after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic.
Until the early years of the 20th century, the city was largely limited to the
neighbourhood now known as the historic city centre (see below), on the mouth
of Guanabara Bay. The city's centre of gravity began to shift south and west to
the so-called Zona Sul (South Zone) in the early part of the 20th century, when
the first tunnel was built under the mountains located between Botafogo and the
neighbourhood now known as Copacabana. Expansion of the city to the north and
south was facilitated by the consolidation and electrification of Rio's
streetcar transit system after 1905. Botafogo's natural beauty, combined with
the fame of the Copacabana Palace Hotel,
the
luxury hotel of the Americas in the 1930s, helped Rio to gain the reputation it
still holds today as a beach party town (though, this reputation has been
somewhat tarnished in recent years by favela violence resulting from the
narcotics trade). Plans for moving the nation's capital city to the territorial
centre had been occasionally discussed, and when Juscelino Kubitschek was
elected president in 1955, it was partially on the strength of promises to
build a new capital. Though many thought that it was just campaign rhetoric,
Kubitschek managed to have Brasília built, at great cost, by 1960. On April 21
that year the capital of Brazil was officially moved from Rio de Janeiro to
Brasília.
Between 1960 and 1975, Rio was a city-state under the name Guanabara State
(after the bay it borders). However, for administrative and political reasons,
a presidential decree known as "The Fusion" removed the city's
federative status and merged it with the State of Rio de Janeiro, the territory
surrounding the city whose capital was Niterói, in 1975. Even today, some Cariocas advocate the return of
municipal autonomy.
