History of Brazil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 This article is part of the Brazilian History series. |
| Indigenous peoples |
| Colonial Brazil |
| Empire of Brazil |
| 1889-1930 |
| 1930-1945 |
| 1945-1964 |
| 1964-1985 |
| 1985-present |
The history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, over 8,000 years ago, into the present territory of that nation. By the end of the 15th century, all parts of those lands were inhabited by semi-nomadic tribes, who subsisted on a combination of fishing, hunting, gathering, and agriculture.
Recent researchers have claimed that the activities of indigenous peoples had a major impact on the development of the ecosystem in the Amazonas basin by systematically planting and proliferating usable plant species and ameliorating soils. Thus pre-1492 population and their settlements may have been much larger than previously assumed. [1]
It is widely accepted that Brazil was first "discovered" by Europeans on April 22, 1500, by Pedro Álvares Cabral, but there are controversies. The first permanent Portuguese colonial settlement—São Vicente, a coastal town just south of the Tropic of Capricorn—was founded in 1532. The Dutch also established themselves in Brazil, around the city of Recife in the northeast corner of the country, in the 1630s. The Dutch were driven out of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1654. Fleeing the religiously intolerant Portuguese, Recife's significant Jewish contingent left as well, many settling in New Amsterdam, now New York.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Brazil was a colony of Portugal, exploited mainly for brazilwood at first, and later for sugarcane and, in the 18th century, for gold. During this period many natives were exterminated, pushed out of the way or assimilated, and large numbers of African slaves were brought in. On September 7, 1822, the country declared its independence from Portugal and became a constitutional monarchy, the Empire of Brazil through a small-scale Brazilian War of Independence, lasting from 1821-1825. A military coup in 1889 established a republican government. The country has been nominally a democratic republic ever since, except for three periods of overt dictatorship (1930–1934, 1937–1945, and 1964–1985).
Through most of its independent history, the country's politics were dominated by agrarian oligarchies, at all levels of government. Their influence was lessened (but by no means abolished) after the revolution of 1930, when the state began to assert itself in the economy, drawing support from the emerging industrial sector and through control of industrial worker unions. Nevertheless, in spite of all changes of regime, Brazilian politics has continued to be dominated by the same relatively small elite. This oligarchic legacy, coupled with heavy state intervention in the economy, poor infrastructure, corruption, inadequate education levels and an insular trade policy have all conspired to hamper economic growth and create one of the most unequal income distributions in the Western world.
Brazil is today South America's largest economy, the world's ninth largest economy, and fifth most populous nation. In 1994 Fernando Henrique Cardoso embarked on the Real plan (a double-entendre in Portuguese since "real" means both "real" and "royal") by launching a new currency, the real, and instituting a disciplined macroeconomic policy that sharply reduced inflation. The new currency, backed by sound economic policies, proved a resounding success at taming the runaway inflation which had plagued Brazil for decades. Fallout from the Asian financial crisis led to a devaluation of the currency in 1999, despite the receipt of a $41.5 billion IMF bailout. This also led to a decline in industrial capacity and an increase in the public debt (over 55% of annual GDP). Growth in real GDP remained at near-stagnation levels (2% p.a, for a demographic growth of 1.5%). The later Cardoso government was once again challenged by rising consumer inflation and interest rates, and taxation rose to a record 40% of GDP.
These socio-economic problems helped in 2003 to elect former union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the promise that he would put the country back on a path of economic development, while also adhering to an orthodox economic policy—and especially avoid default either on foreign or on public debt. Lula had some success in forging an assertive Brazilian foreign policy while grappling with the issues of inequality, public debt, comparatively high taxes, and the attraction of foreign investment at home. After a year and a half in office, there was a marked improvement in Brazil's current account, foreign exchange reserves, and balance of trade, but sustained economic growth has so far failed to materialize. Lula's government has not forgotten the black minority and affirmative action laws for universities were adopted. Some attribute this to the fact that modern black Brazilians are more politically self-conscious than they had been in the past. Recently, Lula's government has been marked by a large number of corruption claims that are being strongly investigated by the National Congress and Federal Police, giving a good demonstration of the current strength of Brazilian democratic institutions.
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[edit] The first Brazilians
The territory of Brazil has been inhabited for at least 8,000 years. The origins of the first Brazilians, who were called "Indians" (índios) by the Portuguese, are still a matter of dispute among archaeologists. The traditional view is that they were part of the first wave of migrant hunters who came into the Americas from Siberia, across the Bering Strait. However some archeologists see signs of a much older human population, morphologically distinct from the Asian hunters and more similar to African and Australian natives, who were displaced or absorbed by the Siberian hunters.
The Andes and the mountain ranges of northern South America created a rather sharp cultural boundary between the settled agrarian civilizations of the west coast (which gave rise to urbanized city-states and the immense Inca Empire) and the semi-nomadic tribes of the east, who never developed written records or permanent monumental architecture. For this reason, very little is known about the history of Brazil before 1500. Archaeological remains (mainly pottery) indicate a complex pattern of regional cultural developments, internal migrations, and occasional large state-like federations.
By the time the first European explorers arrived, all parts of the territory were inhabited by semi-nomadic Indian tribes, who subsisted on a combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and agriculture. The population density was rather low, however; total numbers have been estimated at 1 million people (but recent archaeological discoveries, such as those mentioned above, seem to indicate a much higher number). Although many Brazilian Indians succumbed to massacres, diseases, and the hardships of slavery and displacement, many were absorbed into the Brazilian population. A few tribes still subsist in their pre-discovery lifestyle in remote corners of the Amazon rainforest.
Present Brazilian culture owes much to those peoples, including the development of crops like the cassava (still a major staple food in the rural regions) and the complex knowledge needed for survival in the tropical jungle.
[edit] Colonial Brazil
It is generally accepted that Brazil was first discovered by Europeans on April 22, 1500, by Pedro Álvares Cabral, though this is contested by some. The country was then gradually settled by Portuguese who sought to escape poverty, and by nobles who were granted colonial privileges by the Crown. Colonial administration in the next two centuries was based upon a system in which favored individuals received title to huge blocks of land called capitanias; many of these dominions eventually became present-day Brazilian states.
In the first century after its European discovery, the country's major export—giving its name to Brazil—was brazilwood, a large tree (Caesalpinia echinata) whose trunk contains a prized red dye, and which was nearly wiped out as a result of overexploitation. Starting in the 17th century, sugarcane, grown in plantations called engenhos ("factories") along the northeast coast (Brazil's Nordeste), became the base of Brazilian economy, because of the high demand for sugar in Europe. At first, settlers tried to enslave the Indians as labor to work the fields. (The initial exploration of Brazil's interior was largely due to para-military adventurers, the Bandeirantes, who entered the jungle in search of gold and Indian slaves.) However the Indians were found to be unsuitable as slaves, and so the Portuguese land owners turned to Africa, from which they imported millions of slaves.
Mortality rates for slaves in sugar and gold enterprises were dramatic, and there were often not enough females or proper conditions to replenish the slave population indigenously. Some slaves escaped from the plantations and tried to establish independent settlements (quilombos) in remote areas. The most important of these the quilombo of Palmares was the largest slave runaway settlment in the Americas, and was a consolidated kingdom of some 30,000 people at its height in the 1670s and 80s. However these settlements were mostly destroyed by government and private troops, which in some cases required long sieges and the use of artillery. Still, Africans became a substantial section of Brazilian population, and long before the end of slavery (1888) they had begun to merge with the European Brazilian population through miscegenation and mulatto work rights.
During the first two centuries of the colonial period, attracted by the vast natural resources and untapped land, other European powers tried to establish colonies in several parts of Brazilian territory, in defiance of the papal bull and the Treaty of Tordesillas, which had divided the New World into two parts between Portugal and Spain. French colonists tried to settle in present-day Rio de Janeiro, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique episode), and in present-day São Luís, from 1612 to 1614 (the so called France Équinoxiale).
The unsuccessful Dutch intrusion into Brazil was longer lasting and more troublesome to Portugal. Dutch privateers began by plundering the coast: they sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured the capital Salvador. From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in the Nordeste and controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe, without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil were in a constant state of siege, in spite of the presence in Recife of the great Maurice of Nassau as governor. After several years of open warfare, the Dutch formally withdrew in 1661.
Little French or Dutch cultural and ethnic influences remained of these failed attempts.
- Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, Vol. III of Civilization and Capitalism, 1984, pp 232-235.
[edit] The Empire of Brazil
The most interesting feature in the history of Brazil is the fact that it was the only country among the new worlds' that housed an effective legal monarchical state, for a period of almost 90 years; and for a period of 13 years was the metropolis of a European state. This was the case that Brazil's capital city -- Rio de Janeiro -- was from 1808 to 1821 the head of the Portuguese empire, which spread from Europe to Asia and Africa. In 1808, the Portuguese court, fleeing from Napoleon's troops, which had invaded the territory of Portugal, moved aboard a large fleet, escorted by British men-of-war, with all the government apparatus to its then-colony, Brazil, establishing themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From there the Portuguese king ruled his huge empire for 13 years, and there he would have remained for the rest of his life if it were not for the turmoil aroused in Portugal due, among other reasons, to his long stay in Brazil after the end of Napoleon's reign. In 1815 the king vested Brazil with the dignity of a united kingdom with Portugal and Algarves. When king John VI of Portugal left Brazil to return to his European territory in 1821, his elder son, Pedro, stayed in his stead as regent of Brazil. One year later, Pedro wrote a paper (not so well known as his alleged proclamation -"Independence or Death") to state the reasons for the secession of Brazil from Portugal and bequeathed a constitution instituting a constitutional monarchy in Brazil, assuming its head as Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, also known as "Dom Pedro." Dom Pedro was liked by the common people, but displeased both the landed elites, who thought him too liberal, and the intellectuals, who felt he was not liberal enough. At the end of his reign, he presided over the abolition of slavery in 1888. After his abdication in 1831 for political incompatibilities with Brazilian politicians he left for Portugal, leaving behind his five-year-old son as Emperor Pedro II. After a period of nine years of regencies, Pedro II was acclaimed emperor in 1840 at the age of 14. Pedro II started a more-or-less parliamentary reign which lasted until 1889, when he was ousted by a coup d'état which instituted the republic.
[edit] The Old Republic (1889-1930)
Pedro II was deposed on 15 November, 1889 by a Republican military coup led by general Deodoro da Fonseca, who became the country's first president. The country's name became the Republic of the United States of Brazil (which in 1967 was changed to Federative Republic of Brazil.) From 1889 to 1930, the government was a constitutional democracy, with the presidency alternating between the dominant states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
In the late 19th century, coffee started to replace sugar as the country's main export crop. The coffee trade caused Brazil to thrive economically, attracting many European immigrants—particularly from Italy and Germany. This influx of labour also allowed the country to develop an industrial economy and expand away from the coast.
This period, known as the "Old Republic", ended in 1930 with a military coup that placed Getúlio Vargas, a civilian, in the presidency.
See also : Coronelismo, Café com leite
[edit] Populism and development (1930-1964)
A military junta took control in 1930 and dictatorial power was assumed by Getúlio Vargas, until he was forced out by the military in 1945. After 1930, the successive governments continued industrial and agriculture growth and development of the vast interior of Brazil.
Just as the 1889 regime change led to a decade of unrest and painful adjustment, so too did the revolts of 1930. Provisional President Getúlio Dorneles Vargas ruled as dictator (1930-34), congressionally elected president (1934-37), and again dictator (1937-45), with the backing of his revolutionary coalition. He also served as a senator (1946-51) and the popularly elected president (1951-54). Vargas was a member of the gaucho (landed oligarchy) and had risen through the system of patronage and clientelism, but he had a fresh vision of how Brazilian politics could be shaped to support national development. He understood that with the breakdown of direct relations between workers and owners in the expanding factories of Brazil, workers could become the basis for a new form of political power—populism. Using such insights, he would gradually establish such mastery over the Brazilian political world that he would stay in power for fifteen years. During those years, the preeminence of the agricultural elites ended, new urban industrial leaders acquired more influence nationally, and the middle class began to show some strength.
Vargas, one of the first in an era of Latin American populist leaders, is also associated with inward-directed growth. Under this direction, Brazil began to reject the classical model of export-led growth and emphasized programs loosely associated with Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI). Some have seen this internalization as a reaction to calamitous world events such as the World Wars, which incited heavy protectionism by Brazil's western trading partners (U.S., Britain, and Germany). Also, Vargas began his regime on the cusp of a global depression as well as in a century of declining terms of trade through depressed primary product prices. Unfortunately, the determination of Brazil and other Latin American states to promote insulating development programs came to isolate them from the international competition and trade, which led to vastly inefficient state industries.
A democratic regime prevailed 1945-1964, during which the capital was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. If corporatism was the hallmark of the 1930s and 1940s, populism, nationalism, and developmentalism characterized the 1950s and early 1960s. Each of these contributed to the crisis that gripped Brazil and resulted in the authoritarian regime after 1964.
New Professionalism and the Escola Superior Da Guerra
The primary task of the Brazilian military, as with all modern militaries, is the defense of the Brazilian state. “Defense of the state” took on a very different hue towards the end of the Second Republic. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the success of revolutionary warfare techniques against conventional armies in China, Indochina, Algeria, and Cuba led the conventional armies in the developed and underdeveloped worlds to concentrate in finding military and political strategies to fight domestic revolutionary warfare. This led to an adoption of what Stepan called, in 1973, “New Professionalism.” The New Professionalism was formulated and propagated in the Escola Superior da Guerra, which had been established in 1949. By 1963 New Professionalism had come to dominate the school, when it declared its primary mission to be preparing “civilians and the military to perform executive and advisory functions. (Decreto Lei No. 53,080 December 4, 1963)" This new attitude towards professionalism did not arise out of nowhere. Though its domination of the ESG was completed by 1963, it had begun to penetrate the college much earlier than that- assisted by the United States and its policy of encouraging Latin American militaries to assume as their primary role counter-insurgency programs, civic action, and nation-building tasks. (Stepan, 1973)
It is important to note that very often U.S. military officers often failed to realize the differences between the "old profesionalism" of civilian control, specialized warfighting skills, and military nuetrality, and the "new professionalism" of a military in a society where broad segments questioned government legitimacy, the army sought highly interrelated political and military skills,and civilian control was not sacrosanct. Watching the rise of communist power in the Western hemisphere, and especially the successful leftist revolution in Cuba, the military began to regard domestic stability and the reduction of social conflict as necessary to “national defense.”
By 1964 the military elite had begun to see a leftist revolution as a real possibility. Through the paradigm of internal-warfare doctrines of the new professionalism, a great number of the officer class saw rising strike levels, an inflation rate of over 75%, the declining economy, the demands of the Left for broadened political process, and the growing indiscipline of the enlisted men as a sign that Brazil was facing the serious possibility of a leftist internal insurgency.
Knocking on the Barracks Door
From 1961 to 1964, Brazilian President João Goulart had been initiating economic and social reforms that were clearly failing to address the economic problems of the country; policies which satisfied neither Brazil's elites nor its increasingly mobilized working classes. The cost of living index, rather low in late 1950s began to rise sharply, and per capita GDP growth fell sharply, from 4.5% in 1957 to negative growth by 1963. Goulart also began to take stepes that alienated the Brazilian military and stoked their worst fears of revolutionary leftism, such as awarding state honors to the likes of Che Guevara.
Military Response
By early 1964 important sections of the military had developed a consensus that intervention in the political process was necessary. The development of this consensus was likely helped by the fact that important civilian politicians, such as Magalhães Pinto,governer of Minas Gerais. The Brazilian coup of 1964 can be considered "revolutionary" because , unlike previous coups which were generally welcomed adjustments of politically deadlocked civilian governments, this coup led the military to seize power and govern directly from 1964 to 1985. During this time, there was intense economic growth at the cost of a soaring national debt, and thousands of Brazilians were deported, imprisoned, tortured, or murdered. Politically motivated deaths are numbered in the hundreds, mostly related to the guerrilla-antiguerrilla warfare in the 1968-1973 period; official censorship also led many artists into exile.
Redemocratization
Tancredo Neves was elected president in an indirect election in 1985 as the nation returned to civilian rule. He died before being sworn in, and the elected vice president, José Sarney, was sworn in as president in his place. Fernando Collor de Mello was the first elected president by popular vote after the military regime in December 1989. In September 1992 Collor was impeached for corruption. Acting president, Itamar Franco, was sworn in as president. In elections held on October 3, 1994, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected president. Reelected in 1998, he guided Brazil through a wave of financial crises. In 2000, Cardoso ordered the declassifying of some military files concerning Operation Condor, a network of South American military dictatorships that kidnapped and assassinated political opponents.
Present
Brazil's most severe problem is arguably its highly unequal distribution of wealth and income, one of the most extreme in the world. By the 1990s, more than one out of four Brazilians continued to survive on less than one dollar a day. These socio-economic contradictions helped elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002.
In the few months before the election, investors were scared by Lula's campaign platform for social change, and his past identification with labor unions and leftist ideology. As his victory became more certain, the Brazilian currency weakened, and Brazil's investment risk rating plummeted. After taking office, however, he embraced the same conservative economic policies of his predecessor, warning that social reforms would take years and that Brazil had no alternative but to extend fiscal austerity policies. Defying expectations, the real and the nation's risk rating soon recovered.
As part of these austerity measures, Lula, like Cardoso, weighed upon Congress to prevent a substantial increase in the minimum wage (currently 350 reais per month, about US$160), and did not dispute continued high interest rates set by the Brazilian Central Bank. A number of social investment programs have been cut, allegedly in order to continue servicing Brazil's public debt. Lula also spear-headed legislation to drastically cut retirement benefits for public service workers and to overhaul the tax system, though additional legislation still needs to be passed in 2004. His primary significant social initiative, on the other hand, was the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program, designed to give each Brazilian three meals a day.
In 2005 Lula's government suffered a serious blow with several accusations of corruption and misuse of authority that stormed his cabinet, forcing most of its key members to resign. Most political analysts at the time were certain that Lula's political career was doomed, but he has so far stayed in power by highlighting the achievements of his term (like reduction of poverty, unemployment and dependence on external resources, like oil), and managed to detach himself from the scandal (despite his opposition's efforts to prove his guilt). Lula was re-elected President in the general elections of October, 2006.
However, the achievements of the Fome Zero programme are yet to be seen. Although increasing aid to some states - especially in the northeastern part of the country (the poorest one) - this programme is, as of the end of 2006, seen by the general public and the media more as part of good marketing in pre-election campaign than an end of hunger in Brazil.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Brazilink - Brazil History
- U.S. State Department Background Note: Brazil
- Brazil - Article on Brazil from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
- History of Brazil - Offers a history of Brazil from 1500 to the present.
- Timeline Brazilian History - The most important dates in the history of Brazil from 1500 to the present.
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