The Enchanting Brazil Culture

The Complicated Process of Independence

Brazil was under Portuguese colonists control until 1822. It was a revolution against the Portuguese that claimed their independence in the world. Meanwhile there was a transition from a colony to a country which was ruled by the Portuguese king Joao VI.

The process of this transition was complicated. In 1807, the Portuguese royal family escaped to Brazil in order to avoid the invasion of Napoleon the first. In 1815, December, Joao VI, in order to calm the angry, unequally treated Brazilians down, claimed the establishment of Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarves. In 1816, Joao claimed himself as the king of this nation and was officially given the title of Joao VI.

During the reign of Joao VI, the government had made a lot of changes in order to make Brazilian people’s lives better. They had opened the port of Brazil, published newspaper, constructed libraries, theatres, schools, and hospitals. However, Joao VI’s corrupted ruling enraged Brazilian people. In 1817, Pernambuco people rebelled. They established republic but got oppressed. In 1820, Portugal itself had capitalism revolution. In 1821, Joao VI returned the royal family to Portugal and gave power to the Prince Pedro. In the same year, Portuguese government sent orders to Brazil to include all provinces into Lisbon and ordered Pedro to go back to Portugal. However these orders led to the Independence Revolution over the whole nation. Pedro stayed and claimed the independence of Brazil in September the 7^th, 1822. Then established the Kingdom of Brazil and made himself the king, who was called Pedro I. In 1824, Brazil published its own constitution. In 1825, Portugal admitted the independence of Brazil.

There were two eras in Brazil. One was the Empire era, and one was the Republic era. Brazil became a republic in 1889. Before the Republic, in the Empire era, Brazil’s economy was growing rapidly. Coffee and rubber’s product dominated almost half of these products in the world. Capitalism appeared in Brazil. After 1870, Brazilian people started a huge degree of revolution on slavery and republic. (A, B, D)

In 1891, the Brazil published a new constitution and named this new-born country Brazil. This was the independence process that occurred in Brazil. (A)

The Multifarious Conquerers' Experience

Portuguese king handed out land titles, and in 1534 settlers founded the cities of Olida and Vitória. Established a colonial government in the new city of Salvador da Bahia in 1549. 1567 founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on a site from which they had just expelled a group of French settlers. (A)

Afterwards Brazil experienced a little bit of peace. In 1624-25, the Dutch seized and briefly heald Salvador in 1624-25. Moreover, Portugal was united with Spain and Brazil was consequently exposed to attacks by Spain’s enemies, including the newly independent Netherlands. (A)

 In 1630, the Dutch West India Company dispatched a fleet that captured Pernambuco. The Dutch controlled it for a quarter-century. From these rapid changes in their rulers, the Brazilians had experienced chaos and did not get peacefulness thus the sense of stability. They were mostly in war with other countries, therefore they were not treated well. The Portuguese people had used them as slaves to harvest plants and to gather gold and silver. They were not respected and well-treated, this was possibly the reason which influenced their later revolution and war to overthrow their government. (A)

The Dutch also invited distinguished artists and scientists to show the Europeans the resources and beauties of Brazil. During the Dutch’s reign, John Maurice, company manager count of Nassau-Siegen, a prince of the house of Orange. He was the best administrator in the Netherlands. However, while he was trying to change the social politics, he was not supported by his country and eventually resigned in 1644. JoaoFernandes Vieira, a wealthy plantation owner, subsequently led a rebellion that gained influence against John Maurice’s incompetent successors. The Brazilian defeated and expelled the Dutch in 1654 without Portuguese’s help. It was an achievement that helped Brazilian’s nationalistic character to distinguish. (A, C)

A very important event in Brazil’s colonial history was the Westward Expansion. Even though the Treaty of Tordesillas forbade the Portuguese from crossing their line, Brazilian colonists still expanded far beyond the line that divided them up with the Spanish. There were three groups that went to the other side: missionaries, cattlemen, and bandeirantes. (A, D)

Missionaries continued their search for converts along the Amazon and in the South and Southeast. Cattlemen were searching for new pastures pushed inland from the sugar-producing of Pernambuco and Bahia to the present states of Piaui, Marnhao, and Goias. Badeiras, who were slaves capturers and gold searcher, were most active in the movement westward. (D)

Bandeirantes were more adventuresome and reached the far west Alto Peru (Bolivia), and Colombia.

Because of these extremely active actions that Portuguese colonists and other conquerors did on the Brazil land, Brazil was fast developing and people there were getting the idea of freedom and independence, which eventually stimulated their idea on revolution. (A)

The Conquerors treated the Brazilian natives inhumane. The Brazilians were mainly consisted of Indians, native-born white people and other kinds of people. They were treated unequally and were forced by the Portuguese people. The Portuguese people enslaved a lot of natives. Due to this inhumane behavior that the government did to the Brazilian people, they started a lot of rebellions against the government. There were so many rebellions that the Portuguese government eventually established an amendment about stopping slavery in Brazil. (A)

Initial Conquest from the Portuguese

In 1498, the Exploration Era, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama found an water-route to the India and Spice Islands through the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese king, in a sense of pillaging and capitalize on this discovery, sent a strong armada to India under Pedro Alvares Cabral’s lead. Cabral misunderstood the map that Vasco de Gama had drawn and went too far towards the west. Eventually, he saw the mainland of South America. This was how the Brazil first being discovered by the Europens.

The Portuguese and the Spanish had named this new land they had found as the “New World.” They made a treaty which established a line that divided them up as West (Spanish) and East (Portuguese). This treaty was called the Treaty of Tordesillas. The region that was sighted by Cabral was under Portuguese’s control. (This treaty was made in 1494.) (A)

The new possession of the Portuguese was initially called Vera Cruz which meant the “True Cross.” However the land was soon given a new name as “Brazil” because of all brazil wood they had found there which could make a valuable red dye.

After this event, some Italian people had come to the New Land. One who was called Amerigo Vaspucci discovered some new lands within the Brazil area, and named them after some saints. (A)

While Brazil was under Portuguese’s control, they did not realize there were precious metals in Brazil. They had casted all their attention upon woods and other raw materials. Therefore, French had a chance of taking away the possessions which were owned by the Portuguese. However, John III, the king of Portugal realized how valuable was Brazil, therefore he denied the dominance of French people over his land. This was a start point of French and Portuguese’s fight over Brazil. (B, C)

In 1555, French troops took possession of the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. However Mem de Sá, the governor- general, blockaded the harbor and forced the French soldiers to surrender. After this he established the city of Rio de Janeiro. (A)