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HISTORIC SUMMARY
The occupation of Fernando
de Noronha is almost so old as the occupation of the mainland.
Due to its geographic position, the archipelago was one of
the first found territories in the New World. It was recorded
in a nautical chart in the year 1500 by the spanish cartographer
Juan de La Cosa and in the year 1502 by the portuguese Alberto
Cantino, in this case with the name of "Quaresma".
Its discovery in 1503 is assigned to the navigator Américo
Vespúcio, which participated of the second exploratory expedition
to the brazilian coast. This expedition, under the command
of Gonçalo Coelho, was financed by the portuguese nobleman
Fernão de Loronha, a new christ and tenant of brazilwood extraction.
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"The paradise is here" said Américo Vespúcio
as he boarded that desert island on August 10, 1503, soon after
the wreck of the main expedition ship. The letter he wrote, the
LETTERA, is the first document regarding the island, named São
Lourenço, and reports about "infinite water and
infinite trees; very gentle fowl, which eat from the hands; a very
good harbour, which was very good for the whole crew". In 1504
the island was donated to Fernão de Loronha, as he financed
the expedition. It was the first Hereditary Land Division of Brazil,
but it was never occupied by its donee.
Foreign invasions
Forsaken for over two centuries and situated in the
big navigation routes, the island was boarded by many people
and was temporarily occupied by the Dutch (which called it
"Pavônia") in the XVII century and by the French (which baptized
it as "Ile Delphine") in the XVIII century.
The vulnerability of this place for invasions motivated Portugal
to occupy it definitively through the Land Division of Pernambuco
from 1737 on. At the same time the defensive system with ten
forts was built - "the biggest fortified system in Brazil
in the XVIII century" - among which the N. Sª dos Remédios
Fort. The majority of these forts still exist today and from
some of them there are architectonic evidences . |
In the same period the Archipelago was transformed in a Common Prison
for condemned to long punishments. These condemned provided the
workmanship for buildings and the roads and ways system for interconnecting
villages and forts. The inhuman regime included also confinement
cells and even stone beds in which the prisoner almost couldn't
turn around himself.
In order to avoid the flight and hiding of the prisoners, since
this time the original vegetation was cut slowly down, so changing
the archipelago climate. Thus, only in a few places of the island
it is still possible to see some original vegetation, like in the
Sapata Point, at the hillside of the Pico Mount and in the belvederes
of Sancho, Dolphin Bay and Leão Beach.
Scientific Interest
Famous scientists visited the archipelalgo in different periods,
like the naturalist Charles Darwin, father of the Species Evolution
Theory, in 1832. All of them were attracted by the great biodiversity
and made surveys about the environment, producing remarkable studies.
Also in the XIX century artists, like the French Debret and Laissaly
registered the human presence in paintings.
Military Period
In 1938 the archipelago was transferred to the Union for the installation
of a Political Prison. In 1942, during World War II, the Military
Federal Territory was created, together with the Mixed Detachment
of War and the alliance with the North American Navy, which installed
a Support Base with about 300 men.
At this period, a population
of over 3.000 soldiers required the construction of prefabricated
houses. Between 1942 and 1988 the island was administrated
by the armed forces: the Army up to 1981; the Air Force up
to 1986; and the General Staff up to 1987. Still as a federal
territory the island was subordinated to the Ministry of Home
Affairs, the only period with a Civil Governor. This was between
1957 e 1965, when a new american presence at the Missile Observation
Station ocurred.
In 1988, by force of the new Constitution, the archipelago
was reintegrated to the State of Pernambuco, from which it
is a State District today. Also in 1988 the National Marine
Reserve was established and in an area of 26 km² there are
the PARNAMAR/FN and the State Environmental Protected Area
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In December 13, 2001 the UNESCO considered the archipelago as a
SITE OF THE NATURAL WORLD PATRIMONY and the diploma was handed over
on December 27, 2002. In 2003 Fernando de Noronha reached 500 years
in the human history. 500 years since the first landing, the first
description by Américo Vespúcio, one of the greatest
navigators of the history. |
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