Brazil, 1500-1630: from Portuguese contact to Dutch conquest

• 3 themes in Brazilian history

  • expansion and conquest
  • fusion of cultures -- the multiracial past
  • economic dependency

• Geographical determinism of settlement patterns

  • Indian: rainforest, coast, highlands
  • Portuguese: cling to the coast

• 16th Brazil, slow pace of colonization

  • brazilwood trade, degregados (exiled criminals)
  • failure of captaincy generals

• Sugar: sweet for Portuguese, bitter for Indian and African slaves

Three themes in Brazilian history

• 1. Expansion and conquest.  frontier in Brazilian history--slave raiding bandeirantes (Paulistas) as Brazil’s frontiersmen.

• 2. Fusion of cultures -- the multiracial past Indian, African, European

• 3. Economy dependency boom-and-bust economy: sugar, gold, diamonds, and in the 19th century: coffee

Population of Brazil, 1500-1994 (millions--rough estimates)

1500 1-5 million

1585 0.25 (200,000 Indians; 15,000  black slaves; 35k whites/mixed)1700 1 1800 2.5 1/2 Black, 1/4 White, 1/4 Indian1890 14 1/2 Black-Brown1940 41 1/3 Black-Brown1994 155

Cultural types at contact:mainly bandsand tribesin “Brazil”

Geographical determinism of settlement patterns: Native Americans to 1500

• Rainforest

  • Blackwater--acidic, low-oxygen waterforaging and fishing; thin soils, little agriculture
  • Whitewater--high oxygen water laden with siltcreates floodplains (várzea) suitable for agriculture (e.g., Tapajos on T. River, major tributary of Amazon)

• Coast: marine resources and agriculture permit emergence of towns (e.g., Tupinambá)

• Highlands--semi-sedentary agriculture

• Manioc: “as important to the food supply of the tropics as maize or potatoes is to the temperate zones”

Principal Physical Features.Key (meters): 3000-50001000-3000500-1000200-500sea level-200

©Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America & the Caribbean

Native settlement greatly determined by topography

• Rainforests

  • Blackwater--fishing and foraging
  • Whitewater--& agriculture

• Coastal: larger villages

• Highlands--semi-sedentary

• Southern plains--semi-sedentary

Tupinambá

Tapajos

Guaraní

Areas of Tupi-Guaraní language family, 16th century

• Tupinambá

  • lived along the coast
  • exploited the resources of the sea and forests
  • fought many small wars, revenge raids
  • engaged in ritual cannibalism.

16th Brazil, slow pace of colonization

• Chance and the Portuguese in Brazil

  • Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494: Portuguese to 370 leagues west of Cape Verdes; Spanish beyond...
  • Pedro Cabral, 1500: “Isle of the True Cross”
  • Immense expanse, little of commercial value

• Slow settlement by Portuguese

  • Asian and African trading forts were more valuable
  • Brazilwood trade: harvested by natives for trinkets
  • degregados (exiled criminals)

• Defend against European interlopers

  • 1516: fort at Pernambuco
  • 1530s: 12 captaincy-generals established; 10 failed.

16th century captaincy-generals did not prosper

• Vast powers granted to C-G in perpetuity.

• Only 2 prospered: Pernambuco and Sao Vicente

• 1548: 15 towns and hamlets totaling 2000 Portuguese.

• 1548: Tome de Sousa, named 1st governor general of Brazil

Architecturalsites from 16th century Brazil

• “Like crabs clinging to the coast”

• 3 principal zones:

  • Pernambuco
  • Salvador de Bahia
  • Sao Vicente (Sao Paulo)

Brazilwood, the first “boom” lasted 4 decades (1510-1550)

• Brazilwood-- “brasas” (as in glowing coal) red dye in great demand in Europe

• Royal dyewood monopoly established

• Natives logged the timber in exchange for knives, axes, and trinkets

• Portuguese struggle for justice, slow to begin

  • Jesuits--first order to enter Brazil (1548)
  • Used the aldeia system to concentrate “peaceful” natives into hamlets
  • Left others at the “mercy” of slave-raiders
  • 1566--junta to debate the Indian question
  • 1570--King Sebastao ruled that Indians on “no account and in no way be enslaved.”

Portuguese struggle for Justice1548 with arrival of 6 Jesuits

• Jesuit Manuel de Nóbrega (1517-1570): “They are not certain about any god, and believe anyone who tells them he is a god... A few letters will suffice here, for it is all a blank page. All we need to do is to inscribe on it at will the necessar y virtues, be zealous, and ensure that the Creator is known to these creatures of His.”

• Founded schools and missions (e.g., Sao Paulo, 1562) to convert and protect Indians from slavers and settlers

• The aldeia system: missions for converting, christianizing (marriage, family) and protecting Indians; exposed them to disease and slave raiders

• 1574: 1570 law revoked.

17th centuryarchitecturalsites

• More densely settled with few new sites

• Greatest expansion occurred in sugar-plantation regions in Northeast

In 1970, high population densities on the coast still reflect topography and colonial settlement patterns

Sugar: sweet for Portuguese, bitter for Indian and African slaves

• First introduced in 1526 (Pernambuco)

• Labor requirements for sugar cane much greater than for Brazilwood

  • Among the Tupi agriculture was women’s work
  • Native village governance pattern did not support labor draft system
  • Disease (smallpox, 1562) depopulated the villages
  • Indian slavery became widely used

• Sugar mills, indicate expansion of cane

  • 1570 60
  • 1600 120
  • 1650 350
  • 1700 500

Sugar-cane

• Perfect temperature, soil and rainfall

• Portuguese experience in the Atlantic islands

• Sugar transformed from “a luxury of kings into the kingly luxury of commoners.”

• At enormous human cost

Engheno: 3-wheeled sugar mill first introduced in 1610 revolutionized production

Three-wheeled sugar mill (1610) demanded much skilled, hard labor

Refining sugar was a hot, exhausting, labor-intensive job

Slave Traffic (figures in thousands): 1451-1600, beginning (1/4 million)(P.D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade)

Slave Traffic: 1601-1700. Brazil is main destination (of 1.3 million total)

“Big House” of a 17th century sugar plantation (Bahia)

End