Bahia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest by area. Bahia's capital is the city of Salvador (formerly known as "Cidade do São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos", literally "City of the Holy Savior of the Bay of All the Saints"), on a spit of land separating the Bay of All Saints from the Atlantic. Once a stronghold of supporters of direct rule of Brazil by the Portuguese monarchy, and dominated by agricultural, slaving, and ranching interests, Bahia is now a predominantly Working class industrial and agricultural state. The state is home to 7% of the Brazilian population and produces 4.2% of the country's GDP. It is divided into 417 municipalities. The state has a strong tourism power in several regions of its territory, for example: Salvador, Morro de São Paulo, Porto Seguro, Ilhéus, Alto Cariri National Park, Itacaré, Lençóis-Chapada Diamantina, Bom Jesus da Lapa, São Desidério etc.
The state is crossed from west to east by many rivers, but the most important is the São Francisco, which starts in Minas Gerais and runs through western Bahia before emptying into the Atlantic between Sergipe and Alagoas. Formerly plied by paddlewheel steamers, the river is only navigable to small modern craft but is still vital to the arid west since it continuously supplies water during seasons. The Sobradinho Dam created one of the largest reservoirs in the world; other major hydroelectric projects along its length include the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex and the Itaparica or Luiz Gonzaga Dam.
Bahia's captaincy was the first to fail, with its lands reverting to the Portuguese crown in 1549. While Portugal Iberian Union with Spanish Empire, the Dutch Republic West India companies tried to conquer Bahia but was unsuccessful in the area, with Dutch Brazil restricted to the area from Pernambuco Northward.E. Bradford Burns, A History of Brazil, 3 ed. Columbia University Press, New York, p. 50―54
Bahia was a center of sugarcane cultivation from the 16th to the 18th centuries and contains a number of historic towns, such as Cachoeira, dating from this era. Integral to the sugar economy was the importation of a vast number of African slaves: more than a third of all slaves taken from Africa were sent to Brazil, mostly to be processed in Bahia before being sent to work in plantations elsewhere in the country.Stuart B Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835
The state was the last area of the country to join the Empire of Brazil, as members in the local elite remained loyal to the Portuguese crown after the rest of the country proclaimed independence under on 7 September 1822. Control of the province was disputed in several battles, mostly in Pirajá, before the Portuguese were fully expelled on 2 July 1823. It became a Brazilian state in 1889.
Charles Darwin visited Bahia in 1832 on his famous voyage on the HMS Beagle. In 1835, Bahia was the site of an urban slave revolt, the Malê Revolt of 1835 by the predominantly Muslim West African slaves at the time. The term malê was commonly used to refer to Muslims at the time from the Yoruba language word imale. The revolt is particularly notable as the greatest slave rebellion in the history of the Bahia.Katia M. Queirós Mattoso, To Be a Slave in Brazil 1550-1888, Trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Rutgers University Press, 1986, p. 143―145 Under the Brazilian Empire, Bahia returned 14 deputies to the general assembly and 7 senators; its own provincial assembly consisted of 36 members. In the 19th century, cotton, Brazilian coffee, and tobacco plantations joined those for sugarcane and the discovery of in 1844 led to large influx of "washers" ( garimpeiros) until the still-larger deposits in South Africa came to light. A smaller boom hit Caetité in 1872 upon the discovery of there. The cattle industry of the interior led to the development of Feira de Santana before collapsing in a series of droughts.
During the First Brazilian Republic ( República Velha) the biggest name in the state's politics was José Joaquim Seabra, also known as J. J. Seabra; the Vargas Era and the subsequent re-democratization period saw the rise of Juracy Magalhães and Otávio Mangabeira, respectively. During the military dictatorship, the governorship of Antônio Carlos Magalhães (also known by his initials, ACM) marked the politics of Bahia for three decades, with one brief defeat in 1980 by Waldir Pires. Despite this defeat ACM later occupied many other public offices; he died in 2007 while serving as senator. ACM's wide-reaching influence in the state's politics has been dubbed "Carlismo", and is considered an example of a larger phenomenon called ("colonel-ism").
After the end of military rule in Brazil in 1985, the government of the state of Bahia oscillated between two parties, the Partido da Frente Liberal (PFL, now the Democrats) and the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). The Workers' Party (PT) was elected to the governorship in 2007 and has held it ever since, through five successive elections (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022).
The state capital is the city of Salvador, but once a year the capital is moved to Cachoeira in recognition of the city's importance in the struggle for the independence of Brazil.
There are 10,110,100 registered voters, according to data from 2012, making Bahia the state with the fourth highest number of voters in the country. Most voters reside in the capital (and most populous city), Salvador.
All 29 parties registered in Brazil have chapters in Bahia.
According to Instituto Socioambiental, there are 14 Indigenous groups in the state: Atikum, Kaimbé, Kantaruré, Kiriri, Pankaru, Pankararé, Pataxó, Pataxó Hã-ha- hãe, Payayá, Truká, Tumbalalá, Tupinambá, Tuxá and Xukuru-Kariri.
Historically, the population was estimated at 1.45 million in the 1870s and was 1.92 million at the time of the 1890 Brazilian census.
In the interior of the state, there is the traditional culture of the vaqueiros among agricultural communities. From the 1550s onward, in Bahia, these farmers were integral to the process of expansion away from the coasts of Brazil. And the emphasis of the Tropicália movement.
During the 19th century, one of Brazil's greatest poets, the Bahian abolitionism poet and playwright Castro Alves, a native of the recôncavo city of Cachoeira, penned his poem, Navio negreiro, about slavery; the poem is considered a masterpiece of Brazilian Romanticism and a central abolitionism text.
Other notable Bahian writers include playwright and screenwriter Dias Gomes, Gregório de Matos, who wrote during the 17th century and was one of the first Brazilian writers, and Fr. António Vieira, who during the colonial period was one of many authors who contributed to the expansion of the Portuguese language throughout the Brazilian territory.
One of Brazil's most prominent writers of the 20th century, Jorge Amado, was born in the southeastern Bahian city of Itabuna, and resided for many years in Salvador. His major novels include Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon; Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands; and Tieta, the Goat Girl, all of which became internationally renowned films. Other notable authors from Bahia include the fiction writers João Ubaldo Ribeiro and historic writer Euclides da Cunha, who wrote "Os Sertões".
In the visual and plastic arts, one of the best known Bahian figures was the multigenre artist and Argentina native Hector Julio Páride Bernabó, also known as Carybé (1911–1997). Fine examples of his work are visible in the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador.
There are also several national film productions based in Bahia, such as O Pagador de Promessas, Tenda dos Milagres, Cidade Baixa and Ó Paí, Ó. The state is also the birthplace of renowned actor Wagner Moura, winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Secret Agent (2025), as well as a Golden Globe nomination for playing Pablo Escobar in Narcos, and an Annie Awards nomination for his voice-acting performance as Death in (2022).
During the Colonial Brazil and imperial periods, Bahia was a center of Brazilian sugarcane production and slave trading. In the 19th century, the Bay of All Saints was also a whaling spot, as some species of used the bay as a mating ground. By that time, the province was also growing cotton, Brazilian coffee, and tobacco with great success. cassava, rice, beans, and maize, saffron, oranges, , and other fruit were grown for local consumption. The arid interior was mostly used for cattle farmer, but this was ruined by a series of droughts caused in part by the custom of starting annual wildfires to improve the grass. , gold, and were panned for in the rivers, while coal was mined on Itaparica. Cocoa bean was being farmed by the time of the First World War. It grew more than the national average, because the state was previously below the average level.
In agriculture, the state stands out in the production of cotton, Cocoa bean, soy and tropical fruits such as coconut, papaya, mango, banana and guarana, in addition to also producing sugar cane, orange, beans and cassava, among others.
In 2017, the Northeast Region was the largest producer of coconut in the country, with 74.0% of national production. Bahia produced 351 million fruits, being the leader in the country. However, the sector has been suffering strong competition and losing market to Indonesia, the Philippines and India, the world's largest producers, who even export coconut water to Brazil. In addition to climatic problems, the low productivity of coconut palms in the Northeast Region is the result of factors related to the variety of coconut harvested and the technological level used in coastal regions. In these areas, the semi-extractive cultivation system still prevails, with low fertility and without the adoption of cultural management practices. The three states that have the largest production, Bahia, Sergipe and Ceará, present a yield three times lower than that of Pernambuco, which is in 5th place in the national production. This is because most of the coconut trees in these three states are located in coastal areas and cultivated in semi-extractivist systems.
In the production of Cocoa bean, for a long time, Bahia led the Brazilian production. Today, it is disputing the leadership of national production with the state of Pará. In 2017 Pará obtained the leadership for the first time. In 2019, people from Pará harvested 135 thousand tons of cocoa, and Bahians harvested 130 thousand tons. Bahia's cocoa area is practically three times larger than that of Pará, but Pará's productivity is practically three times greater. Some factors that explain this are: the crops in Bahia are more extractivist, and those in Pará have a more modern and commercial style, in addition to paraenses using more productive and resistant seeds, and their region providing resistance to Witch's broom.
In 2018, the Northeast was in third place among the regions that most produce sugar cane in the country. Brazil is the world's largest producer, with 672.8 million tons harvested this year. The Northeast harvested 45.7 million tons, 6.8% of national production. Alagoas is the largest producer, with 33.3% of Northeastern production (15.2 million tons). Pernambuco is the 2nd largest producer in the Northeast, with 22.7% of the total in the region (10.3 million tons). Paraíba has 11.9% of northeastern production (5.5 million tons) and Bahia, 10.24% of production (4.7 million tons).
Bahia is the 2nd largest producer of cotton in Brazil, losing only to Mato Grosso. In 2019, it harvested 1.5 million tonnes of the product.
In soy, Brazil produced close to 120 million tons in 2019, being the largest world producer. In 2019, the Northeast produced close to 10.7 million tons, or 9% of the Brazilian total. The largest producer in the Northeast was Bahia (5.3 million tons).
In the production of maize, in 2018 Brazil was the 3rd largest producer in the world, with 82 million tons. The Northeast produced about 8.4% of the country's total. Bahia was the largest producer in the Northeast, with 2.2 million tons.
In 2018, the South Region was the main producer of beans with 26.4% of the total, followed by the Midwest (25.4%), Southeast Region (25.1%), Northeast (20.6%) and North (2.5%). The largest producers in the Northeast were Ceará and Bahia.
In cassava production, Brazil produced a total of 17.6 million tons in 2018. Maranhão was the 7th largest producer in the country, with 681 thousand tons. Ceará was 9th, with 622 thousand tons. Bahia was 10th with 610 thousand tons. In total, the northeast produced 3,5 million tons.
Bahia was the fourth largest producer of oranges in Brazil in 2018, with a total of 604 thousand tons, 3,6% of the national production.
Bahia is the second largest fruit producer in the country, with more than 3.3 million tons a year, behind São Paulo. The north of Bahia is one of the main fruit suppliers in the country. The State is one of the main national producers of ten types of fruit. In 2017, Bahia led the production of cajarana, coconut, count fruit or pinecone, soursop, umbu, jackfruit, licuri, mango and passion fruit, and is in second place in cocoa almond, atemoia, cupuaçu, lime and lemon, and third in banana, carambola, guava, papaya, watermelon, melon, cherry, pomegranate and table grapes. In all, 34 products from Bahia's fruit culture have an important participation in the national economy.
Rio Grande do Norte is the largest producer of melon in the country. In 2017 it produced 354 thousand tons. The Northeast region accounted for 95.8% of the country's production in 2007. In addition to Rio Grande do Norte, which in 2005 produced 45.4% of the country's total, the other 3 largest in the country were Ceará, Bahia and Pernambuco.
In the production of papaya, in 2018 Bahia was the 2nd largest producer state in Brazil, almost equaling with Espírito Santo: 337 thousand tons.
Bahia was the largest producer of mango in the country in 2019, with production of around 281 thousand tons per year. Juazeiro (130 thousand tons per year) and Casa Nova (54 thousand tons per year) are at the top of the list of Brazilian cities that lead the cultivation of fruit.
In the production of banana, in 2018 Bahia was the 2nd largest national producer.
Bahia is the largest Brazilian producer of guaraná. In 2017, Brazilian production was close to 3.3 million tons. Bahia harvested 2.3 million (mainly in the city of Taperoá), Amazonas 0.7 million (mainly in the city of Maués) and the rest of the country, 0.3 million. Despite the fact that the fruit originated in the Amazon, since 1989 Bahia has beaten Amazonas in terms of production volume and guarana productivity, because the soil in Bahia is more favorable, in addition to the absence of diseases in the region. The most famous users of the product, however, acquire 90% to 100% of their guarana from the Amazon region, such as Ambev and Coca-Cola. Bahian guarana prices are well below those of other states, but Sudam's tax exemptions lead the beverage industry to prefer to purchase seeds in the North, which helps maintain the highest added value of Amazonian guarana. The pharmaceutical industries and importers, on the other hand, buy more guarana from Bahia, due to the price.
The Northeast region housed 93.2% of the Brazilian goat herd (8,944,461 heads) and 64.2% of the sheep herd (11,544,939 heads) in 2017. Bahia concentrated 30.9% of the goat herd and 20.9% of the national sheep herd. Casa Nova took first place in the municipal ranking with the largest numbers of both species.
In 2017, Bahia had 1.68% of the national mineral participation (4th place in the country). Bahia had production of gold (6.2 tons at a value of R$730 million), copper (56 thousand tons, at a value of R$404 million); chromite (520 thousand tons, at a value of R$254 million) and vanadium (358 thousand tons, at a value of R$91 million).
Bahia had an industrial GDP of R$53.0 billion in 2017, equivalent to 4.4% of the national industry. It employs 356,997 workers in the industry. The main industrial sectors are: Construction (24.8%), Industrial Services of Public Utility, such as Electricity and Water (15.0%), Petroleum Derivatives and Biofuels (13.8%), Chemicals (9.4%), and Food (6.1%). These 5 sectors concentrate 69.1% of the state's industry.
Bahian industry have automobile and tyre industries, footwear and textiles, furniture, food and beverages, cosmetics and perfumes, information technology and naval sectors.
In Brazil, the automotive sector represents close to 22% of industrial GDP. Bahia has a Ford factory. It was created in Camaçari (2001). The Bahian automotive sector, led by Ford was in 2005 the third largest contributor (14.6%) to the Bahian GDP.
The international airlines are Lufthansa, TAP, United Airlines, American Airlines, Alitália, Air France, Air Europa, Ibéria, Aerolíneas Argentinas, LanChile. In addition to domestic and regional services, the airport has non-stop flights to Lisbon, Madrid, Frankfurt, Montevideo, London, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Asunción and Miami. Its IATA airport code is SSA and it is the sixth busiest airport in the country, the first in northeastern Brazil, behind Congonhas International, Guarulhos International, Juscelino Kubitschek International, Santos Dumont Regional and Galeão International.
Bahia also has some smaller modern regional airports including Ilhéus Jorge Amado Airport and Porto Seguro Airport.
Also noteworthy is the BR-030, which crosses the south of Bahia in an east–west direction.
The ability to handle high shipping volume has positioned the port of Salvador for new investments in technological modernization, and the port is noted for implementing a high level of operational flexibility and competitive rates. The goal of port officials is to offer the necessary infrastructure for the movement of goods, while simultaneously meeting the needs of international importers and exporters.
Bahia is renowned for its mixed martial arts fans, with prominent fighters from this state including former heavyweight champion of both Pride Fighting Championship and Ultimate Fighting Championship Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, his twin brother Antônio Rogério Nogueira, and former Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos. In the sport of boxing, Bahian native Acelino Freitas has won the WBC belt in the lightweight class. In the Capoeira world, the actor and Capoeira Master, Lateef Crowder dos Santos is an American born in Salvador, Bahia.
Salvador was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, for which Brazil was the host nation.
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