Image Map Caption: Brazil in 1534.
Colonial Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the early 300 years of Brazilian colonial history, the economic exploitation of the territory was based first on brazilwood (pau brazil) extraction (16th century), which gave the territory its name; sugar production (16th–18th centuries); and finally on gold and diamond mining (18th century). Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of the work force of the Brazilian export economy after a brief period of Indian slavery to cut brazilwood.
The Tordesillas Meridian divided South America into two parts, leaving a large chunk of land to be exploited by the Spaniards. The Treaty of Tordesillas was arguably the most decisive event in all Brazilian history, since it determined that part of South America would be settled by Portugal instead of Spain. The present extent of Brazil's coastline is almost exactly that defined by the treaty of Madrid, which was approved in 1750.
thumb|left|250px|The brazilwood tree, which gives Brazil its name, has dark, valuable wood and provides red dye.After the voyage of Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese concentrated their efforts on the lucrative possessions in Africa and India and showed little interest in Brazil. Between 1500 and 1530, relatively few Portuguese expeditions came to the new land to chart the coast and to obtain brazilwood. In Europe, this wood was used to produce a valuable dye to give color to luxury textiles. To extract brazilwood from the tropical rainforest, the Portuguese and other Europeans relied on the work of the natives, who initially worked in exchange for European goods like mirrors, scissors, knives and axes.
See main article: Captaincies of Brazil.
See also: Captaincy of Pernambuco and Captaincy of São Vicente. The first attempt to colonize Brazil followed the system of hereditary captaincies (Capitanias Hereditárias), which had previously been used successfully in the colonization of Madeira Island. The costs were transferred to private hands, saving the Portuguese crown from the high costs of colonization. Thus, between 1534 and 1536 King John III divided the land into 15 captaincy colonies, which were given to Portuguese noblemen who wanted and had the means to administer and explore them. The captains were granted ample powers to administer and profit from their possessions.
See main article: Governorate General of Brazil.
See also: Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro and Governorate General of Bahia. With the failure of most captaincies and the menacing presence of French ships along the Brazilian coast, the government of King John III decided to turn the colonisation of Brazil back into a royal enterprise. In 1549, a large fleet led by Tomé de Sousa set sail to Brazil to establish a central government in the colony. Tomé de Sousa, the first Governor-General of Brazil, brought detailed instructions, prepared by the King's aides, about how to administer and foster the development of the colony. His first act was the foundation of the capital city, Salvador da Bahia, in Northeastern Brazil, in today's state of Bahia. The city was built on a slope by a bay (Todos-os-Santos Bay) and was divided into an upper administrative area and a lower commercial area with a harbour. Tomé de Sousa also visited the captaincies to repair the villages and reorganise their economies. In 1551, the Diocese of São Salvador da Bahia was established in the colony, with its seat in Salvador.
See main article: Jesuit Reductions.
See main article: France Antarctique and Equinoctial France. The potential riches of tropical Brazil led the French, who did not recognize the Tordesillas Treaty that divided the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese, to attempt to colonize parts of Brazil. In 1555, the Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon founded a settlement within Guanabara Bay, in an island in front of today's Rio de Janeiro. The colony, named France Antarctique, led to conflict with Governor General Mem de Sá, who waged war against the colony in 1560. Estácio de Sá, nephew of the Governor, founded Rio de Janeiro in 1565 and managed to expel the last French settlers in 1567. Jesuit priests Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta were instrumental in the Portuguese victory by pacifying the natives who supported the French.
See also: Slavery in Brazil and History of Pernambuco. Since the initial attempts to find gold and silver failed, the Portuguese colonists adopted an economy based on the production of agricultural goods that were to be exported to Europe. Tobacco and cotton and some other agricultural goods were produced, but sugar became by far the most important Brazilian colonial product until the early 18th century. The first sugarcane farms were established in the mid-16th century and were the key for the success of the captaincies of São Vicente and Pernambuco, leading sugarcane plantations to quickly spread to other coastal areas in colonial Brazil. Initially, the Portuguese attempted to utilize Indian slaves for sugar cultivation, but shifted to the use of black African slave labor. The period of sugar-based economy (1530 – c. 1700) is known as the sugar age in Brazil. The development of the sugar complex occurred over time, with a variety of models. The dependencies of the farm included a casa-grande (big house) where the owner of the farm lived with his family, and the senzala, where the slaves were kept. A notable early study of this complex is by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre. This arrangement was depicted in engravings and paintings by Frans Post as a feature of an apparently harmonious society.
See main article: Iberian Union. In 1580, a succession crisis led to the union of Portugal and Spain being ruled by the Habsburg King Philip II. The unification of the crowns of the two Iberian kingdoms, known as the Iberian Union, lasted until 1640 when the Portuguese revolted. During the union the institutions of both kingdoms remained separate. For Portuguese merchants, many of whom were Christian converts from Judaism ("New Christians") or their descendants, the union of crowns presented commercial opportunities in the slave trade to Spanish America.  The Netherlands (the Seventeen Provinces) obtained independence from Spain in 1581, leading Philip II to prohibit commerce with Dutch ships, including in Brazil. Since the Dutch had invested large sums in financing sugar production in the Brazilian Northeast and were important as shippers of sugar, a conflict began with Dutch privateers plundering the coast: they sacked Salvador in 1604, from which they removed large amounts of gold and silver before a joint Spanish-Portuguese fleet recaptured the town.
See main article: Dutch Brazil.
See main article: Quilombo. Work on the sugarcane plantations in Northeast Brazil and other areas relied heavily on slave labor, mostly of central African origin. One type of resistance to slavery was flight and, with the dense vegetation of the tropics, runaway slaves fled in numbers and for slave owners, this was an "endemic problem." Since the early 17th century there are indications of runaway slaves organizing themselves into settlements in the Brazilian hinterland. These settlements, called mocambos and quilombos, were usually small and relatively close to sugar fields, and attracted not only African slaves but also people of indigenous origin. The largest of the quilombos was the Quilombo dos Palmares, located in today's Alagoas state, which grew to many thousands during the disruption of Portuguese rule with the Dutch incursion. Palmares was governed by leaders Ganga Zumba and his successor, Zumbi. The terminology for the settlements and leaders come directly from Angola, with quilombo an Angolan word for military villages of diverse settlers and the nganga a nzumbi "was the priest responsible for the spiritual defense of the community." The Dutch and later the Portuguese attempted several times to conquer Palmares, until an army led by famed São Paulo-born Domingos Jorge Velho managed to destroy the great quilombo and kill Zumbi in 1695. Brazilian feature film director Carlos Diegues made a film about Palmares called simply Quilombo. Of the many quilombos that once existed in Brazil, some have survived to this day as isolated rural communities.
See also: Captaincy of São Vicente. Since the 16th century the exploration of the Brazilian inland was attempted several times, mostly to try to find mineral riches like the silver mines found in 1546 by the Spanish in Potosí (now in Bolivia). Since no riches were initially found, colonisation was restricted to the coast where the climate and soil were suitable for sugarcane plantations.
See main article: Brazilian Gold Rush.
The discovery of gold was met with great enthusiasm by Portugal, which had an economy in disarray following years of wars against Spain and the Netherlands. A gold rush quickly ensued, with people from other parts of the colony and Portugal flooding the region in the first half of the 18th century. The large portion of the Brazilian inland where gold was extracted became known as the Minas Gerais (General Mines). Gold mining in this area became the main economic activity of colonial Brazil during the 18th century. In Portugal, the gold was mainly used to pay for industrialized goods (textiles, weapons) obtained from countries like England and, especially during the reign of King John V, to build magnificent Baroque monuments like the Convent of Mafra. Apart from gold, diamond deposits were also found in 1729 around the village of Tijuco, now Diamantina. A famous figure in Brazilian history of this era was Xica da Silva, a slave woman who had a long term relationship in Diamantina with a Portuguese official; the couple had thirteen children and she died a rich woman. She has been the subject of a Brazilian feature film by Carlos Diegues, Xica and a telenovela Xica da Silva.In the hilly landscape of Minas Gerais, gold was present in alluvial deposits around streams and was extracted using pans and other similar instruments that required little technology. Gold extraction was mostly done by slaves. The Portuguese Crown allowed particulars to extract the gold, requiring a fifth (20%) of the gold (the quinto) to be sent to the colonial government as tribute. To prevent smuggling and extract the quinto, in 1725 the government ordered all gold to be cast into bars in the Casas de Fundição (Casting Houses), and sent armies to the region to prevent disturbances and oversee the mining process. The Royal tribute was very unpopular in Minas Gerais, and gold was frequently hidden from colonial authorities. Eventually, the quinto contributed to rebellious movements like the Levante de Vila Rica, in 1720, and the Inconfidência Mineira, in 1789 (see below).Some historians mention that the trade deficit of Portugal in relation to England while the Methuen Treaty was in force has also contributed to redirect much of the gold mined in Brazil during the 18th century to Britain. The Methuen Treaty was a trade treaty signed between England and Portugal, by where all woolen cloth imported from Britain would be tax free in Portugal, whereas Portuguese wine exported to Britain would be taxed at a third of the previous import tax on wines. Port wine became increasingly popular in Britain at that time, but cloth amounted to a larger share of the trade value than wines, hence Portugal eventually incurred in trade deficit with England.
According to the historian Leslie Bethell, "In 1700 Portugal had a population of about two million people. During the eighteenth century approximately 400,000 left for [the Portuguese [[colony]] of] Brazil, despite efforts by the crown to place severe restrictions on emigration."
See main article: Colonia del Sacramento.
See also: Guaraní War. In an attempt to expand the borders of colonial Brazil and profit from the silver mines of Potosí, the Portuguese Overseas Council (the Conselho Ultramarino) ordered colonial governor Manuel Lobo to establish a settlement on the shore of the River Plate, in a region that legally belonged to Spain. In 1679, Manuel Lobo founded Colonia de Sacramento on the margin opposite to Buenos Aires. The fortified settlement quickly became an important point of illegal commerce between the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Spain and Portugal fought over the enclave on several occasions (1681, 1704, 1735).
See main article: Inconfidência Mineira. In 1788/89, Minas Gerais was the setting of the most important conspiracy against colonial authorities, the so-called Inconfidência Mineira, inspired by the ideals of the French liberal philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment and the successful American Revolution of 1776. The conspirators largely belonged to the white upper class of Minas Gerais. Many had studied in Europe, especially in the University of Coimbra, and some had large debts with the colonial government. In the context of declining gold production, the intention of the Portuguese government to impose the obligatory payment of all debts (the derrama) was a leading cause behind the conspiracy. The conspirators wanted to create a Republic in which the leader would be chosen through democratic elections. The capital would be São João del Rei, and Ouro Preto would become a university town. The structure of the society, including the right to property and the ownership of slaves, would be kept intact.
A.J.R. Russell-Wood, Brazil, The colonial era" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 1, p. 410. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
Lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin America, pp. 26-27.
Alexander Marchant, From Barter to Slavery: The Economic Relations of Portuguese and Indians in the Settlement of Brazil, 1500-1580. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press 1942.
For a comprehensive history of the Jesuits in Brazil see Serafim Leite, S.J. História de Companhia de Jesus no Brasil. 10 vols. Lisbon 1938-50.
Charles E. Nowell, "The French in Sixteenth-Century Brazil," The Americas 5 (1949):381-93.
James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin America, chapter 7. Brazil in the Sugar Age. New York: Cambridge University Press 1983.
Stuart B. Schwartz, "Free Farmers in a Slave Economy: The Lavradores de Cana in Colonial Bahia," in Dauril Alden, ed. Colonial Roots of Modern Brazil. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1973, pp. 147-97.
Gilberto Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization. New York: English edition 1956; 1933 Portuguese original edition.
See the articles by Ernst van den Boogaart and by Elmer Kolfin in The Slave in European Art: From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem, ed Elizabeth McGrath and Jean Michel Massing, London (The Warburg Institute) and Turin 2012.
Rae Flory and David Grant Smith, "Bahian Merchants and Planters in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries." Hispanic American Historical Review 58(1978):571-94.
Lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin America, p. 221.
James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press 1983, pp.227-231.
James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press 1983, p. 226-7.
Lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin America, p. 225, p. 250.
Arnold Wiznitzer, the Jews of Colonial Brazil. New York: 1960.
Lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin America, p. 250.
C.R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil: 1624-1654. New York: Oxford University Press 1957.
James Lockhart and Stuart Schwartz, Early Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press 1983, p. 220.
Lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin America, pp. 220-21.
Richard M. Morse, ed. The Bandereintes: The Historical Role of the Brazilian Pathfinders. New York 1965.
Júnia Ferreira Furtado, Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press 2009.
Leslie Bethell (1986). "The Cambridge history of Latin America: Colonial Latin America". Cambridge University Press. p.47.
Kenneth P. Maxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal, 1750-1808. New York: Cambridge University Press 1973.
A.J.R. Russell-Wood, ed. From Colony to Nation: Essays on the Independence of Brazil. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1975.
José Honório Rodrigues. Independência: Revoluçāo e contra-revolução. Rio de Janeiro 1976.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Colonial Brazil".