Brazil: The First Plantation Colony
Main Idea: After the Portuguese landed on the Brazilian shore in 1500, major sugar plantations were established using Native American, then African slaves.
Pedro Alvares Cabral (leader of an India expedition) stopped briefly on the Brazilian shore, making the first official Portuguese landfall on the South American coast (1500)
Portuguese did not show interest in the Brazilian forests- granted licenses to merchants who agreed to exploit the dyewood there
French competitors moved the Portuguese crown to military action- new system of settlement in 1532
Portuguese nobles were given land along the coast to colonize and develop called capitaincies
Portuguese nobles combined their feudal powers and want for commercial development yet lacked the capital needed in order to carry out the colonization
Sugar plantations were established using Native American, then African slaves
Native American and Portuguese relations were calm and tranquil
1549- Portuguese king, governor general, officials, first Jesuit missionaries arrived at the capital Salvador
Settlements along the coast (Salvador and Rio de Janerio) served 150 sugar plantations worked by African slaves
1600- Brazilian colony had 100,000 inhabitants mainly consisting of Europeans, black slaves, and Native Americans
Sugar and Slavery
Main Idea: Brazil continued to be the number one sugar producer in the world, while the slaves who produced the sugar hung at the bottom of the social structure below white plantar families, bureaucrats, and artisans.
#1 sugar producer
sugar cane was processed in the field by using large mills
Combo of agriculture and industry in the field for sugar demanded machinery and quantities of labor for the work- slaves did most
7000 slaves a year were imported from Africa; Brazil had 150,000 slaves (1/2 of its population)
Brazilian economy grew to be diverse
Brazil's social hierarchy relfected off its plantation and slave origins
White planter families- aristocracy linked by marriage to resident merchants
Portuguese bureaucrats and officials, then slaves distinguised by their color and property status
Portugal created a bureaucratic structure that consisted of the colony within an impoerial system
extensive cattle ranches and sugar mills supported construction of churches and schools in Portugal
Spanish America- royal officials trained in the law formed the core of the bureaucracy
Unlike Spanish America, Brazil didn't have universities or ptinging presses- intellectual life was always a Portuguese extension
Brazil's Age of Gold
Main Idea: Despite that the once booming sugar industry in Brazil fell, a great gold rush began after Paulistas went on successful expeditions in the interior part of the continent.
Habsburg kings of Spain also ruled Portugal, a situation that encouraged their cooperation and give them a worldwide empire
1630-1654 the Dutch seized portion of northeastern Brazil to gain control of its sugar production
Dutch, English, and French established own colonies in the Caribbean and produced sugar with slave laborers- > rising price for slaves and decreased price for sugar undercut the Brazilian sugar industry and forced them into hard times
Paulistas, backwoodsmen from Sao Paulo went on expeditions to establih Portuguese claims to the interior of the continent (got welathy too)
1695- gold strikes were made in the mountainous interior in a region that came to be called Minas Gerais-> GOLD RUSH
Slaes provided labor in the gold mines (150,000 by 1775)
Heavy taxes to control the unruly population
Gold opened interior to settlement in Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, gold market port closest to the mines, became the capital of the colony in 1763
gold allowed Portugal to continue economic policies- they could buy the manufactured goods it needed for itself and its colonies
Main Idea: After the Portuguese landed on the Brazilian shore in 1500, major sugar plantations were established using Native American, then African slaves.
- Pedro Alvares Cabral (leader of an India expedition) stopped briefly on the Brazilian shore, making the first official Portuguese landfall on the South American coast (1500)
- Portuguese did not show interest in the Brazilian forests- granted licenses to merchants who agreed to exploit the dyewood there
- French competitors moved the Portuguese crown to military action- new system of settlement in 1532
- Portuguese nobles were given land along the coast to colonize and develop called capitaincies
- Portuguese nobles combined their feudal powers and want for commercial development yet lacked the capital needed in order to carry out the colonization
- Sugar plantations were established using Native American, then African slaves
- Native American and Portuguese relations were calm and tranquil
- 1549- Portuguese king, governor general, officials, first Jesuit missionaries arrived at the capital Salvador
- Settlements along the coast (Salvador and Rio de Janerio) served 150 sugar plantations worked by African slaves
- 1600- Brazilian colony had 100,000 inhabitants mainly consisting of Europeans, black slaves, and Native Americans
Sugar and SlaveryMain Idea: Brazil continued to be the number one sugar producer in the world, while the slaves who produced the sugar hung at the bottom of the social structure below white plantar families, bureaucrats, and artisans.
- #1 sugar producer
- sugar cane was processed in the field by using large mills
- Combo of agriculture and industry in the field for sugar demanded machinery and quantities of labor for the work- slaves did most
- 7000 slaves a year were imported from Africa; Brazil had 150,000 slaves (1/2 of its population)
- Brazilian economy grew to be diverse
- Brazil's social hierarchy relfected off its plantation and slave origins
- White planter families- aristocracy linked by marriage to resident merchants
- Portuguese bureaucrats and officials, then slaves distinguised by their color and property status
- Artisans, farmers, herders, free laborers- whites, Indians, Africans
- Portugal created a bureaucratic structure that consisted of the colony within an impoerial system
- extensive cattle ranches and sugar mills supported construction of churches and schools in Portugal
- Spanish America- royal officials trained in the law formed the core of the bureaucracy
- Unlike Spanish America, Brazil didn't have universities or ptinging presses- intellectual life was always a Portuguese extension
Brazil's Age of GoldMain Idea: Despite that the once booming sugar industry in Brazil fell, a great gold rush began after Paulistas went on successful expeditions in the interior part of the continent.