The South Region of Brazil (; ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory of Brazil. Its whole area is smaller than that of the state of Minas Gerais, in Southeast Brazil, for example. It is a tourist, economic and cultural pole. It borders Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, as well as the Centre-West and Southeast regions, and the Atlantic Ocean. The region is considered the safest in Brazil to visit, having a lower crime rate than other regions in the country. History Pre-Columbian history By the time the first European explorers arrived, all parts of the territory were inhabited by semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer native tribes. They subsisted on a combination of hunting, fishing, and gathering. Portuguese colonization European colonization in Southern Brazil started with the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish Jesuit missionaries. They lived among the Indians and converted them to Catholicism. Colonists from São Paulo (Bandeirantes) arrived in the same period. For decades, the Portuguese and Spanish crowns disputed over this region. Due to this conflict, the King of Portugal encouraged the immigration of settlers from the Azores Islands to Southern Brazil, in an attempt to build up a Portuguese population. Between 1748 and 1756, six thousand Azoreans arrived. They composed over half of the population of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina by the late 18th century. German settlement The first German immigrants came to Brazil soon after it gained independence in 1822 from Portugal. They were recruited to work as small farmers because there were many land holdings without sufficient workers. To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised them large tracts where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. The first immigrants arrived in 1824, settling in the city of São Leopoldo. Over the next four decades, another 27,256 Germans were brought to Rio Grande do Sul to work as smallholders in the country. By 1904, it is estimated that 50,000 Germans had settled in this state. In Santa Catarina, most German immigrants were not brought by the Brazilian government but by private groups that promoted the immigration of Europeans to the Americas, such as the Hamburg Colonization Society. These groups created rural communities or colonies for immigrants, many of which