Early history

Archaeological sites in Caetité show continuous settlement in the area for more than 6,000 years. The earliest known inhabitant are the Jê people, who are closely related to the Tupinaé and Pataxós peoples. Some sources say that the Maracá (or Paiaiá) people occupied the region between the Serra do Sincorá and the Serra de Caetité at the end of the 16th century, and that Aracapá occupied the region between Minas do Rio de Contas and Caetité in the 17th century.^[6]

Caetité was a nucleus of Catholic proselytism of indigenous people in the 17th century. Cattle ranchers settled in the region at the same time due to the mild climate and water sources. After the establishment of permanent farms, the town served as one of the few resting stops for tropeiros, or cattle drovers, and miners travelling between Minas Gerais and the Chapada Diamantina.^[7][6]

18th century

Several families settled in the region at the beginning of the 18th century. Minas do Rio de Contas was separated from Jacobina in 1724; it included lands that would belong to Caetité. The Carvalho family erected a church dedicated to Saint Anne in 1740, which soon generated a small settlement. It was elevated to the category of parish in 1754, under the name Santana do Caetité, and was a district of Minas do Rio de Contas. The population of Caetité petitioned the Portuguese Crown raise the parish to the category of village at the end of the 18th century. This was successful when Vila Nova do Príncipe and Santana were created on April 5, 1810.

19th century

Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, a German biologists, visited Caetité in 1817 as part of an expedition of the interior of Brazil commissioned by Maximilian I Joseph, king of Bavaria. They wrote favorably about Caetité, noting that it was the most prosperous in the region, due to the cultivation of cotton. They also recorded the presence of a Latin royal school.^[7]

Major Silva Castro, a hero of the Independence of Bahia, was a resident of Caetité. His daughter, Pórcia, was kidnapped by Leolino Pinheiro de Azevedo. The episode inspired the novel Sinhazinha by the Afrânio Peixoto. Silva Castro was the grandfather of the poet Castro Alves.

The village participated indirectly in the struggles for the Independence of Bahia, which occurred as part of the larger independence movement of Brazil. The residents of Caetité supporting the Provisional Government installed in Cachoeira, a village in the Bahian Recôncavo outside the city of Salvador. Struggles against the Portuguese ended in the Bahian Recôncavo in 1823, and some fighting between Brazilians and Portuguese occurred in Caetité.

Uranium mining

Caetité is the only producer of uranium in Latin America.^[3] The Concentrate Unit Nuclear Company of Brazil (Portuguese: Unidade de Concentrado de Urânio, of (URA)) Fazenda Cachoeira mine is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the city center of Caetite. It operated from 2000 to 2014, and supplied fuel to Brazilian nuclear power plants, Angra 1, Angra 2 and, soon, Angra 3. There were five recorded accidents that contaminated the soil and water table of Caetite between 2000 and 2009. The municipalities also accused the company of high rates of cancer among the local population due to contact with radioactive material.^[9][8]