History of Brazil summary

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History of Brazil summary

I.B. History of the Americas Notes
Chapter 2: History of Brazil

TREATY OF TORDESILLAS - 1494

Pope Alexander VI fixed the dividing line of overseas possessions between Spain and Portugal at 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Europeans were unaware of Brazil’s existence at that time.
In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral took a large fleet to follow in the path of Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India, but it is believed that he was blown off course by a storm and landed on the coast of Brazil on April 22nd.
Portugal’s limited resources were already committed to Africa and the Far East, making it impossible to undertake a full-scale colonization effort in South America.
Royal expeditions in Brazil found a valuable resource, BRAZILWOOD, on the coast between Pernambuco and Sao Paulo. When opened the wood had the color of burning embers that was useful for dyes.
Merchant-capitalists were given trading concessions where they set up trading posts to exchange European trinkets for Brazilwood.
Some of the first Portuguese to arrive were criminals, degregados, who mixed with the Indians.
In 1530 the French showed an interest in the Brazilwood trade. This encroachment spurred King Joao III to send an expedition under Martim Alfonso de Sousa to drive the French out and establish a permanent settlement.

THE CAPTAINCY SYSTEM

In 1532, Sao Vicente was founded, and the Crown devised a plan to colonize and utilize Brazil, the CAPTAINCY SYSTEM, which had previously been used in the Mazored, Medeira, and the Cape Verde Islands.
Brazil was divided vertically into 15 strips from the coast to the line of demarcation, and captaincies were given to 12 private individuals in what would be hereditary control, a mixture of feudalism and commercialism. The Captain, Donatory, or Grantee was responsible for colonizing, developing, and defending the land grant at his own expense.
Under this land grant system, the Captain was simultaneously a vassal to the King, owing allegiance to the Crown, as well as a businessman making profit from his own estates and from taxes obtained from the colonists to whom he had given land.

Most of the captaincies were unsuccessful because captains lacked the capital and/or political/economic knowledge to successfully administer their land grants or defend them from Indian attacks.
One successful captaincy, however, was Pernambuco, captained by Duarte Coelho, who made a profit in the sugar industry. By 1575 Coelho’s son was the richest man in Brazil and owned mills that ground sugar and collected quitrents from the people who farmed the land.
The provinces of Pernambuco/Bahia were the seat of the sugar cane industry and contained large estates called FAZENDAS and sugar mills called ENGEHNOS, monocultures reliant on slave labor.
The existence of large fazendas gave rise to an elite class of large landowners raising only cash crops and making profits off of smaller farmers who lacked funds to build sugar mills. The engenhos’ owners charged the small farmers 25% - 33% of their crop to grind their sugar.

PORTUGAL’S INDIAN POLICY

Brazil’s large plantation system needed labor, so Indians were quickly induced to work on the sugar plantations. Raids by slave hunters, BANDEIRANTES, led to warfare with the natives.
Indians proved unsuitable for labor in most cases because they were susceptible to European diseases and lacked a tradition of organized labor. They also resisted captivity by attempting to escape or by committing suicide.
As a result, by 1550 there was a shift to African labor, but Indian slaves remained in demand. As the bandeirantes traveled deeper into the interior to capture Indian slaves, Brazil’s boundaries expanded.
As with North American tribes, inter-tribal warfare and the lack of united prevented the Indians from making a stand against the encroaching Portuguese. However, Indian resistance did continue, with raids on the coastal areas well into the 1800s.
In the end, the native population was worn down by a combination of factors, to include slavery, disease, punitive expeditions that often exterminated entire tribes, and a general disruption of their culture.
The only true defenders of the Indians proved to be Jesuit missionaries who arrived in 1549.

Manuel de Nobrega and Jose de Anchieta established a school for Portuguese, mixed bloods, and Indians in Piratininga. The settlement of Sao Paula grew up around this school.
The Jesuits established aldeias, villages were Indian converts lived under the care of the priests.
The Indians were segregated from the harmful influence of the whites; Slave hunters and plantation owners were opposed to aldeias, complaining that the “converts” were in fact “slaves” to the priests.
The Mesa da Consciencia was a royal council responsible for religious affair that attempted to safeguard the Indians and keep the landowners in control.
In 1653, Antonio Vieira, a priest, arrived as an emissary from the King, to settle the dispute. Vieira denounced Indian slavery but said it could be continued under certain circumstances. His arguments against Indian slavery were weakened by the fact that the Jesuits had enslaved both Indians and Africans.
The Jesuit village system did provide a better life for the Indian than on a plantation, BUT it was based on segregation. “It represented an arbitrary and mechanical imposition of alien cultural patterns on the Indian population, and hindered rather than facilitated true social integration of the Indian.” (Haynes, p. 125)
Jesuits were finally expelled under the rule fo the Marquis de Pombal, prime minister of Portugal from 1750 – 1777. Pombal instructed the government to take over the missions. Pombal prohibited Indian raids and enslavement, accepted the idea of Indian freedom, and promoted the idea of Indians living in communities where state administrators would oversee the welfare and education of the Indians. He also made the Indians available to work for wages in the colony, encouraged contact between the races (including interracial marriage as a way of absorbing the Indians into the colonial population), and encouraged the African slave trade as a way of reducing the need for Indian labor.

THE FRENCH AND DUTCH CHALLENGES

Brazil’s dyewood, sugar, and tobacco attracted the attention of foreign powers. As early as 1555, the French tried to establish a stronghold at the Rio de Janeiro, but they were soundly ousted by the Portuguese in 1567. The Dutch were a more serious threat as they seized the rich sugar production area of Pernambuco in 1630, established the town of Recife, and held the area until 1654.
The struggle against the Dutch was the first event to unite the people of Brazil. All races from all parts of the colony united in opposition to the Dutch.

Two major battles of the struggle were the 1st and 2nd battles of Guararapes.
When the Dutch withdrew in 1654 they took their sugar production techniques with them to their holdings in the West Indies, where they became a formidable competitor in the sugar market, resulting in a reduction in sugar prices by the end of the 1600s and the stagnation of the sugar market.

THE MINERAL CYCLE, THE CATTLE INDUSTRY, AND THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM

Just as the sugar markets dried up, in 1695 gold was discovered in Minas Gerais, a mining town in the southwest region of Brazil.

Gold strike resulted in a new economic cycle, the first effective settlement of the interior, and a major shift in Brazil’s economic and political power center from the North to the South.
People swarmed from the North, leaving a shortage of field hands, which further impeded the sugar industry.
Similar to the American gold rush of the 1850s, the gold rush in Brazil brought a period of lawlessness and violence between the settlers and the newcomers arriving from Europe. By 1708, the violence reached the scale of a civil war.
Between 1700 – 1720 the Crown unsuccessfully attempted to collect a tax of 20% of the gold profits, and in 1720 the area was split into two new districts, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais.
In 1729 diamonds were discovered and as Brazil flooded the market, diamond prices in Europe plummeted. In response, the Portuguese government established price controls and limited diamond mining. They also established a strictly controlled production area called Diamantina.

As in America, the search for gold sent pioneers into uncharted land, moving settlement farther inland.
In 1763, Rio de Janeiro became the seat of the Viceregal capital. The North experienced other economic booms – the revival of the sugar industry and the growth of the cotton and fruit industries – but economic declines followed the market price. In addition, competition from U.S. cotton production caused the industry to suffer.
In the late colonial period, Brazil began production of coffee.
The growing populations on the coast created a need for increased food production. Since there was no room to graze cattle on the narrow coastal plains, ranchers began to move inland.

As in the United States, the need for open grazing land caused the advance of civilization into the frontier.
In the North, in the back country of the sertao – cattle barons drove out the Indians and built fortified ranches which were feudal domains strictly controlled by the owners. These ranches were worked by slaves and vaqueros, or cowboys.
In the South, land grants established buffer zones against Spanish encroachment. The cowboys of the southern region wore loose, baggy pants and bolas and were called gauchos.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL

The government of Portugal tried to establish a mercantile system with their colony in Brazil, but it was never as strong as that between England and her colonies or even Spain and the New World.
Between 1580 and 1640, Spain and Portugal were loosely united. During this period, Brazil’s commerce was limited to Portuguese merchant ships. This cut the Dutch out of the picture, which was one of the reasons they attacked the sugar region of the North.
In the later decades of the 1600s, Portugal revolted against Spain. In 1703, Portugal signed the Methuen Treaty with England, which made England Portugal’s ally and protector.

According to the treaty, English ships could carry trade goods between Brazil and Portugal. England sometimes plied direct trade with Brazil, forgetting to stop in Portugal to pay customs duties.
Portugal could not supply Brazil with the manufactured goods it needed. So in turn, much of Brazil’s necessary goods came from England. As a result, at least on an economic level, both Brazil and to some extent Portugal, became “colonies” of England.
Pombal, minister from 1750 – 1777, tried to change this situation. Pombal’s economic reforms attempted to create a Portuguese merchant class to dislodge the English hold on trade. He created a Board of Trade and gave merchants concessions or monopolies of areas in Brazil in which they were expected to develop the economies.
Pombal’s plan was partially successful, but when Napoleon invaded Portugal the Royal family moved to Brazil. The momentum of economic reform soon ended and England again became the dominant trade force.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAZILIAN GOVERMENT

By 1549 the donatories or captaincies had proven ineffective, in large part due to the glaring contradiction between the enormous powers granted to the donatories and the authority of the Portuguese monarchial crown.
Minister Tome de Sousa dispatched a governor general to head the central colonial administration, and Bahia was chosen as the capital (it was eventually moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1763).
Hereditary rights of the captaincies were revoked and governors were appointed by the King to replace them.
The Royal government in Brazil was conducted on a smaller scale than that in the Spanish colonies because there were fewer people in Brazil (30K in 1600) and the export of sugar was more easily controlled than the large scale mining interests of Spain in the New World.
The Portuguese didn’t need a large bureaucracy. The plantations were spread out and covered vast areas. There were few large towns and no major cities (much like the demographic growth of the South the in the United States.
By 1736, the Marine and Overseas Ministry framed laws for Brazil and were in charge of appointing governors.

The governors had power but always received strict instructions from Portugal.
The central government ran the high courts.
Administrative bodies were formed to oversee the gold, diamond, and sugar districts, and operated independent from the governor.
There were checks and balances among these royal appointees and an overlapping of power.

Local governments consisted of a municipal council (Senado de Camara) that was at times elected from the ruling class of merchants, landowners, and professionals, and sometimes appointed by the central government.

If a region was far from the capital, the council had more power. The vast size of Brazil made far outreaches of royal and local government difficult.
On the enormous landholdings of the interior, the cattle barons and the planters had great power.

Brazilians were required to pay taxes to the crown as well as municipal taxes.

The tax burden was supposed to be equivalent of a 10% tithe in product or cash.
Tax collectors were hired to keep the revenue coming in.
They could collect the taxes, pay a fixed amount to the Crown, and keep the rest. Needless to say, corruption and inefficiency plagued the system.

The Portuguese bureaucracy suffered from a mixture of ineptitude and graft, much like the Spanish system.

In remote areas the landed elite took matters into their own hands and hired or appointed Capitaes moros, district militia officers, who enlisted troops through conscription.
Capitaes moros commanded troops, arrested criminals, punished the guilty, and on many occasions oppressed the common people. They were often used to resolve vendettas between rival landowners.
Some reform of this system occurred under Pombal.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

As in Spain, the Catholic Church had direct influence over matters of state in Portugal and in Brazil.

A Board of Conscience and Orders – Mesa da Consciencia e Ordens – was established to handle religious matters. It was controlled by the King, but the Pope directly influenced it through the Jesuits until Pombal expelled them from Brazil and Portugal in 1759.

There was considerable corruption and greed among other cleric groups.
In general, the Church provided education, endeavored to undertake humanitarian efforts, and attempted to establish some centers of learning for science and literature. However, there were no major accomplishments in this area until much later. Nor were there any universities or printing presses until much later in Brazil’s development.

MASTERS AND SLAVES

The scarcity of white women in the colony, the lack of puritanical attitudes, and the despotism of land owners led to miscegenation, or mixing of the races.

Pombal promised special positions of honor to descendants of European and Indian culture in an attempt to increase the population.
But even though the mixing of Indian and white was promoted, the mixing of white and black was actually the most common.
Most miscegenation took place outside of wedlock since the upper class felt that ethnic purity was needed to maintain their power.
The offspring of out of wedlock relationships did receive some special advantages over the years as the color lines eventually blurred on most levels of society.
There developed a tendency to classify individuals racially, if their color was not too dark, on the basis of social and economic position rather than on physical appearance. Came to be known as “passing.”

Slavery affected the work ethic. Some forms of manual labor were considered “slave labor,” so white people could not or would not accept them. As a result, there developed a vagrant class of poor whites.

Slaves themselves had little incentive to work, so productivity was low with the exception of the sugar plantation.
There slaves worked long hours under cruel conditions and life expectancy was short.
The Portuguese crown did provide slaves with some legal rights, but in reality, their rights were rarely effective or pursued.
As a result of their cruel treatment, reproduction rates on plantations were very low and suicides and escape attempts were very frequent.

When slaves escaped the plantation they formed settlements in the wild country called quilombos, such as the Republic of Palmares in the northeast interior region.

In 1603, this ex-slave stronghold consisted of 10 villages containing several thousand people stretching over a 90 mile territory.
The quilombo lasted until 1694 and fell only after a 2 year siege.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Renois or Peninsulares – lawyers, church dignitaries, merchants, colonial officials.
Mazombos or Creoles – large landowners
Free peasant population – varied social makeup (many were small landowners who would be forced out by the growing concentration of large land ownership.
Tenant farmers, or obrigados, owed their labor and allegiance to the large landowners.
Squatters moved inland to the backcountry.
Free commoners – skilled artisans – whites and mulatto freedmen
The interior settlements were more democratic than the coastal areas which were under an almost patriarchal domination b the large landowners. But even in the interior there were still pronounced social distinctions.

Chapter 2 Comparisons and Contrasts

Compare and Contrast various aspects of Brazil's history with that of the United States, using their Chapter 2 Brazilian History packets (extras on my cart in room 225) according to the following criteria:

Treaty of Tordesillas - what were its aims, what did it accomplish, how is it similar or dissimilar to the Proclomation Act of 1763?
The Captaincy System - what were its aims, successes, and potential failures?; how did it resemble the headright system in the British colonies? In what ways was it different? In what ways did the captaincies resemble the early Jamestown settlement's successes and failures?
Portugal's Indian Policy - In what ways was Portugal's treatment of indigenous people similar or dissimilar to that of the United States, particularly as it relates to disease and slavery? Be sure to explain the role and impact of the Jesuit missionaries.
The French and Dutch challenges - What impact did the struggle against the Dutch have on Brazil's early colonial population? How does this mirror the American colonists' struggle against the British Crown? Please note the typo in Roman Number IV, number 1 on your notes packet. The dates in the Italicized section should reference 1754 rather than 1554 and 1767 rather than 1557, and the reference should be to 200 years difference rather than a few years).
The Mineral Cycle, The Cattle Industry, and the Commercial System - What impact does the discovery of gold have on population and settlement patterns in Brazil, and how does this mirror the discovery of gold in California in the mid 1800s? What role do land grants play in Southern Brazil? What impact does the development of Brazil's cattle and commerical systems play on the displacement of Brazil's indian population?
Relationship between Portugal and Brazil - Compare the relationship between Portugal and Brazil with that of Great Britain and the American colonies.
Development of the Brazilian Government - Compare the development of the Brazilian government with that of the United States, particularly as it relates to municipal government and taxes.
Relationship between Church and State - Compare the relationship between Church and State in Brazil to that of the United States.
Masters and Slaves - Compare and contrast the relationship between masters and slaves in Brazil with that of the United States. Be sure to deal with the issue of miscegenation, and Pombals policy's in that regard.
Social stratification - Be sure to discuss social stratification in Brazil and compare it to the United States

I.B. History of the Americas Notes
Chapter 3: History of Brazil

GROWTH OF NATIONALISM

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries a growing distrust developed between the Mazombos (landowners born in Brazil) and the Peninsulares or Renois (European born, particularly the merchant class). This distrust was the seed for a growing sense of nationalism.
Between 1710 and 1711, a short lived conflict between the sugar planters of Pernambuco and the merchants of Recif was fought, known as the War of Mescates. It symbolized the growing resentment to Brazil’s dependence upon Europe.

Minas Gerais became the seat of much of the unrest because it was the most urbanized and had the most diversified economy.
The conflict grew when the Portuguese Crown attempted to collect back taxes that imposed a new head tax, reinforced dependency on Portugal’s shippers (Renois), and imposed even heavier taxes and price controls on diamonds and gold mining.
Minas Gerais also contained a higher concentration of people who had been educated in Europe. There they had come in contact with Enlightenment ideals.
The Portuguese policy in the late 1700s of tightening political and economic control over the colony fostered ideas of Brazilian independence.

1788 – 89 – a group of colonials hatched a plot to revolt and establish their own independent republic.

Jose da Silva Xavier, who was not a member of the elite, but rather a low ranking military officer who doubled as a dentist (thus the name tiradentes – tooth puller) played a key role in the revolutionary plot.
The tiradentes and others and been influenced by the Declaration of Independence and America’s experiment in democracy. In the end, the plot was discovered and the conspirators were sentenced to death. All of the sentences were commuted EXCEPT Silva Xavier’s, who was tortured and executed. He then became one of Brazil’s most famous martyrs.

Note: In contrast to the political anarchy, economic dislocation, and military destruction in Spanish America, Brazil’s independence transition was relatively bloodless.

There were brief rebellions in several urban areas, reflecting the influence of republican ideals among sections of elite and lower levels of urban society.

in Rio de Janeiro in 1794.
in Bahia in 1798,
in Pernambuco in 1801 and 1817.

One roadblock to independence was the fear among slave owners that resisting Portugal might spark slave insurrections.
In 1807 Napoleon invaded Portugal and the Royal Court was forced to flee to Brazil.

Prince Regent Dom Joao VI opened the ports to trade wth all countries of the world, permitted the rise of local industries, and founded the Bank of Brazil.
In 1815 Brazil was elevated to co-kingdom, equal with Portugal. Native Brazilians were pleased with some of the economic reforms but resented the power of the royal court and the influx of people that came with it.
In 1821 Dom Joao returned to Portugal, taking 3,000 members of his royal court with him. He left his 21 year old son, Dom Pedro, to oversee things in his place.
Dom Joao advised Pedro that if the Brazilians demanded independence he should declare himself King.

In the 1820s a revolution occurred in Portugal. The revolutionaries framed a liberal constitution for Portugal BUT adopted a reactionary attitude toward Brazil.

They put an end to the dual monarchy, put an end to free trade, and called for a resumption of a Portuguese monopoly of trade with Brazil.

On January 9, 1822 Dom Pedro was ordered to return to Portugal. He refused, and on September 7, 1822 at Ypiranga in Sao Paulo, Dom Pedro threw his sword to the ground and shouted the cry of ipiranga, “Independence or Death!” September 7th has since been considered Brazil’s Independence Day.
On December 1, 1822 Pedro was crowned Emperor of Brazil, a constitutional Emperor.

Dom Pedro was supported by the Brazilian elite who wanted to continue the autonomy enjoyed since 1808, but who did not want the disruption and violence of other Latin American countries.
Therefore, what remained after this independence were slavery, a wasteful and inefficient monoculture, large landed estates, and a highly stratified society.
Dom Pedro was promised a constitution and in 1823 an assembly drafted a constitution that limited his power, so he dissolved that assembly and hand picked another.
The new assembly drafted a constitution that he approved. It concentrated power in the hands of the monarch and lasted until 1889.

The Constitution consisted of the following:

Council of State – 2 chamber Parliament
Senate – with lifetime positions appointed by the Emperor
Chamber of Deputies elected by the voters who met property and income requirements.
The Emperor could appoint and dismiss ministers, summon or dissolve Parliament, and appoint provincial governors; the new constitution did not sit well with the people, particularly the northern area of Pernambuco.

A group of rebels proclaimed the Confederation of the Equator, uniting six Northern provinces under a republican government. The revolt, which might have succeeded had they freed the slaves, was squashed within one year.
There was growing resentment with Pedro’s autocratic ways. In 1826 he signed a treaty with Great Britain in return for recognition as an independent nation in the trade agreement.

There was a hitch to the agreement – Brazil was supposed to end all slave trading by 1830.
After 1830 Great Britain began policing the Atlantic to enforce the policy, causing the price of slaves to increase in Brazil.
The coffee plantations in the South could afford this change, but the North’s sugar plantations felt the pinch and were discontent.

In 1830 a revolution in France toppled the King, news of which incited discontent in Brazil

Violent demonstrations ensued, so Pedro dissolved his Cabinet and appointed Brazilian-born officials to appease the people.
Pedro dissolved this new Cabinet soon thereafter and returned to one of Portuguese-born officials, prompting tremendous public outcries and mass demonstrations.
On April 7, 1830 Pedro abdicated his throne to his 5 year old son Pedro and sailed to Portugal two weeks later, eliminating dominant influence of Portuguese merchants and ministry.
Moderates then took over central government, creating a three man Regency to govern until Pedro was 18 years old. They also created a national guard to repress urban mobs, squelch slave revolts, and institute constitutional reform.

The Additional Act of 1834 gave provinces elective legislative assemblies with power over local budgets and taxes.
The Council of State was abolished because it was too closely identified with Dom Pedro’s reactionary power.
Minor revolts continued, but mostly over regional problems. For example, the Northern provinces were frustrated over foreign merchants and the loss of economic power to coffee regions of the south.

One revolt of significance was the revolt of Rio Grande that began in 1835 when cattle barons and an army of gauchos rebelled against unfair taxes and unpopular governors.
They were aided by Italian exiles including Guiseppe Garibaldi.
The rebels were against slavery and offered freedom to escaped slaves who joined their cause.
The rebels captured the provincial capital and proclaimed Rio Grande an independent state republic that lasted for 10 years.
As a result of the rebellion, two parties emerged, Liberals who wanted more freedom and concessions to federalism; and Conservatives who wanted to strengthen the central government.
Both parties agreed on the issues of slavery and monarchy and they determined to maintain the status quo.

To strengthen the central government and quell discontent the political powers decided to bring young Pedro to the throne at age 14. On July 22, 1840, young Pedro became Emperor Dom Pedro. The conservative elements influenced the young emperor to dissolve many federal reforms and curb the powers of the provincial assemblies.
The Council of States was restored, and the Chamber of Deputies was dissolved. Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais responded with revolt in 1842, but it was put down by conservative forces. The ensuing period witnessed a return to power by the conservative elite and those who could profit by cooperation.
In 1848 a revolt erupted in Pernambuco due to hostility toward Portuguese merchants, frustration with the unpopular governor, and hatred of landowners.

The rebels wanted the expulsion of port merchants, provincial autonomy, and a redistribution of land. The revolt collapsed in 1849.
Many of the revolts of the 1830s and 1840s were caused by a weak economy and the fact that traditional exports were losing market value.
For example, coffee grown in the central and southern areas reached their prime export capacity in the late 1840s and 1850s, strengthening the central government.
The 1850s was primarily a peaceful time during which the stability of the government was dependent upon coffee prosperity, particularly due to the continued decline of the sugar plantations.

THE SLAVERY ISSUE

Great Britain continued to pressure Brazil to enforce anti-slave importation laws in the wake of Brazil’s continued importation of slaves throughout the 1840s at a rate of 50k per year.

In 1849-1850 British warships were ordered to enter territorial waters to seize and burn slave ships.
Queiroz – were strictly enforced anti-slave trade laws that were passed which effectively ended the importation of slaves by the 1850s. The end of slave importation spelled the eventual end of the slave system.
Due to poor conditions and the high mortality rate, natural reproduction could not maintain the slave population.

The slave shortage caused massive changes.

The South could afford higher prices and became very prosperous, but the North declined because of exhausted soil, archaic techniques, and competition in the market.
Large sums of capital formerly spent on slaves were channeled to other uses such as coffee agriculture and the development of Brazil’s infrastructure.
Led to the development of Brazil’s first telegraph lines in 1852; its first railroad was begun in 1854, and Irineu Evangelista de Sousa laid the foundations of Brazil’s industrial and banking empire.

By the 1860s a growing number of Brazilians were calling for the abolition of slavery.

After America’s Civil War, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba were the only remaining slaveholding nations in the Western Hemisphere.
The Paraguayan War also contributed to the emancipation of slavery because the heavy losses on the front lines required more soldiers. So the government offered freedom to government owned slaves if they fought, as did private slave owners.
Emancipation for purposes of war led to a call for wide scale emancipation.
The anti-slavery movement became associated with the criticism of the emperor who had taken a cautious stance on slavery. A republican movement became aligned with the abolition movement.
As a result, the left-wing liberal party began to call for restrictions on the power of the emperor and freedom for newborn children of slaves.

In 1870 Spain freed newborn and elderly slaves in Cuba and Puerto Rico, leaving Brazil as the only nation to maintain slavery in its original form.

Yielding to pressure, Parliament passed the Rio Branco Law in 1871 which released all newborns but kept them in their master’s care until age 8, at which point they were turned over to the state for an indemnity OR the master could hire them for pay until they were 21 years old.
All state or royal slaves were emancipated and a fund was set up to pay for their manumission.
Unfortunately, this was in reality only a tactical maneuver as the Rio Branco law was never enforced. The fund never accumulated much and by 1884 only 113 of Brazil’s 1 million slaves had been freed under the law.

From 1880 on, the abolition movement gained momentum, particularly in the modernized urban centers where slavery proved to be a glaring embarrassment.

The drought of 1877-79 forced many Northern landowners off their land, rendering their slaves obsolete.
As a result, many of the Northern slaves were sold to Southern slaverholders after the drought and slavery declined in the North.
In 1884 several Northern provinces declared emancipation of slaves within their borders, but resistance remained in the southern coffee-growing regions where workers were still needed for production.
Leaders of the abolitionist movement hoped that emancipation of slaves would serve as an impetus for other social reforms in land, public education, and political democracy.

In 1885 a law was passed that liberated all slaves when they reached the age of 65, but the law did not allow them to leave their residencies for another 5 years.

The law had little effect considering that most slaves did not live to be 65.
Abolitionists continued to call for immediate emancipation of all slaves.
By the mid 1880s, the movement reached massive proportions and became more militant in nature as many slaves escaped, aided by an underground railroad from Sao Paulo to Ceara where slavery had ended.
Efforts to retrieve fugitive slaves were met with resistance, even from members of the army that were sent to get them.

In February 1887 Sao Paulo liberated all slaves in the city. Seeing what the future held, some slaveholders freed their slaves with the caveat that the slaves remain to work for them for a period of time.
By the end of 1887 even the die hard coffee planters were offering to pay wages to slaves and to improve living conditions.

To make up for the reduced work force, coffee growers began to advertise for European immigrants to come to Brazil to work.
Immigration increased from 6,600 in 1885 to 90,000 in 1888, making the coffee planters very happy as productions levels climbed.

On May 3, 1888, both houses of Parliament approved a measure to abolish slavery. It was signed by Princess Isabel on May 13th (Pedro was not in the country at the time.)
This historic event was not so much the climax of the gradual process of slavery’s decline as it was the result of abolitionist agitation, mass flights by slaves, and armed clashes. Results:

Coffee prices remained high
Brazil made economic progress
Many former slaves remained in the same position, but with less protection than before.
Abolitionists had made promises similar to United States abolitionists’ “40 acres and a mule” pledge, but they did not follow through on them.
Former slaves remained in positions of little economic or political power and they received no education to improve their situations.
Former slaves were the victims of prejudice inherited from years of slavery, and they were subsequently assigned the hardest jobs with the lowest pay.
In rural areas, immigrants replaced blacks on fazendas; and in urban areas, immigrants often replaced black artisans.

Abolition signaled the end of the monarchy.

The Royals had relied on support of the planter class, particularly from the North, who saw the survival of the empire tied to the survival of slavery.
After 1888, the planter class in both the North and the South were angered because they lost their slaves without compensation. As a result, they began to express open resentment toward the crown.
Support for an end to the monarchy also grew among members of the military, many of whom came from the urban middle class.

In June 1889 the liberal ministry tried to forestall an end to the monarchy by proposing reforms - but it was a case of too little, too late.
November 15, 1889 a military revolt organized by Benjamin Constant and Marshall Peixoto overthrew the government and proclaimed Brazil a republic.

This sent Pedro II into exile in France.
Power was still concentrated in the hands of the landed elite, business owners, and the military.

In November of 1891 a constitution was adopted with 3 branches of government, patterned after that of the United States, but with many similarities to the U.S. Articles of Confederation.

I.B. History of the Americas Brazil Notes
Chapter 3 Identifications and Discussion Questions

DEFINE / IDENTIFY THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FOLLOWING

Mozombos

Peninsulares

War of Muscates

Minas Gerais

Jose da Silva Xavier

Tiradentes

Dom Joao VI

Dom Pedro

September 7, 1822

December 1, 1822

Confederation of the Equator

April 7, 1830

Additional Act of 1834

Revolt of Rio Grande, 1835

July 22, 1840

Queiroz

Rio Branco Law of 1871

Drought of 1877 – 1879

1884 (as it relates to slavery)

1885 (as it relates to slavery)

1887 (as it relates to slavery)

May 3, 1888; May 13, 1888

November 15, 1889

Benjamin Constant and Marshall Peixoto

November 1891

DISCUSSION QUESTONS

How did Portuguese attempts to increase its political and economic control over Brazil impact early movements for Brazilian independence.

Based on our discussions of American independence, should Jose da Silva Xavier be labeled a patriot, a treasonous rebel, or a martyr? Explain your answer.

Why might the Brazilians have presumed that independence movements might incite slave rebellions? Elaborate on at least two possibilities.

Contrast the ratification process for Brazil’s Constitution with that of the United States.

What does the formation of the Confederation of the Equator suggest about the ideals of republican government in Brazil.

Discuss the development of Brazil’s two party system (when/ why).

Discuss the impact of Brazil’s economy on a climate of turmoil or between 1830 – 1860.

Describe the short term impact and the long term implications of Great Britain’s strict enforcement of the Queiroz laws.

How did the Paraguayan War contribute to the emancipation of slaves, and how did that resemble the emancipation of certain slaves during the American Civil War?
How did actions by the Spanish influence Brazilian policy regarding emancipation?

Compare and contrast Brazil’s policies of gradual emancipation (i.e. Rio Branco Laws) with the United States’ Civil War and its legacy of sharecropping and tenant farming.

In both the United States and Brazil, abolition movements spurred other social progressive reforms. Why do you think this was so? Provide specific factual information to support your response.

Compare efforts to retrieve fugitive slaves in the United States and Brazil.

Compare abolition’s impact on European immigration to both the United States and Brazil in the late 1800s.

Compare the lot of emancipated freedmen in the United States and Brazil. Be sure to discuss educational and economic opportunities, as well as civil liberties.

What impact did the emancipation of slaves play on the dissolution of the monarchy in Brazil?

Source : http://www.mikaeldavis.com/us/BNCH.2.doc

http://www.mikaeldavis.com/us/BNCH.2ComparisonsandContrasts.doc

http://www.mikaeldavis.com/us/BNCH.3.doc

http://www.mikaeldavis.com/us/BNCH.3%20IDs%20and%20Discussion%20Questions.doc

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