History of Maracatibe

Maracatibe is one of the oldest human-occupied territories in the world. The first human beings arrived in the thirtieth millennium BC, and from then on, the entire territory of Maracatibe started to be populated. Throughout its history the territory of Maracatibe was home to great empires and kingdoms, which were born and collapsed, until between the 16th and 17th centuries, colonization by Jungastia was consolidated. The independence of Maracatibe unified was recent, having little more than a century (1907), nevertheless, the twentieth century was quite agitated internally, marked by the elitist governments, by the socialist dictatorship, by a brief democracy and by a new military dictatorship, until  that, finally, in 1982, Maracatibe becomes democratic again, a condition that it maintains until today. Written records of the history of Maracatibe appear for the first time in the third millennium BC, from the Kwaba in the northeast.

Prehistory
As it is considered a consensus among, the  is originally from Southern Avalonia, and for that reason, Maracatibe was one of the first territories to receive human occupation. The human presence in Maracatibe goes back 80 to 30 thousand years BC, and two large groups of individuals can be categorized: hunters and gatherers and coastal peoples. The first ones originate from the first migratory wave in the history of mankind, and arrived in the region where today is the border with Albaterra, and from there, guided by the many rivers of the Moriquê basin, they reached practically all the modern territory of Maracatibe. The hunters and gatherers came from a later migratory wave, coming from Nothern Avalonia. These peoples are descended from human beings who, migrating to the north, decided to return through the islands of the Ingonian Sea.



Hunters, as the name suggests, lived on hunting, fishing and gathering, and did not practice agriculture. These peoples made instruments made of stone and animal bones, such as spearheads, needles, knives, hooks, scrapers. They also developed hunting weapons, such as the bow and arrow, which guaranteed success in hunting birds and some mammals, such as serids, and also the boleadeira, which consists of two or three balls tied by a leather cord, thrown over the  animal's paws to bring it down. In addition to these instruments, the boomerang was also used by hunting peoples. The diet of these people was composed of small animals, fish, mollusks and fruits. The largest collection of rock art by hunters is located in the southeastern region, and on these walls these people portrayed their daily lives, wars, dance, and also drew animals, as it was believed that by drawing an animal being captured, the chance of capture would increase  in reality.

The coastal peoples from the north, in turn, were semi-nomadic, and were connected to the coastline, as the name suggests. Among the traces of his presence, we can mention sculptures, necklaces and lots of shells. The heaps of shells are derived from the custom of accumulating shells of mollusks or animal bones in certain places. Some mounds of shells are up to 30 meters high and 400 meters long. These mounds were used to bury the dead and their personal objects (ornaments, utensils and weapons) - because it was believed in life beyond death, something that influenced Maracatibean beliefs, such as Maracatibean Polytheism. The people of the coast also used to build their houses on the mounds of shells. Archaeological research suggests villages with a population between 100 and 150 people, who lived mainly from fishing, and also made polished stone ornaments.

It is known that the peoples of the coast were the first to practice agriculture and produce ceramics, about 11 thousand years ago, and the geographical proximity to the hunter peoples in the northeast region, led the latter to also develop agricultural techniques, generating a separation of  directions between hunters from the interior and hunters from the northeastern coast, which make up the great civilization of the northeast. The main products grown were rice, corn, beans, manioc, passion fruit, pumpkin, açaí and tobacco. The first ceramic utensils - pots, vases, pots, bowls - would have been created by some farming populations, out of the need to cook and store the food grown. Among the farming and ceramist peoples, three can be highlighted: the Austro-ingonian civilization - in the northwest region -, the civilization of the northeast, and the civilization of the southeast



As agricultural activities were prioritized, many communities began to adopt the sedentary way of life. This does not mean, however, that the communities of that period abandoned the collection of fruits, hunting and fishing. It is believed that there was a transition stage, in which most people, despite knowing it, did not have agriculture as the predominant means of obtaining food. Nor was the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle definitive and uniform, the peoples of the Northeast, for example, made great migrations to the interior, which helped to disseminate the culture that would come to be called Kwaba in the future.

With the need to live close to the plantations, durable houses emerged, initially made of wood, clay, stone and dry foliage. Most of the dwellings were collective. The first cotton garments also appeared during this period, and gradually replaced the less elaborate leather garments.

Bangui and Kwaba people




Around the fourth millennium BC the foundations for the great Maracatibean cultures were laid. In the northwest region, the coastal peoples, after centuries of close coexistence, began to speak a similar language, the proto-Guarai. In the southeastern region, coastal peoples developed another language, ancient Bangui. In the northeast, the descendants of hunting peoples (who at that time already dominated agriculture) managed to predominate over the coastal peoples, and originated the Kwaba people. The Kwaba did not fully adopt sedentary lifestyle, and waves of inland migration were frequent. In the southwest of the country, the hunting and gathering peoples who lived there dominated agriculture, ceramics and metallurgy only centuries later than those in other regions, but developed their own culture, the Moriquê Source Civilization.

The first traces of date from around 4 thousand years BC, a few centuries after agriculture. The first to develop writing were the Bangui, were the glyphs of the Bangui script, found on southwestern cave walls and in proto-temples. The Kwaba continued their primitive symbol system for another three centuries, until the creation of the Kwaba glyphs, which would be limited to the northeastern Kwaba civilization.

The Kwaba and Bangui lived in villages with normally between five hundred and six hundred people, who lived in large collective huts, whose wooden structure was covered with palm leaves. In the Bangui society, there was a great cult of women. The older women in the village were thought to be the wisest, and were responsible for the education of the children. Many were a, with no centralized power, as important village issues were discussed and decided by elderly men and women in the ma'oka (tent that was in the central part of the village).

The division of labor was made according to sex and age. Women, in addition to domestic chores, were engaged in agriculture and collection and collaborated in fishing. They were in charge of the preparation of kawin (in Kwaba villages) - cassava-based alcoholic drink - and of many craft activities, such as weaving nets, braiding baskets, making rugs, etc.

In addition to clearing the forest and preparing the land for planting, men were involved in hunting, fishing and the manufacture of canoes, also with weapons and work tools. They were to erect the houses, defend the village, take part in the war and execute the prisoners. In the Kwaba culture, it was also the men who exercised the role of healers.

Children helped their parents with some activities and performed tasks corresponding to their age, such as taking care of younger siblings or scaring off birds from the plantations in the period before the harvest.

First city-states and kingdoms


Some of these expanding villages were also incorporating new elements into their physical structures, such as walls, religious temples, houses for housing, warehouses for storing food and streets. This process is part of the emergence of the first cities. Among the oldest known Maracatibean cities we can mention Ananarataba (7500 BC), Indaiataba (7200 BC), Uiacutaba (6700 BC), Ocataba (6500 BC), Tupanataba (6400 BC) and Guaranataba (6400 BC). The birth process of the first city-states was accompanied by the development of calendars, writing, numbering, weights and measures. The first traces of systematic writing date from the fourth millennium BC, and are the ancient Bangui glyphs, which later evolved and became the Bangui alphabet, used until its complete destruction during the Kwaba domain. The Kwaba had their alphabet some centuries ago, with great influence from the Bangui. And influenced by the Kwaba, the Guaray had their writing systematized around the second millennium B.C. The people of the southwest only knew writing during the first millennium A.D.

With the deepening of the social division of labor, caused by the growth of villages driven by the large supply of food, certain political-administrative and military functions ended up being taken over by a specific social group, which came to have the power to impose norms on collective life. In the city-states of Maracatibe, this class was linked to the descendants of the city's founders or to religious authorities.

The first city-states emerged in the northeastern region, driven by the increase in the concentration of people in the villages, coupled with the growth of economic and social exchange, as well as the new forms of work organization, justice, religion, the security of the inhabitants and  protection of economic assets. The growth of State cities has led to an increase in the colonization of other regions by the Kwaba, and also in an increase in commercial activities. As a result, the industry also developed, supported by the ceramics sector, in which Ananarataba and Indaiataba stood out. The increase in trade caused the appearance of the currency, around the 7th century BC, in the Quataba region. The first coin was called Itoca (stone with hole) and was a disc, usually made of bronze, with a hole in the center. Itoca soon spread to all the coastal civilizations of Maracatibe, and would later be given local names.

Concurrently with the birth of city-states, there was a profound transformation in the social order of communities in the coastal region. Before large villages and city-states, collective work was based on cooperation between people from different families, with the goods produced being generally shared equally among members of the community. However, this situation started to disappear, as many families already controlled their own fields and plantations, and some drlamas negotiated with others, exchanging, for example, food for ceramic objects and metal instruments. In this way, some accumulated more assets than others, which later became counted as an influence on decision-making processes. These were the wealthy families, who succeeded in replacing manual tasks of agriculture and extractivism with tasks of commerce and industry. On the other side were peasant families, unable to make this substitution. In addition to the wealthy landowners, nobles and peasants, there was the lower class, made up of slaves. Almost in the whole of old Maracatibe, slavery was based on conquest (capture in wars) and on debts, in which the indebted became the slave of his creditor, for a time usually stipulated by a judge. Debt slavery remained a major focus of social tension in several ancient Maracatibean states.

Religion and priests
The Maracatibean peoples were polytheists, and their gods were related to elements of nature. They all believed in life after death, but that view varied across cultures. The Kwaba considered that there would be several levels of worlds after death, and individuals go there based on their performance in the sensitive world. The Bangui, on the other hand, did not believe that there was a possibility of a better life after death, and that is why people wanted to make the most of their existence and considered youth to be the most beautiful phase of life. Religion was ruled by priests, called shamans, who were a great pole of power.

The priests, in addition to religious activities in the temples, engaged in economic activities. Due to the offers received, they accumulated great patrimony in lands, which enabled them to develop an active trade with the neighboring regions. They also had a big influence on politics. In many cities, they were the rulers, or they chose it. Even in regions where they did not take major positions in politics, the support of this class was vital for the survival of a regime. In order to control all of this and do the accounting of the temple (production ratio, receipts, payments, loans), the priests developed a system of writing and numbering.

The temples of the Kwaba priests are an inseparable symbol of the entire history of Maracatibe. They were the most prominent parts of the cities, and they had different shapes, especially the pyramid shapes. The pyramids varied in size, some (most) were a few meters high. All had stairs to access a receptacle, where human and animal sacrifices were made, offerings or deposited sacred objects for worship. The pyramids also had internal access, and served as a deposit for the bodies of priests and monarchs, in addition to storing high-value utensils. The largest pyramids exceeded a hundred meters in height, and reveal the wide domain of architecture and engineering, resulting from the high knowledge of mathematics.

Rising of Kings
Around the third millennium BC, the figure of monarchs became the main center of political power in some regions, such as the Bangui. The king and his family lived in the royal palace, which, like the great temples, stood out as an architectural structure. The kings probably arose from the need for command of the army, since this position was not fully filled by the shamans. Holders of the military command expanded their powers and became permanent supreme authorities. In addition to political power, kings and their officials controlled much of the economic activity. They had workshops where metal instruments, ceramic objects, fabrics, furniture, etc. were produced. They demanded the payment of taxes, collected in the form of material goods, such as food. The power of kings also required the population to carry out mandatory work, such as the construction and maintenance of palaces, temples, walls, irrigation channels, dikes, etc. It is worth noting that kings did not survive without the influential figure of priests, as their powers were justified by religion (the king occupied a space between men and deities). The connection of the kings to religious beliefs varied, with some regions even treating their kings as living deities, with powers of influence over natural phenomena, for example. The monarchy was predominant in the Bangui clans and in the north of Abatuba - in the civilization of the Tamoyo Islands, in addition to the cities in the Transigonia region (inhabited by Kwabas and Austro-ingonian with great interchange between them).

Politics
The growth in economic power of landowning families and large traders has led to political aspirations. Such yearnings conflicted with the interests of the nobility (shamans), who held a monopoly on politics and were unwilling to give up that advantage. Another point of conflict between the rich and the shamans was in the economy, as the shamans also owned large land properties, but were exempt from taxes.

The biggest claims by other classes about the shamans' indisputable power were written laws. The first code of laws was instituted by Nenhacopó I (~ 1450 BC), a king of the Bangui clan of Exatzáu. In the Kwaba regions, however, laws were passed on orally by the shamans, and this left room for arbitrary interpretations and partial judgments to benefit themselves. For much of the second millennium BC, only the Tamoyo Islands in the north had written laws.

The differences between the rich and the priests were resolved in different ways, peacefully and bellicose. In Quataba, 860 BC, the bicameral system was instituted, with the ma'oka being a kind of lower chamber, occupied by the great landowners and traders elected among themselves, and the ma'oka té, upper chamber, being occupied by  shamans (priests) and other nobles. From that, written laws emerged, but class conflicts continued, since for a decision to be made, the chambers had to come to consensus, and this sometimes generated great periods of legal uncertainty and tension. The Quataba model was copied and adapted by other city-states.

Politics in Indaiataba
The vagueness sometimes caused revolts, as in Indaiataba in 790 BC, when Taxicó, a wealthy landowner, coordinates a movement allied with the peasants to overthrow the supreme authority of the priests. Taxicó proposed the end of exemption from taxes on the property of priests, reduction of taxes on peasants, written laws and also promised the construction of houses and other public works of value.

The revolt was successful, despite the numerous casualties on the rebel side - since the majority of the military were linked to the shamans. With the revolt, Taxicó became Morubixaba (king) of Indaiataba, and imposed a code of laws for the city-state. This code, however, was highly harsh against the poorest, and did not include a number of things claimed by the peasants. Taxicó got the support of some slaves, promising the abolition of debt slavery, but ended up not doing so. Taxicó I managed to carry out the tax reform (although the reduction of taxes on peasants was not so great), and under his government, several public works were carried out.

With moderate popularity, the first king of Indaiataba was murdered in his palace in 781 BC, by one of his slaves, at the behest of priests. After his death, Taxicó was replaced by a king elected by the priests. This king was chosen to command the armed forces and manage part of the economy, in addition to interfering with the laws. This model was also copied and adapted by other city-states. During the period of the elected kings, Indaiataba participated in a war against Ananarataba, the most powerful of the city-states, in which he emerged victorious, despite being shaken.

Jucápi I, the Popular (who ruled between 775 BC and 741 BC) was the third and most important of the elected kings. He belonged to a peasant family, and gained prominence from his performance in the war against Ananarataba. During his government, political, social and economic reforms were instituted, such as the creation of the ma'oka - along the lines of Quataba's system of government - and the diminishing of the power of priests. The success of the Jucápi government among the poorest and also among the merchants made it, defying the power of the shamans, stay longer than it could, and instituted a dynasty. It was during his government that the disadvantaged classes that helped him to keep in power (peasants) received a series of tax exemptions. In addition, debt slavery was abolished in 768 BC Jucápi also took a series of measures in agriculture that helped modernize the economy of Indaiataba, which contributed to making the city more important (at that time, Indaiataba was unimportant compared to  Quataba or Ananarataba). A court was also instituted, putting an end to the shaman's judicial monopoly. After his death, Jucápi I was succeeded by his son, Taxicó II, but he was unable to remain in power. Taxicó II was succeeded by a democratic regime, controlled by the ma'oka, which elected three Morubixabas, being a great merchant / landowner, a military man and a priest to rule the city. The ma'oka was made up of all the men of legal age. Despite theoretically including everyone, the Indaiataba regime in practice left out the poorest, who did not have time to dedicate themselves to politics.

Ekatari Empire (1400 BC)
In the Bangui region, kings were heads of a set of families (clans) that controlled large portions of land (including cities) and assumed their positions by climbing the hierarchy through the leadership of the army against wars, invasions and looting, among the Bangui themselves  and also among the Kwaba, in the north. Around the 15th century BC, King Nenhakopok I, of the Ekatari clan, came to power, and carried out a series of reforms in the kingdom, such as the construction of temples, housing, land distribution and the adoption of standard units of measurement. Nenhakopok also established the first code of laws, in 1450 B.C. The Ekatari became the most powerful kingdom among the Bangui, and stood out because of their powerful army, with fearsome warriors, notorious for the recurrent use of violence against their enemies. The Ekatari army was one of the first permanent armies in the world, and it was unbeatable, with Ekatari City-State managing to expand beyond Exatzabah (capital) and conquering the cities of Marubah and Paptuxah, under the command of Otakopok II (1378-1350 BC) and  Chakopok I (1350-1338 BC).

One of the greatest expansions occurred under the leadership of Assutakopok and Darokopok (980-925 BC), when the Ekatari Empire came to dominate the region between the current provinces of Bangui and Paraté. Between 945 and 780 BC, under the reigns of Tzabirit and Zakopok, the Ekatari conquered the area today equivalent to the province of Diamantina. Finally, its greatest expansions occurred between 780 and 730 BC, when the entire territory of the current province of Bangui and part of the current province of Itauá were under the control of the emperors Utakopok and Nenhakopok II. During its 600 years of existence, the Ekatari Empire alternated periods of centralization with decentralization of political power and went through phases of economic crisis, internal wars and invasions. The first half of its history was marked by strong political centralization, with the samus (kings) and the setting up of an efficient administrative structure; great pyramids were built - similar to the pyramids of the Kwaba - which served as a grave for the Samus and his family. As time passed, and as the empire increased in territorial extension, the samu lost power to the provincial rulers, and this decentralization of power was marked by social unrest and political instability. Beginning in the 7th century BC, revolts by provincial rulers managed to be suppressed by the central government, and political stability, accompanied by economic prosperity, was achieved. This period coincided with the maximum extension of the Ekatari Empire. The Bangui expansion was interrupted only by the defeat in a major war against the Kwaba-state cities in the north.



After the prosperous government of Nenhakopok, Ekatari became a very rich city, and promising in the field of science and the arts. It consisted of two rings, which served as walls. In the center was apohwadah, a collection of government buildings, including the royal palace, and temples. It was heavily protected by the king's personal guard, sakira, who suppressed any revolts and made the castles in the center impenetrable in the event of an invasion. Even though it is small, the central part of the city could shelter citizens from areas outside the wall and serve as a point of resistance if the citadel was attacked. Between the two walls was a set of public buildings by liberal workers, such as artisans, blacksmiths, weavers; and also publicly accessible temples, squares and libraries, in addition to the homes of the upper class, the damateks, who generally owned the land outside the two walls. In the external area, the peasant and slave population was concentrated. Some lived on their own land, but most were for rent, on land whose share of the proceeds was earmarked for the noble protectors. The largest plots were generally destined for slave labor. The city also had a piped sewer system.

In Ekatari, the most modern agricultural techniques for the time were applied, which guaranteed a high productivity. In addition to the quantity, Ekatari's agriculture was marked by diversity, açaí, cotton, cassava and corn were all produced on a large scale in the city. Cotton fed the city's powerful textile industry. Fabrics, along with richly adorned ceramics, were the main objects of commerce. The booming Ekatari trade rivaled the elites of other villages and cities, and clashes took place, marking the beginning of the Age of Ekatari Expansions.

Attacks on Ekatari merchants and night plundering on the outskirts of the city were common, which led King Nenhakopoh II to expand the king's personal guard and create, in practice, the first permanent army in Maracatibe and one of the first in the world. The Ekatari developed a great military culture, and their army, equipped with iron swords and spears, was the most modern, at least in the southern region. The first use of this army was during the reign of Otakopok I, in 1361 BCE, against the city of Marubah, after the Great Outrage, which consisted of an imposition by the local king, Herruah, of fees for the use of the rivers and the city's territory by merchants from Ekatari. The impositions were initially ignored, but later, with arrests and executions of Ekatari merchants by soldiers from Marubah, Otakopok declared war on the city, sending just under 700 soldiers to conquer it. The episode of the Marubah invasion was unusual, as it involved the release of ten jaguars inside the walls, but it is not known if this was effective. The 700 men arrived calmly at the local palace and brought the head of Herruah, who underwent a process of mummification and was exposed in the central palace (the Ekatari had the strange habit of collecting the heads of enemy kings and generals, and some of them are preserved and exhibited in museum collections today). After the conquest of Marubah, Ekatari imposed taxes on the inhabitants of that city, and with that several works, and the expansion of the army, were financed.

The city of Paptuxah, whose sovereign was married to Harruah's daughter and had sworn "indestructible friendship" between the two families, prepared for an expedition to release Marubah. The operation was a failure, with less than half of Paptuxah's soldiers returning alive, including the king himself, who kept his oath to free Marubah and enslave Ekatari. Small clashes took place until 1350 BCE, when King Chakopok I was crowned sovereign of Ekatari. On that occasion, Paptuxah sent a messenger bringing wishes of prosperity and peace among cities that had hitherto been enemies. In the following days, a gigantic expedition was sent to Ekatari, with the aim of conquering the city, it was the "Welcome Battle", in which Ekatari almost succumbed, having to evacuate almost the entire population to the innermost wall. However, Ekatari resisted, and in battle, the king of Paptuxah was killed and beheaded. With this victory, Chakopok I founded the bases of the empire, which encompassed the three cities (Paptuxah, Marubah and Ekatari).

Chakopok married the daughter of the king killed by his army (Gahaw of Paptuxah), who was also the granddaughter of the king of Marubah. In this way, the union of the three cities became bloody. The high taxes on the inhabitants of the other cities were lowered, and although Ekatari remained the center of the kingdom, the other cities also received attention, in the form of building works and financing the arts. Later, soldiers born in Marubah and Paptuxah could join the Nakari army. In 1342 BCE, under the guise of protecting nearby villages, Chakopok formed

Under the reign of Sutakopok, the Conqueror, the Ekatari consolidated their power by taking striking measures in different social aspects. Among them was the imposition of the god Adumapuk on the vanquished peoples and the distribution of land ownership between the state, temples and private individuals. He also enshrined the division of local society into three broad categories: the damateks, high-ranking free men (priests, large landowners and wealthy traders) to whom the legal rules conferred privileged treatment; the baktaks, free men of medium rank, who worked as servants in palaces, artisans, free peasants or small merchants; and finally the slaves, who were mainly prisoners of war, but could also be slaves by debt. The economy of the Empire was strongly linked to slave labor, which fed the large estates, the paudux.

Peasants from conquered regions were subjected to long working hours and various rates, which were increasingly higher, which contributed to several local uprisings, such as the Oiakake uprising in 864 BCE, led by a descendant of the extinct Terakitah royalty, who at the time he was a slave. The Terakitah revolt occurred while the Ekatari army was fully mobilized against the Kingdom of Giroda, in the south, making it difficult to repress the movement, which sought to restore the kingdom of Terakitah. The leader of the revolt, Emocir, was successful in several villages, and with that, he organized an army to conquer the big cities. By the end of the year, almost half of Terakitah was restored, and under the leadership of Emocir the Liberator, who soon mobilized the workshops in the main cities to manufacture equipment for the New Kingdom army. The problem that arose in the northeast of the empire led the government to reduce its efforts in the southern war to suppress the revolts. In the meantime, the success of the revolutionary movement in Terakitah had already been reported in other areas on the edges of the Empire, and other peasant uprisings occurred, but to no avail, in the south, southwest, and especially in the north arc of the empire, with the Atamura revolts. and Momataba, both in 893 BC These two cities, formerly city-states, managed to re-establish their autonomy, and taking advantage of their pre-existing walls, resisted several expeditions by Ekatari warriors. The resistance army of these cities was also made up of women and children, and they suffered heavy casualties, despite initial victories. Both cities took about five months to be regained, and this event marked the empire's most violent crackdown on revolts, with thousands of citizens subsequently executed, including all the elderly, useless for slave labor, and the rest were all transformed. into slaves and sent to other parts of the country, as the cities were completely destroyed after the reconquest. At the same time that Atamura and Momataba were resumed, resistance in Terakitah began to suffer its first defeats, and the New Kingdom had its capital, Obi-itah (Currently Serra da Esmeralda) captured by the imperial forces in the middle of that year. After the uprisings, Emperor Zakopok made concessions to the peoples of conquered lands, such as legal equality (as baktaks). Debt slavery, however, was maintained. Other changes applied were the decentralization of power, through the creation of the provinces, the itmanakes, governed by the itmanas, generals of confidence of the emperor.

Kwaba-Exatzau Wars
In 600 BC, the Exatzáu Empire reached its maximum extension, incorporating some of the Parateic kingdoms, which were states where the province of Paraté is located today. Shortly before that date, Exatzáu had restored its integrity after a few years of wars against the Ubus, peoples coming from the west, who also had a powerful army. With the conquest of ubus by Onhacopó III, the Empire began to target territories in the north, that is, the region inhabited by the Kwaba. At the time, the region that today corresponds to the territory of Abatuba was a patchwork of Kwaba states, mostly city-states or kingdoms of small extension, which constantly went to war with each other. Even though the Kwaba were a people of remarkable technological development for the time, Onhacopó thought that victory in an eventual war would be certain, due to the unity of the Exatzáu and the fragmentation of the Kwaba peoples. Therefore, aiming at arable land, sources of slaves and material goods, Onhacopó determined the invasion of the Kwaba states in 600 BC. Initially, as predicted by the local authorities, the Exatzáu obtained successive victories, including the victory over Ananarataba, in 597 BC, in which one of the most powerful cities in the Kwaba was liquidated by the powerful and numerous imperial army.



The Exatzáu's expansions over Kwaba cities, however, generated solidarity between them, and Indaiataba's political leaders then organized an alliance between several Kwaba cities. This alliance became known as the Indaiataba Agreement. The city-states remained independent, but they needed to contribute soldiers, ships and money to the alliance. Under the command of Indaiataba's military leaders, the Kwaba managed to assemble an army of forty thousand men and send them towards the south of the Moriquê River. The Kwaba-Bangui wars, which at that time had already lasted 30 years, reached their peak, with the unstoppable advance of the Exatzáu, becoming successive victories for the Kwaba and the retaking of territories. The Exatzáu, in addition to fighting the Kwaba in the north, had to suppress revolts by provincial leaders, peasants, slaves and minorities (often caused by increased taxes and other consequences of the war period), which contributed to the later defeat of the past. ruthless empire. In 565 BC, Kwaba soldiers reached the walls of Marubau, a few dozen kilometers from the imperial capital, and sacked the city. The legendary emperor Onhacopó IV, whose father started the series of conflicts, was killed in a battle in an attempt to regain the city. After the victory over Marubau, the Kwaba advanced unstoppably to the capital Exatzabá. The conquest of the capital marked the end of the Exatzáu Empire. The generals fought for power as the Kwaba advanced, and peasant and minority uprisings intensified. In the final course of the conflict (565-560 BC), the other Bangui states joined the Kwaba side to end Exatzáu's hegemony.

After the end of the conflict, the lands of the Exatzáu Empire had several destinations. The area corresponding to the current province of Bangui has become a series of states dependent on the League of Indaiataba, with the servants of that region having to pay heavy taxes to the Kwaba city-states. Much of the Exatzáu nobility had their possessions expropriated. The entire temples, palaces and cities of the empire were looted. The southernmost areas of the empire fell under the influence of other Bangui states or became independent.

War of Abatuba and Maka expansions
After the end of the Kwaba-Exatzau Wars, in 560 BC, Indaiataba consolidated itself as the richest and most influential Kwaba city-state. The Indaiataba Agreement gradually became a group of cities subordinate to Indaiataba, so much so that Caiobu, the city's political leader in that period, ended up using part of the money destined to maintain the military cooperation agreement to embellish Indaiataba with a series of constructions, such as temples, statues and other public works. For this reason, some cities tried to dissociate themselves from the league, but were prevented by Indaiataban leaders. In this way, Guaranataba and Quataba found another joint army to fight Indaiataba. Thus began the War of Abatuba (517-491 BC), which lasted 26 years, with brief intervals of peace. At the end of this exhausting conflict, Indaiataba was defeated, and the elites of Guaranataba, Itaporá and Quataba extended their influence over the Kwaba world for several decades. Inaiataba was sacked and went through a long period of economic crises and political instability. Several rulers illegitimately reached power, often supported by disadvantaged classes, to whom they promised improvements in living conditions, and were later overthrown in a similar way. Who managed to remain in power was Jucá Ararú, in 458 BC, a military and landowner who reestablished the monarchical system in Indaiataba, and through reforms aimed at balance (without giving much to the peasants and without maintaining the privileges of the nobility and of the priests) managed to rebuild Indaiataba. Not only that, Jucá Ararú also managed to bring to his sphere of influence several cities (which were mostly cities loyal to Indaiataba in the Abatuba War), through wars and diplomacy, and thus formed the Kingdom of Maka, in 447 BC

Meanwhile, Guaranataba, Quataba and Itaporá were frequently engaged in wars for hegemony over the region of the mouth of Moriquê. So many years of wars have weakened these cities and their public institutions. Taking advantage of this crisis, the Morubixaba Jucá Ararú prepared a strong army to conquer all of Abatuba. The Battle of Yanó (431 BC) was a turning point in this conflict, confirming the victory of the Makan over the other large city-states and small Kwaba kingdoms. Jucá was succeeded by Umeri Ararú, in 427 BC, and this stifled the revolts of several cities, with emphasis on the revolts of Guaranataba and Itaporá. Then, in 424 BC, Umeri left with thousands of soldiers for the definitive conquest of the territories of the old Exatzáu Empire. This movement made a confrontation against the other Bangui states inevitable, and this actually happened, between 424 and 420 BC In this part of the expansion wars, the Bangui were unable to resist, as they were in a period of crisis known as the Constant War, in which the lords of the clans of the region where Paraté is currently fought among themselves with great frequency, contributing to the economic stagnation and political instability of these nations. In 420 BC, the entire current territory of Paraté was already within the domains of Indaiataba, that is, of the Maka Empire. [...]

Tenikaoeonic Dynasty (Bangui)
[...] In exchange for their lives, Kwaba leaders offered all their wealth, jewelry, etc. But that was not enough, and Teniakoepon X ordered the enslavement of all Morubixabas, Pajés, Ikwas and Naurús (upper classes of Kwaba society). On the other hand, free workers were given status similar to the Bangui, and this gave the Teniakoeponic Empire initial stability. During the rule of its first 10 emperors (225-364), the Teniakoeponic Empire experienced great prosperity, with cities growing, receiving great works like temples, pyramids and statues of the Bangui imperaodores. However, after Teniakoepon XX, the stability of the Empire was undermined by the greed of its nobility, which started to increase the segregation of the Kwaba, charging more taxes and confiscating elite jewelry.

The collection of taxes and other fees often led to debt slavery on the Kwaba. The cultural and religious factor were added to the tax factor. The Kwaba always had to pay high fees to practice their own religion, but this was made even worse, as the Imperial government began to ban the construction of new Kwaba temples, and to promote conversion to the Bangui religion. Many existing temples were uncharacterized, even the Great Pyramid of Iandetupan, which had all of its paintings removed. Statues of Bangui gods began to be placed in the Kwaba city, and the Kwaba language became neglected, with the Empire prioritizing the use of the Bangui language.

The Kwaba elite, supported by ordinary people, then set up a revolution in 417, the reason for which was the creation of Code XXVII, written by Teniakopon XXVII, which increased all the things that bothered the Kwaba (segregation, taxes, cultural genocide). Urubixa, the slave leader of the revolt (whose existence is controversial due to the lack of details) managed to lead the Kwaba people to free themselves from the Bangui, after 4 years of Civil War.

Second Kwaba Empire
The Bangui people were condemned to live under the Second Kwaba Empire. The Kwabas' dominance over the Bangui was more oppressive than the Teniakoeponic government, with the policy of cultural genocide beginning with the Empire. By the letter from Oxaboraba, in 431, the Bangui were given Kwaba names, in addition to their local names. Two years later, the teaching and writing of the Bangui language was prohibited, which caused a great revolt (433-434), which was won by the Kwaba. The imperial government also removed all Bangui scriptures and all statues of its emperors and temple deities in the country. These artifacts were mostly destroyed, but some were preserved buried. It is also known that many of the Bangui had these hidden artifacts. In 456, only could be constructed buildings with the Kwaba architectural style or the syncretic architectural style. In 461, the construction of new Bangui temples was banned, and the existing temples were totally uncharacterized even inside. After a revolt in 467-470, Emperor Urubixa VII establishes the Iandetupan Law, which can be summed up in "an empire, a language and a belief", in this way, the Bangui religion became banned, as well as the language. The education of the Bangui was monopolized by the state, which taught only Kwaba and the Kwaba religion, in addition to preaching that the Bangui were a race of the devil and that they should therefore disconnect from the past. Many who still used the Bangui language were enslaved. This generated great instability within the Empire, and there were more than 30 major rebellions between 470 and 616.

The Second Kwaba Empire made great expansions to the west, but it started to decline around 600, when the revolts got stronger, and corruption, economic problems and invasions of other tribes on the border deteriorated the situation of the Empire every day. The Second Kwaba Empire was disintegrated in several kingdoms in 616, all ruled by ethnic Kwabas families, after the death of Motaxuba II, because his son was unable to manage the empire and meet the noble, the military, Bangui and common people demands. The new kingdoms were led by noble families, generals and priests.

Even though their culture was massacred by the Kwaba, the Bangui still had an independent feeling, and between 620 and 679, a series of revolts in the southern Kwaba kingdoms would lead to the establishment of Bangui states (although they no longer speak Bangui, which was already an almost language). extinct).  It is important to note that these states were not established to restore the ancient Bangui civilization, but to have a nation ruled by its own ethnicity, and not by royal families from the north.  Even so, in the following centuries, there were attempts by the Bangui kingdoms to restore their own culture, which was most evident in architecture.  The Bangui religion has undergone changes, but has maintained several characteristics of the religion imposed by the Kwaba.  The Bangui tried to return to the almost lost original language, and when they were unsuccessful, they forced accents and neologisms to create a new language.  Bangui-Novo was a very different language from Bangui, as it consisted of Kwaba words + ancient Bangui words + different neologisms and accents.

Even today, the difference between the Guará-Kwaba spoken by the Bangui in the southeast and by the Kwaba in the northeast is noticeable, both in speech and in writing, and this is one of the reasons why Portuguese is still the national language, widely used at work.

Middle Age
The Bangui liberation war was the last major Bangui-Kwaba war before the arrival of the Jungastians, and the most important later events involved other peoples, such as the Xataxes, the Betazaravas, the Cayas, the Taraonydians, the Matorés and others. That is why the end of the Kwaba Empire marks the end of the Ancient Maracatibean Age, according to most historians.

Xataxe Empire
Between the 4th and 5th century, the Guaray people arrived in Maracatibe, a tribe of nomads probably from Albaterra. It is known that during their arrival, the Guaray abandoned nomadism, stopping where today is the province of Pioca, which at the time was the western borders of the lands of the Kwaba people.

The Guaray had villages with a population ranging from one thousand to two thousand people, and they dominated the art of ceramics. The Guaray people brought cocoa to the Maracatibean lands, from where they made xocolá, a drink that would influence modern chocolate. The Guaray people decimated a good part of the people that already inhabited the north coast, making survivors slaves. The flight of these tribes to the east caused a series of invasions of Kwaba cities, which helped at the end of the Empire.

At the end of the 6th century, the majority of the Guaray were unified in two great empires, the Guaray Empire and the Xataxe Empire. In the west of the country, where today it is Albaterra, the Guaray's remained fragmented.

In 781, the Emperor of Guaray, Guatascamán initiated a series of exchanges with the Kwaba people, selling their ceramics and obtaining fabrics and architectural knowledge from the Kwaba. Even before that, the Guaray developed their religion based on the Kwaba religion, with the same deities and spirits of the forest, but with proper names. The Guaray pyramids started to be built around the following century, starting in Xataxe.

The Xataxe Empire was made up of 5 major cities and several vassal lands, with the objective of protection. The government was a monarchy, but the post of emperor was not hereditary. In order to be emperor, the candidate should have been born on a rainy day, and during topaniki (consisting of bathing the baby on the top of a pyramidal temple), there should be more than 2 thunders during singing. If this happened, the baby should receive special treatment until he was 14 years old, when, if he were the only one to be born in these conditions, he would receive the title of prince. If there were more than two competitors, they would participate in a series of tests, in which many died. The last ritual is anthropophagy, in which when an emperor dies, he is devoured by his successor.

The Xataxis had more than half of their population as slaves, and this helped to maintain large agricultural production, and contributed to high-class subjects being engaged in intellectual activities and the army. That is why they were excellent soldiers, and while the Kwaba and Bangui were stagnant, the Xataxe had great technological advances, like a spinning wheel in the seventh century.

Around the 10th century, a huge earthquake, accompanied by tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, hit the peoples of the north. The Kwaba had several damaged cities, but the empire most affected was the Xataxe Empire. The Xataxe island colonies were decimated, as volcanic eruptions spread a deadly cloud of rocks, ash and smoke at a height of more than tens of kilometers. The earthquakes caused several houses and temples to collapse, where thousands of people died.

The great death caused the end of the Xataxe Empire, since they became extremely weak, and were plagued by slave revolts and also by the subsequent conquest by the Jucaian Dynasty.

Jucaian Dynasty
Jucaian Dynasty was formed in the late 900s by Juca Naurú, the leader of one of the largest Kwaba tribes. Nauru claimed to have received a vision from the gods after eating a blessed pirarucu, and the vision said that the Kwaba should unify again. Juca led his city-state, Itanauru, for the unification of the Kwaba peoples. The wars lasted more than 30 years, and the new Kwaba Empire was renamed Jucaian Dynasty.

The Jucaians expanded westward in 998, taking over the weakened Xataxe Empire. The great disaster of the 9th century was called the Turiguaçu Intervention, because according to legend, to reinforce the sacred nature of the descendants of Juca, the fire god, Turiguaçu, launched eruptions against the Xataxe Empire, to support the Kwaba in a subsequent invasion.

The Jucaian expansions were stopped to the south by the Bangui, and to the west by the Taraonydian (Guaray tribes), where the Kwaba army was slaughtered by underestimated Guaray warriors. After the wars, a period of peace and prosperity began, although guaranteed by the presence of Kwaba troops in other peoples' territories. To protect themselves from the Taraonydians, who started to unify and expand considerably, the Kwaba built a series of fortifications in the forest, dozens of kilometers of walls.

This, however, was insufficient to stop the Taraonydians, who conquered the Jucaian Dynasty around 1213, establishing the largest pre-Maracatibean Empire, which extended from Indaiataba in modern Abatuba, to areas on the border with Albaterra.

Taraonydian Empire
The Taraonydian were Guaray peoples, as were the peoples of the Xataxe Empire. Governed by Ibirakuá, the Taraonydian Empire experienced its period of greatest expansion, conquering the other Guaray tribes until Albaterra. During the entire period of peace in Jucaian Dynasty, the Taraonydians led several expeditions to the interior (where the southwest of Maracatibe is currently located), conquering the peoples established there, forming large vassal lands that provided, in addition to wealth, slaves who fed the great  northern plantations. The expansions of the Taraonydians were the factors that made the Jucaians fortify their borders, but this was useless, as the skilled warriors of the Empire advanced priceless over the lands of the Kwaba, massacring their inhabitants and arriving in Indaiataba in 1213.

They came to conquer almost all modern Maracatibe territory, except the Bangui, as well as areas in Albaterra and the southern border. A system of laws, taxes and a single currency was in place during the Taraonydians' single century of existence. Its economy was based on the cultivation of rice and cassava. However, the Taraonydian never had a period of stability, always having to deal with slave revolts and struggles among the Empire's political elite. It was the internal power struggles between the Guaray that would weaken the Empire until it generated a civil war in 1302. This was one of the most enduring and bloody wars in ancient Maracatibe, lasting more than seventy years. During this period, the subjugated ethnicities and slaves took the opportunity to revolt, and year by year, the Taraonydians slowly saw their borders being reduced by the secession of peoples. In 1372, finally, the civil war ends, and the Empire is dissolved. The Ibani leader of the Topanaba tribe took over the name Taraonydia, and then a second Taraonydian Empire came into existence, although he never had the magnitude of his predecessor.

Last Kwaba Empire
The Kwaba would unify again from the Marajoaba kingdom in 1416, which began a series of expansions led by Sapoxaba until in 1523 they reached their peak. The New Kwaba Empire failed to conquer the Bangui in 1491, when they lost in the bloody battle of Papagaiatiba, where 10,000 Kwaba soldiers were slaughtered by only 2,000 Bangui soldiers and some peasants. Under Kurumira's leadership, in 1509 they began to ascend the Morikê River, conquering the Machapi Empire after a series of battles that lasted until 1541. Several revolts of the dominated peoples took place within the New Kwaba Empire, but nothing that threatened its existence.

In 1560, ten years before the arrival of the Jungastians, the Kwaba and Bangui faced each other for the penultimate time, but this time the Kwaba were massacred, losing having plundered many cities and losing several lands. In order to survive, he had to raise taxes and oppression by the Machapi, losing that territory in 1568.

Arrival of Jungastians


In June 1570, a Jungastian fleet led by Antonio Baptista arrived in the region where Barra Vermelha is today, and sailed along the coast until reaching Albaterra. Upon returning to Jungastia, Baptista informed the court about the new findings. While he was selected to lead the exploration of Albaterra, another general, named Luís de Sá, was appointed to lead the exploration of Maracatibe, at the time called Terra Baptista.

The contact with the natives was initially friendly, with the settlers having successfully translated the Guará-Kwaba language into Portuguese. The first form of economic exploitation was by free labor of natives, who collected wood, dyes and spices in exchange for clothes, mirrors and other accessories of Artemia.

Terra Baptista became an administrative part of Albaterra, but when Jungastian ships entered the Moriquê river and had contact with the Kwabatuban Empire, at the time governed by Tupanajara XVII, in 1602, Jungastia turned Terra Batista into a separate administrative region. Initially, the Kwabas and Jungastians had harmonious relations, with Jungastia helping Kwabas to conquer the Banguí Kingdom in 1604, in exchange for land and gold.

Debt War (1606-1617)
The Jungastians claimed that aid to the Kwabas was not well rewarded, and so they began to pressure the empire to allocate most of their gold production to Jungastia. After accusations that the natives were hiding gold, the Jungastians demanded that fiscal officers be sent to guarantee full payment of the war's debt. As payment was not being made properly, Jungastia declared war on the Kwabatuban Empire.

Even weakened by disease and the problems caused by the war against Bangui, the Kwabas took an initial advantage. The Jungastians could not destroy the Kwabas Empire in a short time because they also had to take care of the Holy War of Avalonia (1600-1701). The Kwabas had conquered all Jungastian ports throughout northeast of Maracatibe.

However, as the 100-year war in Albaterra had several periods without battles, Jungastia can dedicate itself to fighting the Kwabas in these periods of "peace". Due to the material superiority and experience of the Jungastians, and the fact that the Kwabatuban Empire was weak internally, Jungastia took the capital Indaiataba on February 6, 1617, marking the end of the Debt War.

Colonial Era (1617-1907)
The ancient city of Indaiataba was partially destroyed and transformed into the colonial capital, dubbed Porto Real. The Jungastians adopted the captaincies model. The captaincies were lands ceded to nobles who undertook to build villages, plantations and other necessary infrastructure to make the feud profitable. Gold and silver mining was also very important. Jungastians looted gold from temples and palaces and took pre-existing mines. The workforce of the captancies and mines was predominantly made by slaves.

In 1698, the captaincy model was replaced by a government centralized in the figure of the general-governor, based in Porto Real. Two states were created, the State of Baptista (south) and the State of Maracatibe (north). The first general-governor of Maracatibe and Baptista was Casimiro de Lima e Silva, who boosted the colonial economy, which was based on, , , , and.

The hierarchy of colonial society was composed of perés (Jungastian), peremirins (children of Jungastian born in Maracatibe), mestizos, slaves and natives, in that order of hierarchy. Obviously, there was a hierarchy within the Jungastians themselves, between nobles and ordinary subjects. Slaves were above the natives because, once they were in possession, they had someone to protect them. Free natives, on the other hand, were nobody's possession, and had to fulfill obligations that made the work they performed analogous to slavery.

Free natives had to pay heavy taxes in the form of labor, in mines and crops, in addition to doing domestic services for white colonists. In addition, they could not have possessions, and were tied to land for rent, an area of ​​economic exploitation given to a nobleman by the captanincy system. The slaves of the colonial period were natives already slaves before the arrival of the Jungastians (they had only transferred ownership), natives captured by explorers from the interior and slaves bought from Zahava.

Occupation of the territory
The first area occupied by the Jungastians was the entire Kwaba Empire, and some ports on the north coast. From the beginning of the 18th century, entrances into the dense forest became more constant. The Jungastians were guided by natives to more isolated tribes, which were conquered by the Jungastians (subjected to the system of serfdom). In addition to more territory, the colonial elite obtained slaves through this system, since hostile tribes were decimated or enslaved.

However, not all tribes were weak. The Machapi Empire massacred the Jungastians in their first encounters, with their powerful cannons and muskets, underestimated by the colonists. The conquest of the Machapi was costly, since it also involved a war against the Taraonydian and other Guaray kingdoms, as the Machapi organized the Native Alliance of the West, which united almost all the native states of Maracatibe against colonial power.

The last native empires were only fully conquered in 1743, when the Taraonydians had their capital under siege by the Jungastians.

Golden Era (1740-1810)
Mining has always been very strong, as the Kwabas were already aware of large reserves of gold and silver. However, such reserves were declining, until in the 18th century, when large gold, diamond and emerald deposits were discovered. The high growth of the city of Serra da Esmeralda and Mina Rica stands out.

The so-called Golden Era was marked by the growth of cities (close to mining regions), the development of transport infrastructure and the creation of a well-articulated internal market, in view of the massive migration to Maracatibe. During this period, Maracatibe was the world's largest producer of, and. Mine workers ranged from slaves to free workers in search of better living conditions. Many settlers from Albaterra migrated to Maracatibe to work in the mines, and some brought with them. The Golden Age was very important for the occupation of the territory, given that it displaced many from the coast to the interior, and had its rise at that time, also contributing to the interior occupation. This occupation was not peaceful, being the basis of several bloody conflicts with people not yet colonized.

In addition to the states of Maracatibe and Baptista, the territories of Esmeraldina and Diamantina were created, which had direct control of the Jungastian crown, to facilitate the sending of metals and precious stones. Due to the importance, Maracatibe and Baptista received the title of Viceroyalty, with D. Afonso Limoeiro being the first viceroy. However, mining began to decline slowly from 1750.

Teroitabas, refuges in the forest
During this period, slavery and its mild forms (servitude) intensified. Many slaves managed to escape and set up walled villages in the middle of the forest, the "teroitaba" (meaning hidden village). Teroitabas consisted of veritable parallel states within colonial territory, and coordinated revolts with the aim of restoring the Kwabatuban Empire. Teroitabas hunting was largely done by mercenaries and explorers. At the peak, there were more than 208 teroitabas within the areas controlled by Jungastia, where an average of 281 escaped slaves/servants and helpers lived. At the end of slavery, 93 communities remained.

Sebastiana revolt (1750)
Although slavery was widely used in colonial Maracatibe, it was not practiced without resistance from the enslaved. A great example of this resistance is the Sebastiana Revolt, the biggest slave revolt in the history of maracatibe

The slaves of Sebastiana's farm, after a pregnant slave was whipped to death for refusing to continue working, even though she was in pain because of her pregnancy. Slaves demanded better working conditions, such as more food and an end to physical punishment. They even took over some farms and beheaded their owners. The movement spread to other cities, where slaves began to fight to end slavery.

The revolts caused the death of thousands of slaves (historians estimate between 1 and 5,000), in addition to the physical punishment of several associated with the movement. The leaders of the revolts, 17 slaves, and 5 free men, were publicly executed by orders from the colonial government. The episode increased the rigidity of the slave system and the persecution of escaped slaves. The horrors of this repression helped to base the Charter of Santiago, which also denounced slavery in Albaterra.

End of slavery (1753-1780)
Slavery was abolished in 1753. Unlike Albaterra, the viceroy of Maracatibe and Baptista did not disobey the king, although the desire of local farmers was to maintain slavery.

The total abolition of slavery in 1780 by Jungastia did not improve much the condition of the ex-slaves, who went on to become servants. They still had to pay high labor fees to their masters and some suffered physical punishment, even though they were prohibited. Even so, there was an economic impact with slavery, which bothered local elites.

Independence of the Oriental Republic of Maracatibe (1792)
Against the end of slavery, white farmers hired mercenaries to form a pro-independence army. They initially demanded the abolition of several taxes, through the Letter of Ávis.

The letter was not answered by the king, who ordered the sending of troops to fight the revolutionaries. The farmers were supported by white men, but the descendants of natives opposed the independence movement due to intense royal propaganda that linked the farmers to the return of slavery.

On the night of June 2, 1792, Guará-Kwabas and other descendants of natives armed with machetes killed several pro-independence farmers, and set their properties on fire.

The war lasted until December 1792, ending the six months of independence on the east coast of Maracatibe. The movement's leaders were exiled, arrested and fined. The natives who killed the farmers were also punished.

Esmeraldina Revolt (1832)
With the decline of mining, Jungastia began to raise taxes on gold, emeralds and diamonds mined in Maracatibe and Baptista. This occurred as the colonial economy stopped receiving large investments, and the quality of life of the colonists deteriorated. The dissatisfaction of elites and workers in the mining-related regions led to the deed of the Esmeraldina Petition, in which the locals refused to pay the abusive taxes. The petition was not answered by Jungastia, and the settlers planned an independent revolt, under the leadership of Alfredo Gama.

Esmeraldina Revolt had an initial success, with colonial authority being expelled from several cities in the mine area. But the Emeraldina Republic was short-lived (three months), as the colonial army soon succeeded in deposing all rebel leaders. The movement's leaders were arrested, and some exiled, as was the case with Alfredo Gama, who was expelled to the island of Nova Santa Helena, in the Tethys Ocean.

Era of coffee, iron and cotton (1830s)
At the time of the industrial revolution, Maracatibe became one of the largest cotton suppliers in the world. That time coincided with the rise of coffee as a major export product. The mining of emerald and diamonds grew slightly, and the large iron reserves were finally tapped. Maracatibe was a major supplier of this raw material to the Jungastian industries.

During that time, the first industries established in Maracatibe. They were fabric industries (for coffee bags), but they were in small quantities, since Jungastia decreed in 1858 to ban the installation of industries in the country, making an exception for Sociedade Real do Aço (Royal Steel Society), a steel company located in São Pedro. During this period, the construction of the Coastal Railway Line (1846-1870), the first Jungastian railway outside of Jungastia, stands out. At that time, there was also a revitalization of the economy of the interior of regions of dense forest, with a large flow of workers for rubber extraction and collection of spices.

As Maracatibe served only as a support for the industrialization of Jungastia and other powers, independentist ideals were strengthened. The local bourgeoisie wanted the abolition of the ban on the installation of industries, and this would not be met with the colonial absolutist monarchy. An important pro-independence newspaper was created, called A Voz de Maracatibe (The Voice of Maracatibe), which disseminated liberal ideas.

First Republic in Jungastia (1895-1907)
After the fall of the Jungastian Transition to Democracy in 1895, the colonial authorities of Maracatibe were deposed by a National Guard made up of mercenaries hired by pro-independence farmers. After the formation of the first Jungastian parliament, Maracatibe sent a series of demands, such as the end of bureaucracies for the construction of infrastructure, the abolition of many colonial taxes and the freedom to create factories in Maracatibe.

These demands were met "in half" but the Opening of Ports in 1896 (allowed Maracatibe to trade with nations other than Jungastia) had a great effect on the country's economy. A young and small textile industry was on the rise. Some other industries have also emerged to cover local demands, such as lighting, electricity, shipbuilding and railways.

Despite this, colonial taxes remained high, and the elite of Maracatibe began to fight for the end of colony status. As taxes also weighed on the lower classes, many also wanted better living conditions.

War of Independence (1907-1914)
After the rise of the Second Jungastian Republic, the crisis in the country got even worse, and this hit Maracatibe. The first actions of the second republic were to raise taxes on all settlers, to prohibit the creation of more industries in Maracatibe and the strengthening of the colonial pact. Republicans denied all settlers' demands for political representation.

Father Justiniano Salgado did charity work with the poorest, providing food and housing for homeless people and small farming families. Taxes weighed heavily on the poorer classes, and Salgado began to advocate for the improvement of the population's living conditions, and the end of racial segregation laws. Justinian preached civil disobedience, and marched with supporters to the colonial capital, Porto Real. Wherever he went, he encouraged poor communities to refuse to pay taxes to Jungastians and to buy Jungastian products until popular demands were met. Thus, there was a large growth in the parallel market. The middle class and some sectors of the elite started to support the priest, and financed the creation of manufactures illegally.

The revolt was initially peaceful, Jungastia sent soldiers and arrested, torturex and killed many members linked to the movement accused of treason. Tensions and popular dissatisfaction increased, so that on April 26, 1907, the colonial elite, also dissatisfied with the Jungastian administration, joined the Salgado movement and created the Secessionist Congress, where they wrote a manifesto entitled: Libertas Quæ Sera Tamen  (freedom, albeit late, in Latin) in which they demanded the independence of Maracatibe. Jungastia did not accept the demands of the manifesto, and ordered the arrest of the independence workers. However, the economic power of the elite, allied with the mass of the population, resulted in the creation of the Independence Army, which, with the financial and military support of Zahava, achieved important victories over Jungastia, including the capture of Porto Real in October 1907. Colonial authorities were arrested and a provisional government, led by genealogy Caio de Lima Guimarães, commander of the independence army, was called.

Provisional government (1907-1909)
The provisional government was headed by General Caio de Lima Guimarães, who commanded the Maracatibean Liberation Front. Colonial authorities were arrested, but many fled to Albaterra. The provisional government convened a National Constituent Assembly and a Temporary Governance Council, to assume legislative functions until the end of the drafting of the constitution.

Taxes were reduced and several laws linked to the colonial pact were repealed. The constitution established the Sovereign Community of Maracatibe as the official language, removing "Baptista" from the name. The capital, Porto Real, was renamed back to Indaiataba. The has become the type of government.

During the period of the provisional government, Maracatibean troops even engaged with Jungastians in Albaterra. The dense tropical forest between the two colonies hampered progress on both sides, and President Guimarães gave up on conquering Albaterra, despite sending supplies to the Albaterran Liberation Army, which was unsuccessful in its attempt at independence.

First Republic (1909-1926)
In June 1909, the 1909 Constitution was finished, and established that the next deputies, senators and the president would be elected for 4 years. There was great resistance to the constitution, as it maintained segregationist laws, which even restricted the right of non-whites to vote and stand as a candidate. Non-whites could only run for low positions, and had to have a minimum income to vote. Minimum income that excluded at least 5/9 of the non-black adult male population. In addition, it was necessary to be literate. In general, the First Republic was marked by authoritarian governments, which mainly represented the interests of landowning elites.

The Presidential Elections of 1909 in Maracatibe elected Paulo Mascarenhas d'Ávila, of the Constitutionalist Republican Party, with 85.5% of the votes. These elections were marked by fraud, poor attendance and imposed votes (allies of the winning candidate, with possessions, threatened the poorest to vote for him). D'Ávila was an ally of Guimarães. During his government, landowners benefited from subsidies and reduced taxes. In addition, D'Ávila built schools, universities and hospitals, initiating a major health plan for the eradication of various diseases.

Recognition of Independence
Jungastia was experiencing great difficulties, and had to control instability in the country itself and also in Albaterra. Inflation was so great that prices doubled every week or two. Social tensions were extremely high, and Jungastia drastically reduced his efforts to try to take Maracatibe back. In 1910, with the inauguration of Paulo D'Ávila, conversations began to recognize independence. Jungastia demanded payment of one hundred million dollars, which was a very high price, which the Maracatibeans were not willing to pay, stating that the Jungastians owed colonial reparations.

Conversations stagnated until 1913, when the political, social and economic situation in the Second Republic of Jungastia worsened. Meanwhile, Maracatibe was recovering, and had acquired several military equipment (at the cost of increasing the debt), such as ships and aircraft. Several naval battles marked the end of 1913, as Maracatibe had tried to block Jungastia's access to Albaterra until independence was recognized.

Between December 1913 and January 1914, new conversations took place, and Jungastia agreed to recognize Maracatibe's independence, as long as Maracatibe ceased support for secessionist movements in Albaterra. Maracatibe also revoked the expropriation of Jungastian lands and the ban on Jungastian companies from operating in the country. In return, Jungastia gave up the Black Triangle (region between Maracatibe and Albaterra, which was officially Albaterra but was neglected because it was formed by dense forests), ceded to Maracatibe, by the Treaty of Indaiataba (1914), on January 6. To celebrate the recognition of independence, Justiniano Salgado's hometown, Belémd'Oeste, was renamed Salgado and received heavy investments to become a planned city, which would become the capital of Maracatibe since then.

1916 Civil War
In 1916, close to the elections, a popular revolt occurred against the government of Mascarenhas D'Ávila. The government of the time, supported by the mayor of Barra Vermelha, created an urbanization plan that ordered the destruction of the houses of the poor (ugly houses) in the city center, to make way for buildings with better visuals. The poor were pushed to the peripheries, creating slums. As they were mostly descendants of natives, they also fought to end racial segregation.

They were severely repressed by the Urban Police, with many being killed in clashes. In addition to this revolt, there was a mutiny in the Navy, as the sailors protested the physical punishments applied to Marcelo Xavier (500 lashes, of which only 100 were allowed) for having supported the revolt in the city.

News of the revolt spread throughout the country, and the 1916 General Strike was called, demanding an improvement in living conditions and an end to segregation policies. In response to the strike, the government raised taxes, and repressed more radical protesters. In addition, members of the People's t Vanguard were persecuted and arrested. Several newspapers were censored and journalists were convicted.

The revolt was supported by many military men of indigenous ethnicities, who refused to obey the orders of the segregationist government, and even threatened to bomb the government palace. Many civilians armed themselves and fought against the government, sparking a nine-month civil war. In that war, the Machapi peoples suffered genocide, for supporting secession. Food was blocked from entering the areas inhabited by the Machapi, and a series of massacres occurred during the nine months of civil war. The civil war killed an estimated 200 to 250,000 people, mostly Machapi people who were victims of genocide. Entire villages were destroyed with their population wiped out (these villages were dominated by natives and preached civil disobedience).

The government won, but the following year it would have to make a series of concessions due to the instability caused by the crackdown on the revolts.

In the 1916 general elections, Joaquim Góis, of the Federalist Party won with 67.7% of the votes, which generated a great popular reaction, also muffled.

Civil Rights
Due to the increase in revolts, Góis had to meet popular demands, and for that reason, in his government, the end of segregation laws in politics and the secret and women vote were approved. Góis also encouraged the learning of native languages, such as Guará-Kwatib, and invested heavily in early childhood education.

1924 election
In 1924, Márcio Andrade, from People's Vanguard, won the elections with 52.5% of the valid votes. Opponents of the socialist accused him of fraud. As soon as he took office, he initiated nationalization programs in sectors of the economy previously controlled by multinationals, increased the minimum wage, established new labor laws, invested in the basic industry and carried out land reform, which displeased the landowning elite. This led to a coup d'état in 1926, in which the military, led by Carlos Alberto Menezes, took power for three months.

Socialist Era
In the government of Alberto Menezes, president Márcio Andrade was arrested. Menezes claimed that Andrade, helped by international socialism, defrauded the elections so that he could make Maracatibe a socialist country, and with that, put dictators in power to oppress the population and lead the people to misery. The attempt to convince failed, and a coup d'état took place within the coup d'état and caused Menezes to flee to Jungastia, where he was supported by dictator Marcelo Pisani Coutinho.

The coup put Andrade back in power, and suspended the National Congress, stating that they were coup leaders. Andrade created a Constituent Assembly formed of workers, rural workers and teachers, to draft a new constitution.

The coup d'état against Andrade served to radicalize the left, represented by People's Vanguard, which began to adopt the communist ideology for good (before they called themselves reformers). The 1926 Constituent Assembly, formed by ordinary workers and socialist ideologues, was in fact controlled by People's Vanguard, and with that, a socialist constitution, called the People's Constitution, was created, to "shield the Maracatibean people from the obscure interests of domestic and foreign elites, and create conditions for overcoming underdevelopment", in the words of President Márcio Andrade.

Maracatibe became the Maracatibean Democratic People's Republic, and a nationalization of all sectors of the economy began. This generated the reaction of capitalist states, such as XX, YY, XZ ..., which established an embargo on the country.

MDPR had three presidents, Márcio Andrade (1926-1932), Romeu Boaventura (1932) and Ivo Aguiar (1932-1944). All governments were marked by media control and the arrest of opponents, but the government of Ivo Aguiar was the most oppressive, responsible for sending opponents to forced labor camps and even executing the enemies of the revolution. Aguiar worked actively for international socialism, financing the murder of owners of multinationals around the world and providing money and weapons to socialist groups. One of the great plans was the financing of the Socialist Front of Albaterra, to establish independence and create the United Socialist States of Southern Avalonia (Union of Lusophone Socialist States of Avalonia was also proposed).

The socialist system proved unsustainable with Aguiar, as oppression was already becoming unpopular as the initial success had been overshadowed by the scarcity of food and the inaccessibility of various services (which also received contributions from the embargoes). The purges in the armies caused the deposition of Ivo Aguiar in 1944, and General Herique Martins de Aquino took power.

Brief Democracy (1944-1956)
When Aquino came to power, a violent civil war broke out between the Citizen (Communist) Militia and the Restoration Army. The aim of the restauracionsitas was to overthrow territories that had continued under communist rule after the coup. This first phase lasted seven months, with intense urban combats, and after the victory of the restorationists, supported by XX ... (foreign countries), the communists started to use guerrilla tactics, and made bomb attacks occasionally.

The military junta headed by Aquino annulled the Popular Constitution and restored the 1910 constitution, calling for new elections, but with banned socialist parties. People linked to People's Vanguard had their political rights revoked. It is with Cabral that industrialization (initiated by the socialists) accelerated even more in capitalist molds, a pattern that would continue in the next governments

Cabral and Santos Government
The 1944 elections were won by Paulo Sérgio Cabral, from the Social Democratic Party. Cabral revoked a series of measures by the socialist government and initiated a deep opening of the economy, with the privatization of several companies, maintaining some of the basic industry. He started building roads, hydroelectric plants, bridges (at the cost of a huge increase in debt) and created policies to attract multinationals. Despite being the socialist-capitalist transition, the Cabral government maintained the large subsidies to the Maracatibean economy, characteristics of the previous period. Cabral was succeeded by Gilberto Santos, from the same party. Gilberto Santos accelerated the reversal of socialist policies but maintained the large spending on subsidies and infrastructure (which even increased debt and inflation). Import tariffs were also reduced during this period.

Mendonça Government
PS Cabral's labor minister, Cláudio Mendonça, of the Labor Party, won the 1954 elections. Mendonça maintained Cabral's developmental policy, and in addition, raised the minimum wage, reintroduced anti-land concentration measures, created a series of  social policies and proposed a peace deal with the People's Vanguard terrorists. Contrary to the previous government, Mendonça reintroduced the state monopoly of underground exploration, nationalizing foreign companies.

Alignment with socialists has increased rumors that socialism could return. This sentiment was strengthened by the regularization of People's Vanguard's situation and amnesty to its members and former members, granted in January 1956.

Close parliamentarians warned Mendonça and directed him to distance himself from the socialists, but the response was a rally in São Pedro (outside the capital) on February 4, in which the president shouted anti-imperialist and anti-coup speeches to a crowd  of workers affiliated to unions. The episode resulted in a military coup before Mendonça returned to the capital. Parliamentary approval of the coup was sudden and inadequate, as the majority of pro-Mendonça deputies did not vote.

Cunhas' dictatorship (1956-1973)
On the morning of February 5, Radio Rio Verde broadcast the words of General Raymundo Cunha: ''Respecting national wishes, through the recent parliamentary elections, which withdrew parliamentary support from President Mendonça;  identifying the real presence of the red threat, manifested by the words of hatred spoken by President Mendonça at a rally infested by supporters of People's Vanguard;  the Armed Forces, the Supreme Court, and Parliament, inform the Maracatibean people that President Cláudio Inácio Mendonça has been removed from his role, for the sake of the institutions of this young state. I, along with my advisers, will assume the role of head of government temporarily, until a consensus on security is reached due to communist threats.''

Despite the speech, Raymundo Cunha never made a democratic transition, having closed the parliament, postponing elections successively, removing provincial governors and instituting a censorship mechanism.

Civil War
With the beginning of the regime, People's Vanguard returned to illegality, under the name of People's Vanguard Army, and began to conduct new attacks, which resulted in the escalation of the armed conflict, with the return of new urban battles. Communists managed to control several cities, in addition to assaulting central government trains and attempting various attacks on members of the military leadership. The most intense fighting took place between April 1956 and January 1960. This stage of the civil war generated more than 218,500 deaths, including not only those killed in combat but also people executed by the dictatorship, which number 30,000, in addition to thousands of missing persons.

After this stage, another 4 thousand people will die or be injured by the actions of People's Vanguard, and another 1.5 thousand will be killed or disappeared thanks to the actions of the dictatorial government of Cunha

After 1960
The regime of Cunha and his son was marked by constant human rights violations, with more than 300,000 people being arrested and another 80,000 tortured. According to official figures, more than nineteen thousand people were murdered by the Cunha governments, except for the irregularities committed by government forces during the Maracatibean Conflict. It is estimated that these abuses, mainly the genocide against the Machapi people (most of whom sympathized with the PVA), have killed more than one hundred thousand people.

The victims of torture were anyone who was suspected of having a connection with communism, that is, everyone who showed disagreements with the regime. The media was censored by the Press Ministry, and several journalists, writers and musicians were harassed by the government.

During the Cunha regime, both dictators sought to modernize Maracatibe, providing incentives for multinationals but also applying a protectionist and developmentalist policy, investing billions in the creation of industries, construction of bridges, highways, railways, plants and ports, in addition to financing programs for  research and development, which helped to strengthen the automotive, petrochemical and aerospace industries, through the state-owned company Indaema. It was during the government of Papai Cunha and Cunha Filho that the Maracatibean GDP experienced its greatest growth, and the president even stated several times in his pronouncements that "in a few decades, Maracatibe will become a developed country".

In 1973, President Raymundo Cunha was assassinated by guerrillas of the People's Vanguard Army, and the State Council elected his son, Raymundo Cunha Filho, to succeed him. It was in the government of Cunha Filho that guerrilla groups saw the beginning of their decline. However, drug trafficking began its rise at the end of the Cunha Filho government.

The accelerated growth of the economy was the result of high state intervention and an increase in foreign debt. The external debt of Maracatibe increased almost ten times more than the economic growth between 1960 and 1982. The burst of the debt led to the drastic fall of the growth rates of the GDP and elevation of the inflation, thus increasing the discontent with the government.

To remain in power, Cunha Filho made a series of concessions, freeing several political prisoners convicted of minor crimes, in addition to signaling the decrease in violent repression, such as torture and executions. It was then that in July 1981, Raymundo Cunha Filho announced that Maracatibe would return to democracy.

Redemocratization and New Republic (1982)
Between July 1981 and August 1982, the transition to democracy took place, with freedom of expression gradually resuming and political parties could be created. The first elections, in 1982, went to the Constituent Assembly and the president of Maracatibe. The Constitution, however, had to be considered by the State Council (appointed by dictator Raymundo Cunha Filho). In this way, a series of privileges were given to members of the dictatorship, such as the annulment of any crime of torture and murder, in addition to granting a seat as a lifelong senator to Raymundo Cunha.

In the 1982 elections, Ernesto Nonato, of the left-wing Party for Citizenship and Development, became president. In his government, he called for a policy of non-payment of foreign debt, printing of money and price control, as a way to mitigate the economic crisis. However, such actions led to the deepening of the crisis, with the explosion of unemployment and inflation figures, which became the largest in the world in 1986. It was in the non-government that People's Vanguard Army ended its activities through a  peace agreement, which contributed to the reduction of the civil war.

Nonato was unable to elect a successor to the party itself, being defeated by Adalberto Corte Real, center-right. Corte Real adopted a policy of abrupt reduction of spending and privatization, in addition to undoing the disastrous policies of the previous government. A process of reducing the bureaucracy of the economy was also initiated, in order to attract investments. The debt was being paid gradually in the governments of Corte Real and its successors, of the same party, such as Jorge Huarachi and Antônio Calegaro. During the government of Corte Real, the war on drugs became much greater, and although the Maracatibean Conflict remained small, there was a strengthening of far-right militias in the conflict.

In 2007 Marcos Yousseff took over, succeeded by Tainá Silveira. Yousseff and Silveira were from the Union for Democracy andCitzenship (left-wing) and alternated from 2007 to 2018, when Fernando Fontoura, the current president was elected.