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)