablo Picasso.

The São Paulo State Museum specializes in Brazilian art, while the Sacred Art Museum focuses on religious art and artifacts.

Other importantmuseums include the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aeronautics Museum, the Folklore Museum, and the House of the Bandeirante.

The SãoPaulo International Bienal, an international contemporary art show, held from October through December in odd-numbered years is one of the city’s premier cultural events.Two symphony orchestras make their home in the city, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Symphony Orchestra. V RECREATION Diverse recreational activities characterize São Paulo.

The Botanical Gardens and the São Paulo Zoo are located about 14 km (about 9 mi) south of the city center.

Nearbyvisitors can drive through the Simba Safari on a 4-km (3-mi) route observing African animals in the open air.

The world-renowned Butanta Institute, a research centerspecializing in the study of snakes and snake venom, is also a popular tourist attraction.

Ibirapuera Park, about 6 km (about 4 mi) south of the downtown, is the city’slargest park and a major recreational focus for its residents.

One of the city’s most famous landmarks, the obelisk and mausoleum honoring those who fought in a 1932revolt against the federal government, is adjacent to the park. VI ECONOMY São Paulo’s economy is very diverse.

The metropolitan region forms the largest industrial and commercial center in Brazil and in Latin America.

While precise statisticalestimates vary, it is likely that about one-half of the nation’s industrial output comes directly from the São Paulo metropolitan area.

In some sectors this concentration iseven greater: The state accounts for over three-quarters of the country’s output of machinery, electrical goods, and rubber.

Well over half of the nation’s 50 largestindustrial firms are located in São Paulo state, and most of these are located in the city itself.

Its manufactures include a diverse range of products and goods.

Heavyindustry includes motor vehicles, machinery, electrical equipment, computers, and chemicals, while consumer goods include textiles, processed food, pottery and china,furniture, and household utensils.

This industrial concentration was even more intense in past decades, but the decentralization of industrial activities to other urban centersin São Paulo state, like Campinas, Sorocaba, Jundiaí, Cubatão, and Ribeirão Prêto, has reduced the metropolitan region’s dominance. Commercial activities, including banking, finance, and corporate headquarters functions, are clustered in the São Paulo urban area.

The city is often the site of majorcommercial and industrial trade shows.

These draw national and international participants and are held in the massive Anhembi Park Exposition Center.

The city also servesa rich agricultural hinterland, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the nation.

Soybeans and especially coffee are of great commercial significance. The city’s economic importance has also made it a national transportation hub.

The port of Santos, about 60 km (about 40 mi) to the south on the Atlantic Ocean, is thenation’s largest port.

Most of São Paulo’s international commerce, as well as an important segment of internal commerce, moves through it.

The port is linked to the city bytwo highways and a railroad line.

São Paulo has a total of four railroad stations that provide service to both regional and national destinations.

The city also has threeairports: Congonhas, which is located 9 km (6 mi) south of the city center and provides commuter flights to Rio; the Guarulhos International Airport, which is 19 km (12 mi)northeast of the downtown area; and the Viracopos Airport, located about 100 km (about 60 mi) northwest of the city.

The city has an extensive subway, with three linesproviding service to most of the core area of the metropolis. VII GOVERNMENT São Paulo, like all municipalities in Brazil, is governed by an elected mayor and a municipal council, which are responsible for primary education, basic health services,solid-waste collection and disposal, and municipal upkeep, including streets and parks.

Municipal funding comes from taxes on property and services, as well as revenuesharing from state and federal sources.

The São Paulo metropolitan area does not have a coordinated regional government.

Rather, governance is fragmented among themunicipalities that comprise the metropolitan area, but the São Paulo state government provides strong leadership and coordination for regional planning and development. VIII CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Despite its wealth and power, the São Paulo metropolitan area suffers from a range of problems.

The city is congested, traffic often moves at a snail’s pace, and the air isfrequently smoggy and polluted.

Vast slum areas are home to at least 4 million of the metropolitan area’s residents.

Incomes are very low for many families.

Street crime iscommon in poorer residential areas and in the downtown core. IX HISTORY In 1554 two Jesuit priests founded a small mission on the site that became São Paulo.

During its first several hundred years of existence, the city grew only modestly.

Itachieved notoriety as the home of the bandeirantes —adventurous explorers and frontiersmen who mounted large-scale and extensive expeditions into the interior of the continent.

Over the next 150 years, from about 1600 to 1750, the bandeirantes roamed what are the now the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Mato Grosso in searchof Native American slaves, gold, diamonds, and other riches.

These expeditions had an enormous impact on São Paulo and the future nation of Brazil.

They extended thegeographical limits of Brazil deep into the interior of the continent, far beyond those originally envisioned by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

The treaty was an agreementbetween Portugal and Spain, sanctioned by Pope Julius II in 1506, that established boundaries defining the overseas territories of the two countries (see Line ofDemarcation).

The bandeirantes opened up new transportation and communication routes between the coast and the continent’s interior, helping to establish newsettlements and build greater unity among Brazil’s far-flung peoples and communities. Despite the considerable wealth brought to São Paulo by the bandeirante expeditions, the city grew slowly.

It was officially recognized as a city in 1711, but for much of the18th century São Paulo’s economy revolved around subsistence agriculture, local crafts production, and limited government functions. The city began a process of dramatic change after Brazilian independence in 1822.

The establishment of the Law Academy in São Paulo in 1828 initiated a process thatchanged the city from a provincial backwater into a major urban center.

The Law Academy attracted professors and students from all over the nation, bringing many newpeople and ideas to the city.

It also fueled the growth of a wide range of cultural activities, such as theater, arts, and literature. The city’s fortunes blossomed with the introduction of coffee cultivation into the cool, fertile uplands of São Paulo state in the 1850s.

A steady demand for coffee on theworld market soon led to an economic boom in São Paulo and a dramatic expansion of the areas under cultivation.

A railroad link to the Atlantic port of Santos wascompleted in 1867 and five years later another railroad line linked São Paulo with new coffee-growing regions in the interior. The wealth generated on the coffee plantations fueled urban growth, industrialization, and banking and financial services in São Paulo.

The labor intensive nature of coffeecultivation, especially harvesting, led the state government to encourage the immigration of foreign laborers in 1832.

By the mid-1930s, some 1.5 million Europeanimmigrants—including Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Slavs, and Spaniards—and over 200,0000 Japanese had settled in the state.

After initially living in rural areas, manyof the immigrants moved to the city of São Paulo. São Paulo’s population grew from just 32,000 in 1872 to about 600,000 in 1920.

Far-sighted businessmen and political leaders capitalized on the coffee boom to diversifythe city’s economic base.

They invested heavily in hydroelectric power plants and in manufacturing facilities—first for consumer goods and later for heavy manufacturing.During World War I (1914-1918), São Paulo was frequently cut off from traditional sources of manufactured goods in Europe and North America, which allowed localindustries to meet the demand for these products and provided a boost for the city’s manufacturing economy.. »