Ouro Prêto Minas Gerais Brazil

Minas Gerais had been first explored by Fernão Dias Pais Leme between 1664 and 1677, though he was not the first European to enter the area.

Colonists had vainly sought gold in Brazil from the period of first settlement; the discovery in 1692–95 of large deposits by bands of adventurers from the São Paulo settlements leads to a mad rush for the new mines, rapidly changing the course of Brazilian settlement.

Towns spring up in Minas Gerais as if by magic in the hitherto unbroken wilderness, while large sections of the coast are virtually depopulated.

Enslaved workers from Brazil's sugar plantations and Africa's gold-working regions, who are quickly brought into the region, introduce several mining techniques there.

Minas Gerais had at first formed part of the captaincy of São Paulo, but in 1720 it is established as a separate captaincy general and is brought more directly under the Portuguese crown.