Rio de Janeiro: History

History
Rio de Janeiro was founded by Portuguese colonists in 1565, and its name, meaning January River, stems from an early navigational error — the first Portuguese explorers who entered Guanabara Bay in January 1502 mistook it for the mouth of a river rather than a bay. The settlement grew in strategic importance as a port defending against French incursions and later became central to Brazil’s colonial gold and sugar economy.

Rio served as the capital of the Portuguese Empire itself from 1808 to 1821, an extraordinary historical episode in which the Portuguese royal family fled Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal and relocated the entire seat of empire to Brazil — the only instance in history of a European monarchy ruling from a colony rather than the reverse. This period brought significant institutional development to the city, including its first university, library and botanical garden.

Christ the Redeemer, completed in 1931 after nine years of construction, was conceived as a statement of Brazilian Catholic identity at a moment of significant social and political change, funded substantially through public donations. Designed by French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

Rio served as Brazil’s national capital until 1960, when the government relocated to the newly built city of Brasilia, a planned transition intended to draw development toward the country’s underpopulated interior. Rio has retained its position as Brazil’s cultural capital and most internationally recognised city regardless of this political shift.