Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's gaucho state, is named for a river that isn't one
Brazil's southernmost state takes its name, Great River of the South, from a channel that is really the outlet of two huge coastal lagoons. Its cattle plains share gaucho culture with Argentina and Uruguay, winter winds sometimes bring snow to its hills, and Brazilians there live longer on average than anywhere else in the country.
Its neighbours are Santa Catarina to the north, Uruguay to the south and, westward across the border, Argentina's Corrientes and Misiones; the capital is Porto Alegre. It is Brazil's fifth most populous state, split into 497 municipalities, and produces 6.6% of national output with 5.4% of the people. A low range runs south into Uruguay; west of it lie grassy plains for sheep in the higher north and cattle in the south, and east lies a flat coast of sand.
Behind that coast sit the Lagoa dos Patos, about 214 kilometres long and named for a people living on its shores when Europeans arrived, and the Lagoa Mirim, partly in Uruguay but navigable only by Brazil under treaty. Both are old coastal hollows sealed off by sandbars built by wind and current. The so-called Guaíba River feeding the northern end is technically a lake. Winter brings heavy rain and the cold minuano wind, and Bom Jesus recorded −9.8 °C on August 1, 1955.
The Treaty of Tordesillas assigned the area to Spain, but Spaniards cared more for Pacific silver and the River Plate, and cattle they released went feral on the plains, drawing gauchos. Jesuits founded missions among the Guarani in the early 17th century; slave-raiding bandeirantes destroyed them between 1636 and 1638, and the Jesuits returned in 1687 to refound seven. After Portugal planted Colônia do Sacramento across the River Plate in 1680, intermittent war lasted until Uruguay's independence in 1828.
To secure the south, Portugal built a fortified village at the lagoon mouth in 1737, the future city of Rio Grande, and Azorean settlers founded Porto Alegre in 1752. Guarani fighters led by Sepé Tiaraju, later venerated as Saint Sepé, resisted until 1756 before the missions fell. The 19th century brought the Ragamuffin War and heavy German and Italian immigration. Late Triassic rocks here yielded the small cynodont Riograndia, named for the state in 2001.
Source: Rio Grande do Sul
