Brazil

Abstract

BRAZIL, discovered by the Portuguese around 1500, did not afford the easy plunder or the readily exploitable mines and labour that the Spanish found in New Spain (Mexico) and Peru. To secure this vast territory (about one-half of the continent) they therefore brought in African slaves to cultivate sugar cane, a combination which had proved successful in their Atlantic islands. During three centuries of colonial rule there were many important changes — the gradual decline of sugar from the late seventeenth century, the diamond and gold boom (1690–1770) centred in Minas Gerais, and the steady growth of cattle-raising in the interior of the north-east — but slavery, large landholdings and the export of primary products remained dominant. They were carried over into the nineteenth century as the prime features of the country’s colonial heritage.