Sergipe

Sergipe, smallest estado (state) of Brazil, located on the southern coast of that country’s northeastern bulge into the Atlantic Ocean. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic, on the south and west by the state of Bahia, and on the north by the state of Alagoas, from which it is separated by the São Francisco River. The state capital is Aracaju. Sergipe is named after Serigy, who was a gallant native Indian chief.

Located between the captaincies of Pernambuco and Bahia (the latter being at the time the seat of the general government) in the 16th century, Sergipe Rei, as it was then called, was conquered and settled by cattlemen and sugar planters from Bahia. The local Indians were easily subdued by the firearms of Cristóvão de Barros, who founded the city of São Cristóvão, the first capital, in 1590. In 1820 Sergipe became an independent captaincy. It became a province of the empire in 1824 and a state of the Brazilian republic in 1889.

The state is divided into two major geographic regions, a narrow, low, heavily forested coastal region and a higher inland zone of rough open country, including tablelands rising to mountainous areas in the west. The northern part of the state drains into the São Francisco River, the southern part into the Atlantic.

The coastal area of Sergipe is hot, with adequate rainfall extending into the São Francisco valley; the interior is hot and dry and subject to both flood and drought. Vegetation is distributed as follows: 34 percent tropical forests, 50 percent thorny deciduous scrub woodland, called caatinga, and 16 percent coastal vegetation. The forests of the coastal zone have almost been destroyed; only palms and cashew trees still abound. Bird life includes varieties of tinamou, and there are some mammals such as deer and cavies and armadillos.

Population density is heaviest in the coastal and central regions. More than half of the population is urban. The most populous cities are Aracaju, Nossa Senhora do Socorro, Itabaiana, Lagarto, and São Cristóvão. More than three-fourths of the people are of mixed racial origin; most are Afro-Brazilian. Higher education in the estado is furnished by the Federal University of Sergipe, founded in 1967, in Aracaju. The São Cristóvão Museum has a collection of colonial-era art.

The economy of the state is predominantly agricultural. Oranges, sugarcane, coconut, and cassava (manioc) are the principal agricultural crops. Agriculture is concentrated on the lower, fertile lands, the higher interior being devoted primarily to raising livestock. Livestock includes mostly cattle, as well as hogs, sheep, and goats. Sergipe’s petroleum reserves are being increasingly exploited. There are also reserves of rock salt, potassium, kaolin, gypsum, limestone, and manganese. The industrial sector contains several traditional industries: sugarcane processing, textiles, and small food-processing enterprises (cassava meal, rice, coconut meal, and milk). Electricity is available in abundance from the Xingó and Paulo Afonso hydroelectric complexes on the São Francisco River.

Sergipe has several thousand miles of roads and is served by the Brazilian East Federal Railway Transit System. A railway bridge over the São Francisco River linking Propriá (Sergipe) with Pôrto Real do Colégio (Alagoas) was constructed in the 1970s. Area 8,459 square miles (21,910 square km). Pop. (2010) 2,068,017.