ABSTRACT
The Brazilian city of São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos(Saint Savior of the Bay of All Saints), in the past usually just called Bahia, is aproduct of human mobility. In its colonial heyday it was the center of vast net-works characterized by the mobility of people, products, and ideas. Salvador, founded in 1548, was a new place, an old place, and a hybrid place, containing great ethnic and cultural diversity. Other great colonial cities, such as Mexico City or Cuzco, Peru, arose from the ashes of just-conquered indigenous empires, often incorporating their neighborhoods, people, and even building stones into new European-style cities. The original inhabitants of the Bay of All Saints were not city builders, and so the Portuguese settlers there had to start from scratch. The city that they constructed over time had no rival for importance or magnificence on the entire eastern coast of South America for several centuries.
