Aquidauana

Aquidauana lies at the edge of the Pantanal in Mato Grosso country, where the river of the same name crosses seasonal wetlands and dry woodland. Floods spread across low ground during the wet season, then recede to leave lagoons and pasture. Fish, game and water birds made the river corridor rich, while higher ground offered routes and settlement sites during high water.

Guató and other Indigenous peoples used the rivers, lakes and channels of the Pantanal for fishing, gathering and canoe travel. The Aquidauana and Negro valleys formed part of a wider network linking the Paraguay basin with the uplands to the east. Horses and cattle later entered the region through Spanish and Portuguese colonial expansion, changing the economy of the open grasslands. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ranching expanded along the eastern edge of the Pantanal, and the river became a route for cattle, hides and provisions. Settlements followed land grants and military posts, often placed above the seasonal flood.