Pre-Columbian Brazil
Native Brazilian History and culture are rich and diversified, with more than 305 different ethnicities inhabiting different parts of the country. The languages of the originary peoples are hugely varied, and can be divided into four main language families: the Tupi (Coastal Regions), which includes Tupi-Guarani, Mondé, Tuparí, Juruna, Mundurukú, and Ramarána, the Macro-Jê (Central Plateau), such as Aimoré, Jê, Bororo, Botocudo, Karajá, and Maxakalí, the Aruak (Lower Amazon), and the Karib (regions from the North and Midwest), not including smaller families like the Tukano and Yanomami, and isolated languages. Among the Tupi-Guarani groups, the Tupi inhabited the coastal regions from Ceará to São Paulo, while the Guarani occupied the southern coast and the watersheds of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers. Thus, the Tupi (more specifically, the Tupinambá) were the ones who first made contact with the Europeans, and it is from Tupi-Guarani that most Brazilian words of native origins come from. Native Brazilians usually thrived on agriculture (especially of cassava), hunting-gathering, and fishing lifestyles. Among coastal peoples, sea fruits were some of the main sources of food, leaving traits of their discarded shells in archeological formations known as "sambaquis". The sambaquis are of huge archeological importance of this age, as they allow the study of the culture and History of the peoples who inhabited the coastal region.
While there aren't any signs of centralized empires such as the Inca and Aztec kingdoms, there are many traces of complex, densely-packed societies with tens of thousands of members in large villages, albeit most were usually grouped between 600 and 700 people. There were many commercial connections through trails between different villages and peoples, with the most famous of them, Peabiru, uniting what is today the city of Asunción in Paraguay with the region of São Paulo. It is believed there were contacts and commerce between the Tupi-Guarani and the Inca, as Andean objects have been discovered in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo.
In the Northern region, the island of Marajós in the mouth of the Amazon river has a rich collection of complex urns, vases, and other ceramics made by the Marajoara, who lived on the island from 500 to 1300 AD. The presence of Terra Preta (Black Soil), a highly fertile soil in the Amazon basin, is believed to have been artificially crafted by pre-Columbian peoples in order to better cultivate in the poor Amazonian soil.
According to Funai, there were around 1 to 5 million Natives in Brazil by the time Portugal arrived, although it is worth noting that the modern concept of Brazil didn't exist yet. The closest might be Pindorama, the name given to the region around the litoral of Brazil in Tupi.
Colonial Brazil
The relationship with the natives was multifaceted — there were many ethnicities that allied themselves with Portugal against their own enemies, but there were also many instances of brutal conflict between Indigenous groups and the colonizers, and, ultimately, the broad context for Portugal was to create an Exploration and Extraction Colony for their own mercantilist interests. There was commerce, cultural exchange and barter trade, but the Portuguese would also enslave, kidnap, and wage war against countless tribes for centuries to come. In the first years, the Portuguese considered the natives as commercial partners, but they soon began to enslave enemy tribes in mass to explore their workforce after the introduction of sugar cycle. This exploration and the spread of deadly foreign diseases had a disastrous impact on the natives' well-being and culture and led to extremely high death rates, with their population drastically declining from millions to only 700,000 by 1650. Most of the cultural practices of the natives in the initial years were documented by the Jesuits, who also made the first translations between Portuguese and Tupi. From these translations came the língua-geral ("general language"), a mix between Portuguese and Tupi that became highly popular among speakers from Colonial Brazil, until Marquis of Pombal's reformations forbid it in the 18th century and set only Portuguese as the main language.
While Portugal was promptly informed of the new territory, the country initially used the new lands as more of a stop between fleets and installation of the feitorias until 1530, focusing on the exportation of Brazilwood while profiting on the commerce with the East Indies. The period between 1500 and 1530, without a colonization and settlement policy, is called the Pre-Colonial period. After an expedition to explore the coast in 1530, Portugal began to establish permanent settlements and colonies on Brazil's coast, as the collapse of the spice trade with India and the need to secure their territory against other European powers, especially France, further mobilized the empire to expand the process of colonization, with a focus on exporting raw materials and precious metals. The first Brazilian town was São Vicente, in São Paulo, founded in 1532.
In 1534, Portugal used an administrative method called the Hereditary Captaincies, which the government had already used in the Portuguese island of Madeira and involved granting portions of land to noblemen to encourage colonization, protect the lands and decentralize colonial governance. However, this method proved to be largely unsuccessful due to a lack of interest among the grantees in investing in Brazil and conflicts with the natives, with only the Captaincies of Pernambuco and São Vicente flourishing. As a result, the Portuguese Crown then implemented a centralized Government-General in Bahia in 1548, giving rise to Salvador, Brazil's first capital city, since the Northeast's location facilitated the exportations and the region had the largest extraction of Brazilwood and production of sugarcane. Portugal also invested on and organized expeditions known as entradas to explore the interior of the country.
After Brazilwood, Brazil's second main economic cycle was sugarcane, as Portugal had already been cultivating it in Madeira, Brazilian litoral's soil and climate were favorable for it, and sugar was highly valuable in Europe. With Brazil becoming the largest source of sugar in the world, the sugarcane industry was vital to the economic development in the colonial period, and since the Northeast was where the production was focused on the most, especially in Pernambuco and Bahia, these regions were the economic, social, and political center of the colony in the 16th and 17th centuries. The sugar mill became the economical center of most towns, and the senhores de engenho (sugar mill lords) rose as the main political, economical and social elite of the time. However, the constant need for manpower for the growing production of sugarcane and the protest and opposition of the Jesuits against the on-going enslavement of the natives led Portugal to place Brazil in the Transatlantic slave Trade, in which slave traders would buy African slaves and transport them to be sold in Brazil, all under terrible conditions.note . The selling of slaves was highly profitable for the traders, and thus, the African slave trade unfortunately persisted as an economic activity in Brazil up until 1850, with slavery itself going on until 1888.
The slaves brought to Brazil were from a highly wide range of cultural and ethnic diversity; most were traded by the Kingdom of Angola and were thus from Midwestern Africa's cultures, although many also came from the Gulf of Guinea and the eastern coast, including Mozambique. Overall, they can be divided into two main groups: bantos and sudaneses. Despite efforts to suppress their cultural practices, the slaves still brought with them a rich and diverse heritage that has shaped the country's identity to this day, forming Brazil's highly miscigenated culture alongside Portugal and the native peoples. Therefore, colonial Brazilian society can be said to be composed of descendants of Portuguese settlers, Indigenous peoples, descendants of Africans, and mixed people between all three. The hidden villages created by escaped slaves are called quilombos, the largest and most prominent of which was likely Palmares, whose most famous leaders were Ganga Zumba and his successor, Zumbi dos Palmares. It is believed that Palmares had up to twenty thousand black refugees, as well as other people from a variety of backgrounds, such as natives and poor white men. Thousands of remaining communities of quilombos exist to this day.
In 1578, the disappearance in combat of Portugal's King D. Sebastião I during a battle against the Moroccan army led to a political succession crisis in the Portuguese Empire, as the king hadn't left an heir. This crisis got used by Spanish King Philip II to assert his claim to Portugal's throne in 1580, leading to the annexation of Portugal by Spain and the formation of the Iberian Union. With Portugal and Spain united, the Treaty of Tordesillas became irrelevant, allowing Brazil's on-going expansion of territory to officially go further beyond the line dividing Portuguese and Spanish America and assume its current continental proportions through expeditions seeking precious metals, the search for the drogas do sertão note , and the expansion of livestock farming. While Spain didn't make any significant changes in Portugal's administration of Brazil, the merging with Spain led to conflicts with the Netherlands. Portugal and the Dutch had an arrangement in which Portugal produced sugar in Brazil's northeast and the Netherlands refined and traded it in Europe, but since the Dutch and Spanish empires were enemies, the Dutch and Portuguese went to war and the Dutch invaded Brazil's Northeast in 1630, taking control of the sugar industry in the region and turning into their own colony until 1654. The governor of the colony was Maurice of Nassau, who brought several changes to the territory, including inviting scientists and painters who depicted and studied Brazil's nature, peoples and landscapes.
Nevertheless, the Dutch invasion led to several large national consequences. Even after Portugal regained independency from Spain in 1640 and expulsed the Dutch, the Dutch Empire still had taken sugarcane farming techniques with them and implemented them in their colonies in Central America, creating a strong competition against Portugal and a crisis in the Brazilian sugar economic cycle in the mid-seventeenth century. Thus, since the Treaty of Tordesilhas had been rendered moot, the Crown decided to invest on expeditions to the interior of Brazil, in the hopes of finding valuable metals and make its colony highly profitable and economically stable again. This paid off in the late 17th century and in the 18th century, when the bandeirantes (Brazilian explorers who delved into the hinterlands to search for precious metals and other natural resources, enslave natives, and fight against enemy tribes and destroy quilombos) discovered significant amounts of gold in the interior of the colony, in the current states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, and especially Minas Geraisnote .
Thousands of people rushed to find gold, leading to the first big cities in the interior of Brazil, such as Ouro Preto, Mariana, and Jaraguá. Thus, gold exploration became Brazil's third economic cycle, and, much like with sugarcane, slaves were extensively used in the process. As the gold cycle made the economic and social center of the colony shift from the Northeast to the Southeast, the Portuguese Empire decided to change the capital of Brazil from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro in 1763, which facilitated the control, supervision, and collection of taxes in the mining regions. Every ounce of discovered gold had to be taken to the Casas de Fundição to be molten into bars and officialized, from which one fifth of every amount was sent to Portugal. Since the Industrial Revolution was changing the world into a new economical scenario to which Portugal had been slow to adapt, the Empire ended up in huge debt with England due to the Treaty of Methuen, with a large part of the Brazilian gold being taken to settle it, as well as to rebuilt Lisbon after a devastating earthquake in 1755. The collection of the fifth was seen as abusive and unfair among many Brazilian miners, culminating in revolts such as the Filipe dos Santos Revolt.
Eventually, however, by the end of the 18th century, all the easily obtainable gold began to deplete, giving an end to the gold cycle. The next main export product of Brazil was cotton, a profitable commodity at the time due to the demands created by the Industrial Revolution and the European population boom. Several other primary products were also exported, with coffee becoming the new main economic cycle in the following century. However, the colonial period was already starting to enter a crisis due to multiple factors. In addition to the gold depletion, England had emerged as the main economic power of the world due to the Industrial Revolution, which Portugal had not managed to follow as quickly and couldn't compete against, and the slavery that Brazil relied so much on began to be seen as backwards compared to salaried work. Additionally, The French Revolution, the ideals of the The Enlightenment, the desire for economical liberalism, and the Haitian and American Independences had led to the spread of countless movements across Latin America demanding independence from their European metropolises, including in Brazil, such as the Minas Gerais Conspiracynote in 1789 and the Bahia Conspiracy note in 1798. Many Brazilian landowners also wanted to export their products directly to the foreign market instead of Portugal in order to make more profit, making the end of the Colonial Pact and of the monopoly Portugal had on Brazil desirable.
In 1807, tired of waiting for Portugal's negotiations, Napoléon sent his troops, declaring that the House of Braganza would no longer reign. Making a treaty with Spain, the Spaniards would allow the French army to pass through the territory to quickly invade Portugal in exchange for a part of the Portuguese Empire afterwards. Thus, the Regent-Prince Dom João Maria de Bragança, also known as John in English, negotiated a plan with England and made a strategic maneuver no other metropolis had done yet: moving the capital to its colony.
It's worth noting that the idea of transferring the capital of the Portuguese Empire to Brazil had already been discussed much earlier. As aforementioned, the Americas had been witnessing a wave of revolutions demanding independence from Europe, making Brazil's independence less a matter of "if" and more of "when". João moving the court to Brazil would, therefore, be a way to ensure the territory's security and unification, with Napoléon's threat accelerating and giving more strength to this plan.
On January 22, 1808, Regent-Prince D. João, his wife Carlota Joaquina, his mother, the Queen Dona Maria I, his son Pedro de Alcântara, and thousands of members from the Royal Family's entourage arrived in Salvador, shielded by English fleets. In exchange for England's military efforts to shield the fleets and guard the Madeira Island, and the recognition of legitimacy, the Regent-Prince had to sign the Treaty of Opening of Ports to Friendly Nations, a commercial deal that opened Brazil's ports for the first time to directly trade products with nations other than Portugal. This allowed England to expand its products into the Brazilian market, which was seen by them as a promising consumer and supplier for English commerce. At the same time, this treaty developed Brazil's rapprochement with other countries and effectively ended the Colonial Pact that had been in operation since the start of colonization, greatly diversifying the imported manufactured goods Brazilian population could have access to and the destinations of Brazil's exportations. One month later, the Royal Family went to Rio de Janeiro and officially declared it to be the capital of the Portuguese Empire, including other Portuguese colonies such as Angola and Mozambique. This makes Brazil the only colony in the world to host the capital of an European empire. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, Brazil would also occupate the French territory in the Americas, the French Guiana.
Meanwhile, in Europe, France conquered Portugal a few days later, but with the Royal Family far away, the French were eventually defeated by England. Portugal was then governed by a Council of Regency made up of noblemen.
The transfer of the capital to Brazil had enormous cultural, economical and political implications, bringing important foundations and greatly accelerating Brazil's independence process, as the territory became home to the members of the Court and thus ceased being treated merely as an exploitation and extraction colony. Besides the end of the Colonial Pact, the Royal Library in Portugal and its collection of thousands of volumes were moved to Brazil, giving rise to the current National Library. D. João also created the Imprensa Régia, the first publishing company in Brazil, from which the newspaper Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro began to be published, allowing a larger circulation of ideas across Brazil. Other important changes included the Bank of Brazil, the Botanical Garden, the National Museum, institutions of medicine and science, and the São João Royal Theatre.
Due to the Continental Blockade still being in force, England used the Brazilian market to drain its stock note . In 1810, new treaties favoring England were signed, which gave only a 15% import rate to British products, even lower than the rate for Portuguese imports, as well as ensured that British people in Brazil would only be subject to British laws. As a result, Brazil's industrial development was delayed, and Portuguese commerce was greatly disadvantaged.
In 1815, Napoleon was defeated, leading to the Congress of Vienna, in which several European powers came together to discuss the redefinition of the frontiers of the countries involved in the Napoleonic Wars after they subsided. Portugal also participated, but Prince-Regent João had to legitimize his permanence in Brazil first. The Portuguese royalty had already established their interest in Brazil through granting noble titles, lands, and economic liberty to groups who feared losing those advances with the return of the royal famly, and it is said D. João himself was getting fond of Brazil. Therefore, in 1815, D. João transformed Brazil into a kingdom, under the political body of the United Kingdom of Brazil, Portugal, and the Algarves, with Rio de Janeiro as its capital. This marks the official end of the colonial status of Brazil, as it was on equal footing with Portugal, rather than subjugated to it. In 1818, D. João was crowned King D. João VI in Rio, further formalizing the idea that the Portuguese royalty intended to remain in Brazil. In 1816, D. João ordered the Portuguese-Brazilian troops to conquer the Spanish regions of Cisplatina in the south, both as a retaliation for Spain having helped France to invade Portugal and because the region had been a disputed territory between Spain in Portugal through centuries, as the Río de la Plata was an important strategic and economical location. The region was called Província Cisplatina, and later would go on to become Uruguay.
While Brazil had been experiencing cultural and economic advances, the situation in Portugal was far from ideal. The economy was in shambles, and the regencies were manipulated by England, leading to dissatisfaction among the population and the spread of liberal views. The Liberal Revolution of Porto in 1820 demanded the end of Absolutism, the creation of a Constitutional Monarchy, and the return of the Royal Family to Portugal, making it the capital of the empire again. The movement was led in part by the Portuguese bourgeoisie and demanded that D. João VI reestablished the Colonial Pact and turned Brazil back into a colony to be explored, ensuring Portuguese monopoly over its commerce and taking it away from England.
The revolution was welcomed by Portuguese merchants and military in Brazil, as it would mean commercial exclusivity and a lack of foreign competition. However, the return of the royalty was feared by the colonial elites in Brazil, who had benefited from the political and economic autonomy brought by the arrival of the Royal Family. Pressured by Portugal, D. João VI decided to return in 1821 to sign the Constitution, leaving his son Pedro de Alcântara as Prince-Regent in Brazil.
However, the Portuguese Court was not satisfied and demanded the return of Pedro as well. He refused, and, with the support of the elites, publicly declared on January 1822 that he would stay in Brazil. The pressure of Portugal to recolonize Brazil became unpopular among the Brazilian people, and when the relationship between the Brazilian elites and the colonial bonds became unsustainable, the path of separation from Portugal appeared as a possible political path. With the help of his wife D. Maria Leopoldina and his advisor José Bonifácio, Pedro conducted the process of separation, and a Constitutional Assembly was formulated. A law was also decreed that said the measurements taken by Portugal to control Brazil would only be valid if Pedro approved them first.
Empire of Brazil
To see a detailed summary of this complex and important period, see The Empire of Brazil.
Republican Brazil
The Old Republic had two phases: The Sword Republic, a dictatorship led by the military and characterized by political conflicts and economical crisis as the republic got consolidated, and the Oligarchic Republic, influenced by the economical elite and marking the predominance of the rural oligarchies in Brazilian politics, mainly from São Paulo.
——Sword Republic (1889 - 1894)With the republic announced, Deodoro da Fonseca became president in a provisional government, and a constitution was promulgated in 1891, which gave the right to vote to all men over 21 years old, except for illiterates and soldiers. After the promulgation of the constitution, indirect elections kept Deodoro da Fonseca in the presidency, with Marshal Floriano Peixoto serving as vice-president. The Brazilian economy still relied heavily on the agricultural exportation of coffee (majoritally from São Paulo), so the government sought to stimulate industrialization and economic development by drawing inspiration from the American banking system through the Encilhamento, in which banks would massively lend monetary credit to various foundations. Unfortunately, the Encilhamento did not yield positive results on the long run and led to a sharp rise in inflation, short-lived corporations, and shell companies, causing one of the most disastrous economic and institutional crises in Brazil's history. The crisis was mitigated by the end of the decade through measures such as controlling the emission of money and stimulating industrial development.
Amid the economic and political crisis, Deodoro da Fonseca strengthened his rule and ordered the closure of Congress in 1891. The Navy, already resentful of the authoritarianism and concentration of power that had followed since the start of the republic, protested and pressured Deodoro to resign in what is known as the First Naval Revolt, while his vice-president, Floriano Peixoto, assumed power. However, since the Constitution stipulated that if the president had not yet completed two years of rule, new elections should be held, Floriano's continued presence in the role was seen as illegal, but he fired and arrested all the generals who protested against his rule.
Floriano Peixoto's rule was marked by brutal authoritarianism and centralization, reason why he was known as "Iron Marshal". Parties such as the PRP (Paulista Republican Party) supported his rule under the belief that the imposition of a dictatorship was a necessary factor to consolidate the republic, avoid further political turmoil, and keep monarchists at bay. The Navy once again protested against the lack of democracy through the Second Naval Revolt, bombarding the capital for weeks, but the revolt was repressed and used as pretext for further authoritarian practices, such as censuring the press and exiling opponents. Other important conflict of this period the Federalist Revolution in Rio Grande do Sul, a civil war against the republic which the defeated Navy rebels supported.
Floriano remained in power until 1894, as despite being supported by the São Paulo elited, the oligarchs had already been organizing a succession for the elections. Thus, Peixoto had to transfer the presidency to Prudente de Moraes after he won the elections.
Oligarchy RepublicWith the republic consolidated, Brazilian politics began to be dominated by the landed gentries of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, manipulating the government
