Parnagua

Parnaguá lies beside a large lake in the southern Piauí interior. Its waters and surrounding grasslands supported Indigenous communities including the Pimenteira and Acoroá before Portuguese cattle estates advanced into the region. The lake became the site of a colonial settlement on its western shore, amid a region of seasonal rivers and dry uplands.

By 1751 a settlement stood beside the lake. Portuguese authorities made Parnaguá a vila in the early 1760s, as ranching and colonial administration extended into the southern interior. Expansion was met by resistance: the Acoroá and other Indigenous peoples fought to defend their lands, and colonial authorities organised military campaigns against them during the eighteenth century, including the establishment of a military camp on the Parnaguá River in 1739.