The village of São Paulo had its beginnings Piratininga January 25, 1554 with the construction of a Jesuit school, parents Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta, between the rivers and Tamanduateí Anhangabaú. This school, which operated in a rustic hut, was designed to catechesis of indigenous peoples living in the region. The building still exists, and is known by the name of Patio do Colegio.
The population of the region began in 1560, when Mem de Sá, governor-general of the colony, sent to the people of the village of Santo André da Borda do Campo to the area around the school, called "School of São Paulo Piratininga" - the name was chosen because the 25th of January the Catholic Church celebrates the Conversion of the Apostle Paul of Tarsus. In this way, the town of Santo André da Borda do Campo São Paulo is extinct and was upgraded to a villa.
São Paulo remained during the next two centuries, as a poor and isolated village in the center of gravity of the colony, and kept by subsistence labor.
As the poorest region of the colony began in São Paulo the Bandeirantes activity, which were scattered throughout the countryside to hunt Indians, gold and diamonds. The discovery of gold in the Minas Gerais region did the attentions of the Portuguese authorities were set in Sao Paulo, who was elevated to city status in 1711. When the gold ran out in the late eighteenth century, São Paulo began the cycle of sugar, which spread through the interior of the province as the city of São Paulo was responsible for directing production to the port of Santos.
In 1828 when the first law school, which gave new impetus to the growth of the city with the influx of students and teachers, along with the growth of coffee production in the regions of Campinas and Rio Claro. During this period, the province began to receive large numbers of immigrants, especially Italians, of whom many settled in the capital, São Carlos, and began installing the first industries.