São Paulo (, Portuguese: [sɐ̃w ˈpawlu] ) is one of the 26 states of the Federative Republic of Brazil and is named after Saint Paul of Tarsus. It is located in the Southeast Region and is bordered by the states of Minas Gerais to the north and northeast, Paraná to the south, Rio de Janeiro to the east, and Mato Grosso do Sul to the west, in addition to the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. It is divided into 645 municipalities. The total area is 248,219.481 square kilometres (95,838.077 square miles), comprising 2.9% of Brazil's territory. Its capital is the municipality of São Paulo, which is the most populous city in country.
With more than 44 million inhabitants in 2022, São Paulo is the most populous Brazilian state, comprising around 22% of the Brazilian population. It is the world's 28th-most-populous sub-national entity, the most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, and the fourth-most-populous political entity of South America, surpassed only by the rest of the Brazilian federation, Colombia, and Argentina. The local population is one of the most diverse in the country. Ethnic groups present in the state include Portuguese, who colonized Brazil; Italians, who began immigrating to the country in the late 19th century; Indigenous peoples, many distinct ethnic groups; Africans, who were brought from Africa as enslaved people in the colonial era and migrants from other regions of the country. Arabs, Armenians, Chinese, Germans, Greeks, Japanese, Spanish, and American Southerners are some other national backgrounds present in the local population.
The region of São Paulo was inhabited by Indigenous peoples from approximately 12,000 BC. In the early 16th century, the coast was visited by Portuguese and Spanish explorers and navigators. In 1532, Martim Afonso de Sousa founded São Vicente, which was the first permanent Portuguese settlement in the Americas. In the 17th century, the paulistas bandeirantes intensified the exploration of the colony's interior, which eventually expanded the territorial domain of the Portuguese Empire in South America; this would later result in the state being nicknamed the "Bandeirante State". In the 18th century, after the establishment of the province of São Paulo, the region began to gain political power, and after independence in 1822, São Paulo became a major agricultural producer in the newly constituted Empire of Brazil (mainly coffee). It developed a wealthy regional rural oligarchy over the course of the 19th century, which would shared control of the Brazilian government with the elites of Minas Gerais during the early republican period in the 1890s. Under the Vargas Era, the state was one of the first to initiate a process of industrialization and became one of the most urbanized regions of the federation.
São Paulo's economy is large and diversified, accounting for around 31% of Brazil's total wealth. It is the centre of industrial, scientific and technological production in Brazil, and is the world's largest producer of orange juice, sugar and ethanol. If it were a sovereign state, its nominal GDP would be the 21st largest in the world (2020 estimate). São Paulo is also a major tourist destination in Brazil, and has multiple sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Among all Brazilian states, it has the second-highest Human Development Index (HDI), the fourth GRDP per capita, the second-lowest infant mortality rate, the third-highest life expectancy, the lowest homicide rate, and the third-lowest rate of illiteracy.
The region of the current state of São Paulo was already inhabited by Amerindian peoples since at least approximately 10,000 BCE, as evidenced by studies carried out in ancient archaeological sites (such as the sites Caetetuba, Bastos, Boa Esperança II and Lagoa do Camargo) in different parts of the current territory of São Paulo. There are even records (e.g. - studies at the Rincão I archaeological site) that suggest that ancient human occupation was already present in São Paulo 17 thousand years ago, during the last glacial maximum. There are also several archaeological sites (such as Caetetuba, Alice Boer and Rincão I) in the central portion of the state that share similar patterns of working rocks into stone points and plano-convex artifacts similar to each other, so that they are seen as members of the same ancient ancestral culture, linked to the Rioclarense lithic industry. These ancient human groups were hunter-gatherers, living as nomads and semi-nomads in the current territory of São Paulo, living directly from what they could obtain from the local land.
In pre-European times, the area that is now São Paulo state was occupied by the Tupi people's nation, who subsisted through hunting and cultivation. The first European to settle in the area was João Ramalho, a Portuguese sailor who may have been shipwrecked around 1510, ten years after the first Portuguese landfall in Brazil. He married the daughter of a local chieftain and became a settler. In 1532, the first colonial expedition, led by Martim Afonso de Sousa of Portugal, landed at São Vicente (near the present-day port at Santos). De Sousa added Ramalho's settlement to his colony.
Early European colonization of Brazil was very limited. Portugal was more interested in Africa and Asia. But with English and French raiding privateer ships just off the coast, the territory had to be protected. Unwilling to shoulder the naval defense burden himself, the Portuguese ruler, King Joao III, divided the coast into "captaincies", or swathes of land, 50 leagues apart. He distributed them among well-connected Portuguese, hoping that each would be self-reliant. The early port and sugar-cultivating settlement of São Vicente was one rare success connected to this policy. In 1548, João III brought Brazil under direct royal control.
Fearing Indian attack, he discouraged development of the territory's vast interior. Some whites headed nonetheless for Piratininga, a plateau near São Vicente, drawn by its navigable rivers and agricultural potential. Borda do Campo, the plateau settlement, became an official town (Santo André da Borda do Campo) in 1553. The history of São Paulo city proper begins with the founding of a Jesuit mission of the Roman Catholic order of clergy on 25 January 1554—the anniversary of Saint Paul's conversion. The station, which is at the heart of the current city, was named São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga (or just Pateo do Colégio). In 1560, the threat of Indian attack led many to flee from the exposed Santo André da Borda do Campo to the walled fortified Colegio. Two years later, the Colégio was besieged. Though the town survived, fighting took place sporadically for another three decades.
By 1600, the town had about 1,500 citizens and 150 households. Little was produced for export, save a number of agricultural goods. The isolation was to continue for many years, as the development of Brazil centered on the sugar plantations in the north-east.
The city's location, at the mouth of the Tietê-Paranapanema river system (which winds into the interior), made it an ideal base for another activity—enslaving expeditions. The economics were simple. Enslaved manpower for Brazil's northern sugar plantations were in short supply. Enslaved Africans were expensive, so demand for indigenous captives soared. The task was, nonetheless, hard, if not impossible, to achieve.
Among those who attempted to enslave the native were explorers of the hinterland called "bandeirantes". From their base in São Paulo, they also combed the interior in search of natural riches. Silver, gold and diamonds were companion pursuits, as well as the exploration of unknown territories. Roman Catholic missionaries sometimes tagged along, as efforts at converting the natives' aborigines (Indians) worked hand in hand with Portuguese colonialism.
Despite their atrocities, the wild and hardy bandeirantes are now equally remembered for penetrating Brazil's vast interior. Trading posts established by them became permanent settlements. Interior routes opened up. Though the bandeirantes had no loyalty to the Portuguese crown, they did claim land for the king. Thus, the borders of Brazil were pushed forward to the northwest and the Amazon region and west to the Andes Mountains.