Rondônia

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Rondônia

Flag of Rondônia

See other Brazilian States

Capital

Porto Velho

Largest City

Porto Velho

Area

238,512.8 km²

Population
- Total
- Density

1,241,276
5.2 inh./km²

Governor

Ivo Cassol

Demonym

Rondoniano

HDI (2000)

0.755 – medium

Timezone

GMT-4

ISO 3166-2

BR-RO

Rondônia pron. IPA: [xõ.'dõ.ni.a] ^[1] is a state in Brazil, located in the north-western part of the country. To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, and in the south is Bolivia. Its capital is Porto Velho.

Other cities include:

[edit] Geography

The state has a territory covered mostly by jungle of the Amazon Rainforest, but about one-fifth of the state has been deforested since intensive settlement began in the 1970s. A majority of its citizens now live in urban areas. It is a main exporter of wood, as well as a significant producer of both coffee and an important cattle breeder.

[edit] History

Rondônia is named after Cândido Rondon, who made several exploratory expeditions through Brazilian borderlines in the early 20th century, including one expedition with former American president Teddy Roosevelt, down a tributary of the Amazon River . The only substantive economic activity in the region was rubber-tapping, which collapsed when the Brazilian rubber economy collapsed just before World War I.

The territory was set apart from Mato Grosso in 1943, under the name Guaporé, as a part of Getulio Vargas' policies to secure frontiers. The initial beginnings of the development of cattle-breeding and coffee production was possible thanks to the deliberate colonization and road-building efforts under the military regime which took power in 1964. The prominent Pólo-Noroeste project implemented by the federal government in the 1970s was designed to encourage emigration to the undeveloped area.

The Pólo-Noroeste programme increased Rondônia's population by more than ten-fold between 1970 and the present, from around 100,000 to today's nearly 1.25 million. Every city in the state except for Porto Velho and Guajará-Mirim were built by Pólo-Noroeste settlers. After implementing the Pólo-Noroeste project, the federal government put into place the Planaforo programme, to deal with environment and Amerindian issues, notably the defining of Amerindian reserve borders. Both Planafloro and Polonoroeste received substantial support from the World Bank.

In 1980, the Samuel Hydroelectric Plant was built, allowing a massive upswing in the production of timber, minerals, civil construction and foodstuffs to occur.

In 1993, another upswing occurred when the Guajará-Mirim free trade area was established. Bordering on Bolivia, this free trade area increased trade between Rondônia and Bolivia by a substantial degree.

In the late 1990s, Rondônia began to exploit its natural beauty in order to attract tourists. Porto Velho is situated on the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon, and the Lago do Cuniã is located in the state.

[edit] Flag

The flag was designed by Silvio Carvalho Feitosa and adopted with complementary Law No. 41 of December 22, 1981. The flag uses the same colors as the flag of Brazil, with the big star in the middle symbolizing the new state. The star is displayed rising into the blue sky, stretching over Brazil (the yellow and green areas in the lower half of the flag).

[edit] Minority Languages

Djeoromitxi (Jabutí, also Jabotí, Yabuti and Iabuti), a Macro-Ge language, Gavião, nhengatu (Lingua Geral, traditionally a Lingua Franca, a native Tupian-based, jesuitic language widely spoken in times past throughout Brazil but utilized only by small groups of people today), Tenharim, Amundava, Surui (or Suruí de Rondônia]], etc.

Some of the extinct indigenous languages previously spoken in the state of Rondônia are the following: Tukumanféd, Karipuná (almost extinct, with around a dozen speakers left alive), Wiraféd, etc.

Among the newcomers' languages spoken in the state of Rondonia, Brazil, since the late 1960's, is the Pomeranian (Germanic) language of migrants arriving from the old German seattlements from the state of Espírito Santo, located just above the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.