Birmingham | |
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State | England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Capital | |
Population | 1036878 |
Birmingham ( (listen) BUR-ming-əm) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the second-largest city, urban area and metropolitan area in England and the United Kingdom, with roughly 1.1 million inhabitants within the city area, 2.9 million inhabitants within the urban area and 4.3 million inhabitants within the metropolitan area and lies within the most populated English district. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom.Located in the West Midlands county and region in England, approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Central London, Birmingham, as one of the United Kingdom's major cities, is considered to be the social, cultural, financial, and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city centre.
A market town of Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew in the 18th-century Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791, it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century.
Barra Mansa | |
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State | Rio de Janeiro |
Country | Brazil |
Capital | |
Population | 177861 |
Barra Mansa is a Brazilian municipality located in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
It is in the microregion of the Paraíba Valley, within the mesoregion of the South Fluminense. It is located at latitude 22º32'39 "south, longitude 44º10'17" west and altitude of 381 meters. Its estimated population in 2013 was of 179,472 inhabitants, forming a conurbation with the cities of Volta Redonda and Pinheiral with a population of more than 450 thousand inhabitants. It has an area of 548.9 km².
The administrative and legislative center is in the Centro district. In it are located the city hall and the City Hall). The judicial center is the Barbará neighborhood, where the municipal forum is located.
In 1954 the district of Volta Redonda was emancipated and, in 1991, it was Quatis's turn, taking with him the districts of Ribeirão de São Joaquim and Falcão. In 1993 Antônio Rocha was elevated to the condition of district, as well as the district Santa Rita de Cássia, in 2006.
The population of Barra Mansa is made up of descendants of European immigrants (mainly Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish), but also French and German, as well as a dynamic Syrian-Lebanese colony, as well as Amerindians and African descendants.
The municipality has the second largest population of the South Fluminense mesoregion, has more than 528 industrial units, a large rail, road and river junction. It is located in a privileged area, close to the two largest Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is also close to regional economic centers such as São José dos Campos, Juiz de Fora and Volta Redonda. Barra Mansa has a per capita income above the national average of R $13,956.15 [5], and has a Human Development Index (HDI) considered high by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) of 0.806 (year 2000 ). It is sixth in the ranking of best Human Development Index (HDI-M) among the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro.
Barra Mansa has a strong and traditional shopping center, vital to the municipality's economy.
Around 1700, arriving in São Paulo was an almost impossible task, because of the natural barrier created by the Serra do Mar. But for the trip to become faster, the governor Luís Vaía Monteiro ordered a way through the Itaguaí mountain range.
After completing the route, several incursions were made to the Paraíba do Sul River, but without the commitment to form villages or towns. These incursions were almost always made up of adventurers looking for gold. The first clue to settlement occurred in 1764 when Francisco Gonçalves de Carvalho obtained with the viceroy D. Antônio Álvares da Cunha a sesmaria to found a farm of cattle and supplies (Fazenda da Posse) between the Paraíba River of the South and the river Bananal, exactly in the place where there was a stream called Barra Seca or Barra Mansa.
In 1764, the Vice King of Brazil, Antônio Álvares da Cunha, granted a sesmaria to the farmer Francisco Gonçalves de Carvalho. Thus was born in these lands the first building of the Vila de São Sebastião da Barra Mansa.