Quatrocentão
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quatrocentão (feminine quatrocentona, plural quatrocentões) is a term used to designate members of elite families descendant from the early settlers and explorers of São Paulo. This term was first used in the early 20th century; in the past they were referred to as primeiros povoadores (first settlers) or nobreza da terra (nobility of the land). These families had occupied important positions as governors, military commanders, aldermen and explorers of early colonial South America. They received large land grants from the Portuguese Crown and originated mostly in Portugal and Spain, but some in Flanders and other places in Europe. A portion of the original settlers were noblemen of the Royal House of Portugal. Under the rule of the Habsburgs and the Iberian Union, they were joined by Spanish families, some also of noble origin. The earliest of these settlers married descendants of Martim Afonso Tibiriçá, the Amerindian chief of Piratininga, and after intermarried frequently among the families in the Genealogia Paulistana, forming an endogamous group. They were first listed in a genealogical study in the 1700s by Pedro Taques de Almeida Paes Leme and last listed in the classical genealogical work Genealogia Paulistana, published in 1905.
The quatrocentões and their ancestors were greatly responsible for the expansion of the Portuguese Empire in South America, at the expense of the Spanish Empire. Also the Brazilian Gold Rush, which had strong repercussion in Europe and in the Americas, the founding of many towns in Minas Gerais such as Ouro Preto, and also the first phase of the industrialization of São Paulo during the Empire of Brazil. But also for the maintenance of slavery in Brazil, making Brazil the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888. In the 19th and early 20th centuries they formed a large portion of the plantation aristocrats and titled nobility of the Empire of Brazil. They became decadent after the financial crisis of 1929, the rise of new wealthy immigrants and the Revolution of 1932, that they lost against Getulio Vargas, ironically a descendant of these early settlers of São Paulo. Quatrocentões are a polarizing group in Brazilian history, praised by some and blamed by others for their actions during the course of Brazilian history.
Although no longer existing as a strong social group, one can still find among modern descendants of the early settlers of São Paulo many businessmen and members of the political elite in Brazil and elsewhere, both left-wing and right-wing. They include presidents of Brazil; Brazilian senators, deputies and governors; the current royal family of Sweden; a branch of the princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg and some members of the House of Orléans (Orléans-Braganza branch).