From the mixture of Indigenous people, Africans, and Portuguese emerged a new ethnic group, especially the so-called “caboclo,” the union of Indigenous and Portuguese people. While life in large coastal cities and the capital was more dynamic, the interior faced enormous difficulties. The caboclos, spread throughout the hinterland, generally worked the land for subsistence farming. Living in remote areas with forests and wild animals, isolated in rural communities, they led a simple life far from civilization. Over time, rural settlements gradually developed into towns.

With the strengthening of sugarcane and coffee cultivation in São Paulo, a rural elite emerged in the countryside. Farms multiplied, and colonies were built to house workers—caboclos as well as migrants from Minas Gerais and the Northeast, along with other immigrants—to work in agriculture. Access to farms was often poor or nonexistent, making it difficult to transport agricultural products. From the 1870s onward, the agrarian elite, who also held key government positions, began establishing railway companies to expand the Campinas region and the interior of São Paulo in search of agricultural wealth, including the Paulista, Mogiana, and Sorocabana lines.

THE GREAT ENGINE OF DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEW CITIES

A railway branch became of great importance to the region studied. It began as part of the Companhia Carril Agrícola Funilense (1870–1890), later called Ramal Férreo Campineiro (1890–1905), and then Estrada de Ferro Funilense (1905–1924), eventually incorporated into the Sorocabana Railway. With less than 100 km in length, it was initially built from Usina Esther (Cosmópolis), departing from Campinas, aiming mainly to transport sugar and coffee to Santos for export. With the expansion driven by coffee production, the railway extended to the banks of the Mogi Guaçu River. Along this line, towns such as Artur Nogueira, Engenheiro Coelho, Jaguariúna, Conchal, and Pádua Salles emerged. The line was deactivated in 1960 and dismantled in 1962.

From 1850 onward, with the international ban on the African slave trade, Campinas farmers sought alternatives to replace labor, especially as slave prices increased, encouraging the development of new productive activities.