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A History of Brazilmpics.co.u
The Andes and the mountain ranges of northern South America created a rather sharp cultural boundary between the settled agrarian civilizations of the west coast (which gave rise to urbanized city-states and the immense Inca Empire) and the semi-nomadic tribes of the east, who never developed written records or permanent monumental architecture. For this reason, very little is known about the history of Brazil before 1500. Archaeological remains (mainly pottery) indicate a complex pattern of regional cultural developments, internal migrations, and occasional large state-like federations.
Originally, Colonists called Brazil Terra de Santa Cruz, until later it acquired its name (see List of meanings of countries' names) from Brazilwood.
By the time the first European explorers arrived, all parts of the territory were inhabited by semi-nomadic Indian tribes, who subsisted on a combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and agriculture. The population density was rather low, however; total numbers have been estimated at 1 million people (but recent archaeological discoveries, such as those mentioned above, seem to indicate a much higher number). Although many Brazilian Indians succumbed to massacres, diseases, and the hardships of slavery and displacement, many were absorbed into the Brazilian population. A few tribes still subsist in their pre-discovery lifestyle in remote corners of the Amazon rainforest.
Present Brazilian culture owes much to those peoples,
including the development of crops like the cassava (still a major staple food
in the rural regions) and the complex knowledge needed for survival in the tropical
jungle.
Though there are alternative theories, most scholars agree Brazil was discovered on April 22, 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral. Initially Portugal had little interest in Brazil, mainly due to high profits gained through commerce with Indochina. After 1530, the Portuguese Crown devised the Hereditary Captaincies system to effectively occupy its new colony, and later took direct control of the failed captaincies. The Portuguese colonists adopted an economy based on the production of agricultural goods that were exported to Europe. Sugar became by far the most important Brazilian colonial product until the early eighteenth century. Even though Brazilian sugar was reputed as being of high quality, the industry faced a crisis during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the Dutch and the French started producing sugar in the Antilles, located much closer to Europe, causing sugar prices to fall.
During the eighteenth century, private explorers who called themselves the Bandeirantes found gold and diamond deposits in the state of Minas Gerais. The exploration of these mines were mostly used to finance the Portuguese Royal Court's debts. The predatory way in which such deposits were explored by the Portuguese Crown, however, burdened colonial Brazil with excessive taxes. Some popular movements supporting independence came about against the abusive taxes established by the colonial government, such as the Tiradentes incident in 1789, but they were often dismissed with violence by Portugal. Gold production declined towards the end of the eighteenth century, starting a period of relative stagnation of the Brazilian hinterland. Both Amerindian and African slaves' man power were largely used in Brazil's colonial economy.
Brazilian Declaration of Independence and Empire of Brazil
In
1808, the Portuguese court, fleeing from Napoleon’s troops which had invaded
Portugal, established themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro. After João
VI returned to Portugal in 1821, his heir-apparent Pedro became regent of the
Kingdom of Brazil. Following a series of political incidents and disputes, Brazil
achieved its independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822. On October 12, 1822,
Dom Pedro became the first Emperor of Brazil, being crowned on December 1, 1822.
In 1824, Pedro closed the Constituent Assembly, stating that the body was "endangering liberty". Pedro then produced a constitution modeled on that of Portugal (1822) and France (1814). It specified indirect elections and created the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government; however, it also added a fourth branch, the "moderating power", to be held by the Emperor. Pedro's government was considered economically and administratively inefficient. Political pressures eventually made the Emperor step down on April 7, 1831. He returned to Portugal leaving behind his five-year-old son Pedro II. Until Pedro II reached maturity, Brazil was governed by regents from 1831 to 1840. The regency period was turbulent and marked by numerous local revolts including the Male Revolt, the largest urban slave rebellion in the Americas, which took place in Bahia in 1835.
On July 23, 1840, Pedro II was crowned Emperor. His government was highlighted by a substantial rise in coffee exports, the War of the Triple Alliance, and the end of slave trade from Africa in 1850, although slavery in Brazilian territory would only be abolished in 1888. When slavery was finally abolished, a large influx of European immigrants took place. By the 1870s, the Emperor's grasp on domestic politics had started to deteriorate in face of crises with the Roman Catholic Church, the Army and the slaveholders. The Republican movement slowly gained strength. In the end, the empire fell because the dominant classes no longer needed it to protect their interests. Indeed, imperial centralization ran counter to their desire for local autonomy. By 1889 Pedro II had stepped down and the Republican system had been adopted.
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History of Brazil (1889–1930), History
of Brazil (1930–1945), History of Brazil (1945–1964), History of Brazil
(1964–1985), and History of Brazil (1985–present)
The House
of Representatives at the National Congress in Brasília, the capital of
Brazil.Pedro II was deposed on November 15, 1889 by a Republican military coup
led by general Deodoro da Fonseca, who became the country’s first de facto
president through military ascension. The country’s name became the Republic
of the United States of Brazil (which in 1967 was changed to Federative Republic
of Brazil). From 1889 to 1930, the dominant states of São Paulo and Minas
Gerais alternated control of the presidency.
A military junta took control in 1930. Getúlio Vargas took office soon after, and would remain as dictatorial ruler (with a brief democratic period in between), until 1945. He was re-elected in 1951 and stayed in office until his suicide in 1954. After 1930, the successive governments continued industrial and agriculture growth and development of the vast interior of Brazil. Juscelino Kubitschek's office years (1956-1961) were marked by the political campaign motto of plunging "50 anos em 5" (English: fifty years of development in five).
The military forces took office in Brazil in a coup d'état in 1964, and remained in power until March 1985, when it fell from grace because of political struggles between the regime and the Brazilian elites. Just as the Brazilian regime changes of 1889, 1930, and 1945 unleashed competing political forces and caused divisions within the military, so too did the 1964 regime change. Tancredo Neves was elected president in an indirect election in 1985, as Brazil returned to civil government regime. He died before taking office, and the vice-president, José Sarney, was sworn in as president in his place.
Democracy was re-established in 1988 when the
current Federal Constitution was enacted. Fernando Collor de Mello was the first
president truly elected by popular vote after the military regime. Collor took
office in March 1990. In September 1992, the National Congress voted for Collor's
impeachment after a sequence of scandals were uncovered by the media. The vice-president,
Itamar Franco, assumed the presidency. Assisted by the Minister of Finance at
that time, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Itamar Franco's administration implemented
the Plano Real economic package, which included a new currency temporarily pegged
to the U.S. dollar, the real. In the elections held on October 3, 1994, Fernando
Henrique Cardoso ran for president and won, being reelected in 1998.
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