The area began to be populated in the end of the century XVIII, with the opening of a trail that took to the gold mines of Cuiabá and Goiás. Leaving Piracicaba, going by Rio Claro, going up the scarps of the hillsides of the plateau, going by the fields, forests and savannahs of Araraquara, pioneering groups settled down in the area. The history of São Carlos has beginning in 1831, with the demarcation of Sesmaria of Pinhal. In the date of the foundation, November 4, 1857, the population was composed by some small houses around of the chapel and their residents were, in her largest part, heirs of the family Arruda Botelho, first proprietors of the lands of Sesmaria of Pinhal. São Carlos is elevated to the town category in 1865 and the City hall is vested. In 1874 the town counted on 6.897 inhabitants and he stood out in the area for his fast growth and regional importance. In 1880, town raisin the city and in 1886, with a population of 16.104 inhabitants, it already possesses wide urban infrastructure. Between 1831 and 1857 the pioneering coffee plantations are formed, marking the beginning of the first economical activity of larger expression in São Carlos. The coffee farming arrives at Farm Pinhal in 1840 and he/she disperses for all of the fertile lands in the municipal district, becoming the main export product. The city appears in the context of the expansion of the coffee farming, that it is outstanding in the last decades of the century XIX and in the first of the century two XX. The arrival of the railroad in 1884 propitiated an efficient system to drain the production for the port of Santos and he/she gave a great pulse to the development of the economy of the area. The railroad also contributed so that the central area of the city was firm as place of political and economical prominence. In the last decades of the century XIX happened the social phenomenon that more influence left in the central area of the State of São Paulo: the immigration. São Carlos received German immigrants brought by Conde of Pinhal in 1876, and from 1880 to 1904, the municipal district was one of the immigrants' of the State of São Paulo main attractive poles. His/her great majority was original of the septentrional areas of Italy. The immigrants came to work in the farmings of coffee and, thanks to their abilities, they also acted in the manufacture and in the trade. In the beginning of the century XX countless cultural societies existed and of mutual help that you/they developed social activities with the purpose of promoting the education, standing out Vittorio Emanuele, 1900, and Dante Alighieri, 1902. The Italian immigrants' presence was so big that during the first decades of the century XX, the Italian government maintained a vice consulate in São Carlos. The coffee crisis of 1929 took the immigrants to leave her the rural activity, starting to work in the urban center as workers in the workshops, in the trade, in the services rendered, in the factory of wood workmanships and of ceramic and in the building site. The farmers applied the profits obtained with the coffee in the constitution of several companies in São Carlos: banks, companies of electric light, of trolleys, telephones, systems of water and sewer, theater, hospitals and schools, strengthening the urban infrastructure and creating conditions for the industrialization. With the immigrants' knowledge and with the migrants' of other urban centers arrival in the decades of 30 and 40, the industry consolidates as the main economical activity of São Carlos, that arrives at the decade of 50 as differentiated center, with relevant industrial expression among the cities of the interior of the State of São Paulo. The industrial section also grew starting from workshops that served to the plantations of coffee. The production of improvement machines, shoes, fertilizers, ironworks, pieces of furniture, pasta and cigars, as well as the tailor's workshop, breweries, foundries, sawmills, weaving, a pencil industry and brickworks mark the economy of São Carlos in the thirties. In the decades of 50 and 60 the industry solidifies with the installation of factories of refrigerators, compressors, tractors and a great amount of small and medium companies, suppliers of products and services. In the second half of the century XX, the city receives a great pulse for his/her technological and education development with the implantation, in April of 1953, of the School of Engineering of São Carlos, linked to the University of São Paulo (USP), and, in the decade of 70, with the creation of the Federal University of São Carlos