History
Jesuit missionaries explored what is today Tocantins state about 1625, seeking to convert the Amerindian peoples of the area to Christianity. The area is named after the Tocantins River, which in turn is an indigenous name.
Before 1988 the area was part of the Goiás state, in the north of the state. However, ever since the 17th century, the north has been isolated and difficult to access. As a result, the southern area of the state became more developed, and there had been a strong separatist movement in the north for many years.
The first large scale stirrings of separatism were in 1809, when heavy taxes were levied on mining. This led to a minor revolt which was quickly crushed by the army. A string of failed uprisings occurred in the 19th century.
In the 1970s, pressure was put on the federal government by the population of northern Goiás for a separate state, and in the 1988 Constitution, Tocantins state was officially created.
Since its establishment, Tocantins has been the fastest-growing Brazilian state, with a thriving economy based on agriculture and agro-industry which attracts immigrants from all over the country. The construction of the long-planned North-South Railway (Brazil) will probably boost the economic growth even more. Tocantins is also considered one of the best-managed Brazilian states.
| Most populated municipalities of Tocantins |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Municipality | Pop. | Position | Municipality | Pop. | ||||||
| 1 | Palmas | 228 297 | 11 | Dianópolis | 19 110 | ||||||
| 2 | Araguaína | 153 350 | 12 | Formoso do Araguaia | 18 428 | ||||||
| 3 | Gurupi | 76 765 | 13 | Augustinópolis | 15 965 | ||||||
| 4 | Porto Nacional | 49 143 | 14 | Taguatinga | 15 053 | ||||||
| 5 | Paraíso do Tocantins | 44 432 | 15 | Miranorte | 12 626 | ||||||
| 6 | Araguatins | 31 324 | 16 | Goiatins | 12 064 | ||||||
| 7 | Colinas do Tocantins | 30 879 | 17 | Pedro Afonso | 11 542 | ||||||
| 8 | Guaraí | 23 212 | 18 | Xambioá | 11 484 | ||||||
| 9 | Tocantinópolis | 22 608 | 19 | Wanderlândia | 10 978 | ||||||
| 10 | Miracema do Tocantins | 20 692 | 20 | Nova Olinda | 10 686 | ||||||
Read more about this topic: Tocantins
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)