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Brazil Legacy

Decent Essays

Legacy #2: Economy
The Portuguese left another legacy in the form of the economy in Brazil, as elements of the single export-based economy are still clear to this day. The Portuguese came to Brazil with the purpose of extracting the bountiful resources and taking them for their own economic gain. The first major export was sugarcane in the Northeastern region of the country, where large tracts of land were controlled by Portuguese landowners and would be cultivated by African slaves (OECD). Brazil primarily focused on sugarcane, which ultimately failed around 1700 when other countries took over the sugarcane production industry (The Brazil Business). Gold and other precious stones and metals then replaced sugarcane as the primary export, …show more content…

The Portuguese sent Jesuit priests during the early colonial period to teach the indigenous peoples primarily the language and religion, to communicate with them so that they could control and enslave them (Brown University Library). After the Jesuits were expulsed from the Portuguese colonies due to political and economic interests, there were no teachers or locations to teach students. According to Maciel and Neto, the Portuguese government in the colonial period did all that was possible to exempt itself from “its responsibility through the use of ploys, projects, and taxes to finance education” which has translated into the education system today (Maciel, Neto). Another way in which the Portuguese have created a legacy in the education system in Brazil that can still be seen to this day is through the pervasive inequality in the education systems available to the poor and wealthy. The Portuguese nobles and upper middle class, starting in the colonial period, sent their children to private schools in Brazil and universities in Europe (Maciel, Neto). By comparison, the children of the people who were less wealthy in Brazil were granted poorly funded education, and many students dropped out to work and support their family instead (Maciel, Neto). These two different levels of quality in education are still very evident in Brazil today, as public schools have a less rigorous curriculum, less funding and are frequented by students of lower social strata, while private schools provide many more opportunities, an overall better education and are comprised primarily of students of higher social strata due to the high costs for attending (Otis). Also, the concept of universal public education has been absent in Brazil until very recently, and this contributed to the lack of a strong public school system

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