Source: Oxford Atlas of the World, 13th ed, 2006: p. 333.
Notes: Ouro Preto is underlined in the interior north of Rio de Janeiro. As you can see it is on the edge of one of the few mountainous regions of Brazil. Gold was discovered there in 1698, which caused Ouro Preto (first named Vila Rica: rich town) to become the center of the greatest gold and silver rush in Latin America up to that year. Twenty years later, the town became the capital of the Portuguese / Brazilian province of Minas Gerais (general mines). Nowadays, the capital of Minas Gerais is Belo Horizonte (at the top middle of the map above). Furthermore, in the 1790's Brazilian intellectuals and political activists met here to start an independence movement from Portugal. The Portuguese monarchy undid the plot and executed the movement's leader, who was a dentist. The dentist was thereafter known as Tiradentes (tooth puller)