ALAGOAS

'Alagoas'

Flag of Alagoas
Map of Brazil highlighting the state
See other Brazilian States
'Capital'	Maceió
'Largest City'	Maceió
'Area'	27 818 km²
'Population'   - Total   - Density	2 822 621 101.5 inh./km²
'Governor'	Teotônio Vilela Filho
'Demonym'	''Alagoano''
'HDI' (2000)	0.649 – medium
'Timezone'	GMT-3
'ISO 3166-2'

'Alagoas' (AL), pron. IPA: // ^[1], is a small state in northeastern Brazil lying between the states of Pernambuco and Sergipe; touching the state of Bahia along a part of its southwestern border. The southern border of Alagoas is defined by the 'Rio São Francisco' (São Francisco River). Alagoas has an area of 27.933 km² and a population of approximately 2,818,000. The capital city is Maceió.

Contents

Geography

History

Economy

Education

Colleges and universities

Culture

Carnival

Infrastructure

International Airport

Port

Sports

Major cities

See also

Flag

Notes

External links

Geography

The state's name originates with the lakes along its coast near the city of Maceió. The coast is bordered by fringing reefs and many fine beaches. Behind the beaches, sometimes only hundreds of meters and defined by steep scarps, lies a stretch of green coastal hills having enough rainfall for considerable agriculture and scarce remnants of the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Rain Forest) that now is largely limited to steep hill tops. This is the area long dominated by sugar cane.
Still further inland lies the Sertão of the Northeast region of the nation. The Sertão is a high dry region dominated by scrub that is often thorn filled and sometimes toxic, the caatinga. This area and its people is famed in legend and song. It is the land of the cowboy who is clad from head to toe (if he is lucky) with very thick leather to avoid the tearing vegetation.

History

During the first three centuries of its history, Alagoas was part of the captaincy of Pernambuco, only changing into an independent captaincy in 1817. As a reprisal against the Pernambucan Revolution, the King John VI of Portugal ordered a vast portion of the Pernambucan territory to be taken apart, most including its southern portion, one part given to the captaincy of Bahia, the other portion made independent and bringing up Alagoas as a new Brazilian captaincy.
Initially, in the first years of the 16th century, Alagoas settlement went on slowly, however helped by Africans turned into slaves whose work urged the local economy. In the period between the 16th and 17th centuries, French pirates invaded its territory attracted by the commerce of Brazil wood.
Some time latter, Duarte Coelho, owner of the captaincy of Pernambuco, gave the control of the region back to the Portuguese, running the territory as part of his captaincy. He gave impulse to grow sugar cane plantations and to build up some sugar mills as well as founded the cities of Penedo and Alagoas – this last one originally baptized by Portuguese as Santa Maria Madalena da Alagoa do Sul (Saint Mary Magdalene of the Southern Lake), currently the historic heritage town of Marechal Deodoro.
In 1570, a second expedition ordered by Duarte Coelho and leaded by Cristóvão Lins, explored the north of Alagoas and founded the settlement of Porto Calvo and five sugar mills, which two of them still endure, Buenos Aires and Escurial.
In 1630, the territory was taken by the Dutch, whose interest to manage the commerce of sugar in most part of the northeastern region of Brazil urged a fight to take the control of the region. As part of one of the wealthiest Brazilian captaincies, Alagoas prospered exactly for the sugar commerce. However, the Dutch colonizers abandoned the territory after being defeated in 1645.
Decades before Alagoas being done apart in 1817, its sugar industry was formed by 200 mills and the agriculture took impulse by cotton, tobacco and corn plantations. With Brazilian independence from Portugal in 1822, Alagoas becomes a province. In 1839, the capital of the province is changed definitively from the town of Alagoas to Maceio, mainly due to the increasing economy of the city year by year because of its port.

Economy

The economy has been agricultural, dependent largely on large sugar cane plantations with some tobacco. Sugar cane formed the basis for an alcohol industry that is in decline. Small to medium sized tanker ships took alcohol onboard in Maceió's port with considerable frequency during the peak period. Such loads still take place with less frequency. Another local industry is based on chemical products from brine pumped from deep wells on the outskirts of Maceió.
In the last twenty years the tourist industry has found the beaches and Maceió itself has changed from a rather sleepy little port with coconut palm plantations along its beaches to high rise hotels. The northern coast, particularly around the towns Maragogi and Japaratinga is beginning to see some of this development in the form of resorts attracting people from the south and some from Europe.

Education

Portuguese language is the official language of schools. But English language and Spanish language are part of the official high school curriculum.

Colleges and universities

Alagoas has a Universidade Federal de Alagoas(UFAL), Universidade Estadual de Alagoas(Uneal), Universidade de Ciências da Saúde de Alagoas(Uncisal), CESMAC, FAL, ESAMC, FITs, FAMA, FAA, FACIMA, Seune, etc.

Culture

===Festa Junina (Saint John Festival)===

Festa Junina was introduced to Northeastern Brazil by the Portuguese for whom St John's day (also celebrated as Midsummer Day in several European countries), on the 24th of June, is one of the oldest and most popular celebrations of the year. Differently, of course, from what happens on the European Midsummer Day, the festivities in Brazil do not take place during the summer solstice but during the tropical winter solstice. The festivities traditionally begin after the 12th of June, on the eve of St Anthony's day, and last until the 29th, which is Saint Peter's day. During these fifteen days, there are bonfires, fireworks, and folk dancing in the streets (step names are in French, which shows the mutual influences between court life and peasant culture in the 17th, 18th, and 19th-century Europe). Once exclusively a rural festivity, today, in Brazil, it is largely a city festival during which people joyfully and theatrically mimic peasant stereotypes and cliches in a spirit of joke and good time. Typical refreshments and dishes are served. It should be noted that, like during Carnival, these festivities involve costumes-wearing (in this case, peasant costumes), dancing, heavy drinking, and visual spectacles (fireworks display and folk dancing). Like what happens on Midsummer and St John's Day in Europe, bonfires are a central part of these festivities in Brazil.

Carnival

The four-day period before Lent leading up to Ash Wednesday is carnival time in Brazil. Rich and poor alike forget their cares as they party in the streets.

Infrastructure

International Airport

The “Terra dos Marechais” (as the state is nicknamed) gained a stunning new airport complex, designed by homegrown architect Mário Aloísio, which combines glass, metal and granite in a design that is as functional as it is beautiful. There is space for art exhibitions, a panoramic deck, chapel, seven escalators, nine elevators and four boarding bridges. And the whole terminal was designed to permit access by the physically disabled, with ramps and special bathroom fixtures.
In the new terminal, Infraero also brings to Maceió “Aeroshopping” – a concept that is transforming the country’s airports into centers for leisure and high-quality products and services. The entire building has a computerized air conditioning, with commercial spaces that will be occupied gradually. The parking area was more than tripled. Demand will be able to grow to 1.2 million passengers a year since the new passenger terminal has 24,000 square meters, the triple of its former size. The check-in counters were doubled and can reach higher numbers without any structural remodeling.
The building is “intelligent”, meaning controlled by a computerized system that regulates factors ranging from the lighting level to air temperature and even the speed of the escalators. This system also controls access to restricted areas and the fire protection system, among others.

Port

The Port of Jaraguá is a Brazilian port that stayed in the state of Alagoas, in the capital Maceió. It was the commercial and economic development of the Port of Jaraguá, next to the margins of the pond Mundaú, call maçaio, that did to arise a big settlement that received the name of Maceió, present capital of Alagoas. The Port of Jaraguá is considered a "natural port" that facilitates the atracamento of embarkations, which way the products more exported in the epoch of the colonization were sugar, smoke, coconut and spices.

Sports

Alagoas provides visitors and residents with various sport activities. There are several soccer clubs based in Maceió, such as CRB, CSA and Corithians Alagoano.

Major cities

★ Arapiraca

★ Coruripe

★ Maceió

★ Maragogi

★ Marechal Deodoro (H)

★ Palmeira dos Indios

★ Penedo (H)

★ Piranhas (H)

★ Porto Calvo

★ Porto de Pedras (H)

★ Santana do Ipanema

★ União dos Palmares

★ Viçosa

See also

★ List of cities in Brazil (all cities and municipalities)

Flag

The coat of arms symbolizes the first Alagoan settlements, Porto Calvo and Penedo. Some plantations, sugar cane and cotton, that stood out as the foremost wealth in the past also are designed in the coat. The colors in each stripe, red, white and blue, that commit to memory the French flag, symbolize exactly the motto of the French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity. The star above the coat represents the state itself.

Notes

1. The presented pronunciation is in Brazilian Portuguese. The European Portuguese pronunciation is: //.

External links

★ Alagoas' location on a 3D globe (Java)

★ Alagoas (In Portuguese with tourism oriented information.)

★ Estado de Alagoas (In Portuguese with flag and outline map.)

★ Brazilian Embassy in London: São Francisco River