Why did Brazil switch its capital cities ?

Question

Virutally , I have a general idea about this question . First of all , Brasilia is the central of the whole country ; Scecondly , the weather in Brasilia is much milder than Rio . But one day I talked to a Brazilian girl , she said she did not know the second point . so I was wondering some interesting reasons. Thank you !

Answer 1

Introduction to Brasilia



There are other planned cities in the world -- Washington, D.C.; Chandigarh; Canberra -- but none of the daring and sheer vision of Brasilia. In the 1950s, a country that had shucked off a failed monarchy, a corrupt republic, and a police-state dictatorship decided to make a clean break from the past by creating a brand-new space for politics.

In place of the pretentious Greek columns and stone facades that other political capitals used to engender awe, designers opted for a style of clean lines and honestly exposed structure, a style in love with technology and progress and the glorious possibilities inherent in the new materials of glass and steel and concrete.

The style they chose was modernism. Brazil was blessed with some of the foremost practitioners in the world. The city plan was done by Lucio Costa. The buildings were designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

That the entire city was completed in just 4 years is thanks to the will of then-president Juscelino Kubitschek. JK (as he is known) was elected in 1956 on the promise that he'd move the capital inland from Rio de Janeiro. Few expected him to succeed.

The site, on Brazil's high interior plateau, was nothing but cerrado -- short scrubby forest, stretching thousands of miles in every direction. It was nearly 400 miles from the nearest paved road, over 75 miles from the nearest railroad, 120 miles from the nearest airport.

Costa's plan was pure architectural modernism: Transit would be by road and car; activities were to be strictly segregated by area; residential buildings were to be identical in size and shape and appearance. Worker and manager would live in the same neighborhoods, send their children to the same schools. In place of a grid, there were but two great intersecting streets, one straight, one curved. Viewed from on high, the city looked bold and monumental -- like an airplane in flight, or an arrow shooting forward into the future.

Groundbreaking began in 1957. Thousands of workers poured in from around the country. By April 21, 1960, there was enough of a city for a grand inauguration. Politicians and civil servants began the long shift inland.

In years since, Brasilia has been a source of controversy. Even as ground was being broken, urbanists were beginning to doubt the rationality of rationalist modern planning. Cities, it was being discovered, were vital, growing entities, whose true complexity could perhaps never be encompassed in a single master plan. Costa's modernist plan with its carefully designated zones for this and that now feels stifling, ill-equipped to address the vital, messy complexity of a living, growing city.

The social aspirations of the architecture also proved illusory -- politicians were no less corrupt; rich and poor did not live in harmony. Instead, the rich banished the poor to a periphery beyond the greenbelt.

But if nothing else, it did succeed in shifting Brazil's focus from the coast to its vast interior.

For visitors, the attractions here are purely architectural. Brazil's best designers, architects, and artists were commissioned to create the monuments and buildings and make them beautiful. A visit to Brasilia is a chance to see and judge their success

Rio is for play , Brasilia is for work..

Also someone must have made a fortune on what was before worthless land in the Centre of Brazil>

ALSO:Between the 15th and 20th parallels, where a lake had formed, a great civilisation will be born." (Forster, 1986) This was the vision the Italian priest, Dom Bosco, had in a dream in 1833, referring to the future site of Brasília, the new capital of Brazil. The idea of moving the capital of Brasília was not new when Bosco had this dream, the first recorded request for an inland capital came in 1789. Jose Bonifacio de Andrade e Silva said in 1821 that an inland city would encourage the development of the Brazil empire

Answer 2

The first two Brazilian capitals, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, were built by the coast. Since the second half of 18th century, the governants (the Portuguese King, the Brazilian Emperors and the Brazilian Presidents of the Republic) had had interest in moving the capital to a more interior area, less exposed to maritime raids.
In 1823, José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, one of the mentors of the Brazilian Independence (conquered in 1822), is one to propose the moving, already suggesting the name Brasília.

Answer 3

I think the main idea was to have the capital in a place that could be associated with Brazil's cultural identity, rather than in a place that was determined by outsiders.

Answer 4

IDK!! LOL! ur guess is as good as mine. that's such a funny thing to do just swithcing capitals right?! hahahah