Brazilian Colonial Development Of Brazil

The transatlantic slave trade was a primary structuring force of brazilian society. When Brazil became independent in 1822 from portugal, the slave trade was perceived as a dominant activity in the country's economy because it involved so much formation and investments. Slavery played a significant role in the structure of Brazil considering that the system of involuntary labor was the biggest and most extended of all the slave societies in the Atlantic world. This molded Brazilian ways of life including jobs, transportation, economic concerns, political factors and culture in many ways.

Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888, with a legacy that was built on the backs of African slaves. For over five-hundred years, the Portuguese engaged in the Transatlantic Slave Trade with Brazil as the main recipient, where, between 1502 and 1867, almost half of Africans being imported to the Americas were sent to Brazil. (“Brazil: A Racial Paradise”, Black In Latin America, 2011, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting Service, Web) The unfortunate reality of the slave trade to Brazil has led to a prevalent issue in modern-day society there: the influx of Africans during that time period has led to a large population of modern Afro-Brazilians who are disproportionately recognized by the government and society as a whole. Politically, Afro-Brazilians have little control over

In history, what often occurred was that influential individuals who occupied the middle ground during exploration were forgotten. These third-party individuals are called go-betweens and they helped Europeans connect with different cultural groups. The 16th century brought enormous change by the Portuguese to the indigenous groups who lived in Brazil. The colonization of Brazil owes its success to transactional, representational, and physical/biological go-betweens. The book, Go-betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, written by Alida Metcalf explores the roles of these go-betweens and their impact.

Brazil is famous for its three main exports – sugar, gold and coffee and the discovery, production and distribution of these materials was mainly down to African slaves. After the

. Before the first Africans arrived in British North America in 1619, more than half a million African captives had already been transported and enslaved in Brazil. By the end of the nineteenth century, that number had risen to more than 4 million. Northern European powers soon followed Portugal and Spain into the transatlantic slave trade. The majority of African captives were carried by the Portuguese, Brazilians, the British, French, and Dutch. British slave traders alone transported 3.5 million Africans to the Americas.

The concept of aesthetics describes what people of certain cultures tend to consider to be popular or in good taste (Wild & Wild, 2014). To this extent, despite being mostly unified by a single language, Brazil represents such a diverse culture that regional aesthetic variances could almost seem like they were different countries altogether (Castano, Goossens, Terlouw, and Vliet, n.d.). According to Encyclopedia Britannica, of all the cultures that make up the Brazilian way of life, the Portuguese culture is the dominant influence and provides the main language, religion, and many customs. Indigenous Indians and African influences are also apparent in some forms, especially in certain parts of the country.

In order to completely grasp the colonization of Brazil, one must first take a look at the different global forces that shaped the settlement and growth of Brazil. Beginning with the first inhabitants of Brazil in order to fully understand how it all began, then moving on to when the Portuguese arrived in 1500, and finally understanding how Brazil gained its independence will successfully explain how different global forces shaped the settlement and growth of Brazil. Factors that are still apart of Brazil today due to European colonization is the huge population of indigenous people living in the jungles of Brazil and the extremely intermingled population. Without the European explorers sailing to Brazil the population might of never, or at least to the intensity of it today, be intermixed. The indigenous people may still life on the outskirts of Brazil, instead of never being forced inward into the jungle.

Valuable goods to trade and land was their main goals. Some of them were planning to stay in Brazil and some others wanted to go back to their families in Portugal to sell the goods they found. One thing they found was a tree that goes by the name of Caesalpinia Echinata. But was originally named ‘pau do brasil’ before the 16th when it was changed. Which was a Brazil wood tree and with the tree they found out they could create red dye. Soon the Portuguese decided they wanted to stay, they started to import African slaves. Sugar became very popular and produced greatly in the area. The Portuguese over the years frequently intermarried the African slaves with the Native Indians to represent a diverse population. Brazil came exceptionally diverse over the years with including the following; Europeans, Africans, Amerindian, Asian, and many others. But like how other countries got their name, it was changed quite a few times. Brazil was first called IIha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross). But very soon they quickly changed it to Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross) because they were soon to realize that Brazil isn’t an

Imperialism is a process that started around 1600s. The imperialism is the act of dominating one country and changing the lives of the individuals. There are many resources that are found and developed in Brazil that led to a Portuguese colonization of Brazil. Portuguese was the first that sailed out to the region of what came to be Brazil. These region was perfect in every way. For example, the northeast region has a nice weather to grow sugar, and the location near the ports were very convenient to Portuguese. The Portuguese started out as sugar plantation, and later they found another important resources, gold. The Portuguese also used the colonies to develop another important source of life, cotton. As Pombal was raised to throne, his

Portugal’s colonization begins with the Treaty of Tordesilhas in 1494, which marked Portugal and Spain’s control over South America along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. It wasn’t until 1536 that a unique system of government was put in place in Brazil; fifteen donatary captaincies were established, which were land grants given to a private person equivalent to a royal governor. The Royal Charter for the Captaincy of Pernambuco issued to Duarte Coelho on September 24, 1534 defined how captaincies would function; these captaincies had their own mini-constitutions called forals, which defined the captain-settler relationship to the crown, and many other power; the “governors” could set up a government, had a monopoly over

More than 8000 years ago, the Portuguese were the first European settlers to arrive in Brazil, led by Pedro Cabral. Other explorers followed Cabral, searching for valuable goods for trade, unsettled land, and to escape poverty in Portugal. The Portuguese settlers in Brazil were less focused on conquering the country, but they were more interested in trade and agriculture. Since there was a lot of trade going on, slaves were a popular in the market. Settlers frequently married with the Indians and the African slaves. As a result, Brazil's population is mixed with various types of cultures. Most Brazilians are a combination of European, African, Amerindian, Asian, and Middle Eastern lineage to this day.

The Portuguese left a legacy in Brazil in terms of demography mainly through the extermination of much of the indigenous population, the bringing in of the African slaves and the miscegenation that is a quintessential feature of Brazil. As mentioned earlier, the Portuguese tried to enslave the indigenous natives, but approximately 90% of the 11 million native Brazilians had perished by 1600 (Brazilian Indians). The native indigenous population is substantially lower in present-day Brazil, with approximately 900,000 claiming an indigenous native identity. These people comprise about only 0.4 of the country’s total population. The Portuguese maltreatment of the indigenous peoples has carried on through the course of Brazilian history, as

The term genocide was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin meaning, “different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.” [1]. The genocide of the Yanomami Nation is overlooked in the history of Brazil, but should not be forgotten or minimized. In the 1980’s, up to forty-thousand gold prospectors sought to exterminate the Yanomami Indigenous Nation by bringing unknown diseases and destroying the villages in which the inhabitants resided in.

I am researching the economy of Brazil. The definition of economy: The Management of the income, expenditures, etc of a household, business, community, or government. Careful management of wealth, resources, etc; avoidance of waste by careful planning use; thrift or thrifty use. (1) The system or range of economic activity in a country, region, or community. (2)

During the colonial period, from 1500 till 1822, the Portuguese did not promoted their own language in Brazil, in contrast to the French and British colonisers. The French were single minded in the prosecution of their language and they were consicious of a ‘civilizing mission’ (Phillipson 111). Whereas the Portuguese main goals were not related to missionary or civilizing mission, they were primarily interested in wealth and resources. At first they were not planning to actually live in Brazil, therefore language policy was not their first concern. However this changed and more white, Portuguese men settled down in Brazil and due to the lack of European women, married the local women. In present Brazil 38.5% of the population is mulatto (CIA World Factbook), which is a mixture of black and white, as a result of these mixed marriages. The new ‘mulatto’ generation mainly learned to speak the language of the Tupinambá tribe, who were living along the Atlantic Coast