Present Day Brazil summary

The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

Present Day Brazil summary

I.B. History of the Americas Notes
Chapter 1: Present Day Brazil

GEOGRAPHY

Largest Cities – Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (3rd and 9th largest in the world)
Longest River – Amazon – second longest in the world
Oldest City – Sao Vicente – founded in 1532 near the present port of Santos, as the first Portuguese city in Brazil
World’s largest rain forest – over 2 million square miles - Amazonia
Population – over 161 million – quadrupled since 1940.

44% of the population is 18 years old or younger.
Average life expectancy of 65 years.
75% of Brazil’s population live in urban areas.

GOVERNMENT – Federative Republic of Brazil

26 States, 1 federal district – Brasilia – the national capital.
President – chief of state – executive branch – 4 year term.
National Congress – bicameral; states and federal district have representatives
Senate – 81 members; 3 each from each state; serve 8 year terms.
Chamber of Deputies – at least 3 from each state – proportionate to population; serve 4 year terms.
Judiciary – Highest Court – Supreme Federal Tribunal; 11 judges appointed by president and approved by the Senate.

Other national level courts are Higher Tribunal of Justice, Labor, Military, and Electoral Courts.
Each state has its own court system. Each state elects a governor and members of a one-house legislature.
Each state contains municipalities with elected mayors and municipal councils.

Municipal Party System: Democratic Movement Party / Liberal Front Party / Social Democratic Party / Progressive Reform / and five other major parties.
Voting Age: optional for 16-18 years. Mandatory for 18 – 70 year olds who are literate. Optional for anyone over 70 or illiterate.

MILITARY SYSTEM

Largest armed forces in Latin America (319,000).
All Brazilian men are required to serve one year in the military.

ECONOMY

Brazil is rich in natural resources that have helped to make it a developing economic power.
Mining – iron ore – largest deposits in the world (manganese, bauxite, limestone, gemstones)
Manufacturing – crude steel, tires, motor vehicles (Volkswagon)
Agriculture – 25% of the world’s coffee crop, sugar, cacao beans, tobacco, cotton, tropical fruits.
Most of Brazil’s factories are in Sao Paulo state. Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul states are also industrial areas. Volta Redonda, a steel plant near Rio, is the largest in Latin America.

RELIGION

89% of Brazilians are Roman Catholic. There are more Catholics in Brazil than in any other country in the world.
Catholics divided into two groups, Traditional, and those following the liberation theology that originated in the 1970s.
The Liberation Catholics value human efforts over divine aid, and make their goals center around freedom for the poor and oppressed.
6.6% Protestant – small, but growing denominations.
Candomble – a religion that mixes African and folk beliefs with Catholic divinities. This religion centers in the northern area of Bahia. When slaves were first imported and had symbols and imposing their own traditional African variations.
The Yoruba of West Africa led this trend.
Oxala, the god of fertility, became Jesus. Iemaja, the goddess of the sea and earth mother, became Mary.
Macumba and Umbanda are variations of these African/Christian traditions that often involve the use of other spiritual powers such as “white magic” as well.

VOCABULARY

Captaincies – donatories given to friends of the crown.
Degredados – criminals and outcasts exiled from Portugal to distant parts of the empire.
Aldeias – villages for Indians built by Jesuits.
Vaqueiros – cowboys in northern backcountry – sertao
Gaucho – southern cowboys
Miscegenation – mixing of the races.
Renois – peninsulares – born in Portugal
Mazombos – creoles – of Portuguese descent born in Brazil
Obrigados – tenant farmers
Engenhos – sugar mills
Bandirantes – slave hunters
Quilombo – villages or hide outs of escaped slaves

PLACES

Line of demarcation – Treaty of Tordesillas
Pernambuco – North east state – heart of sugar growing
Sao Paulo – City and state –mid south
Rio de Janeiro – mid south city state.
Recife – city on north east coast – built and controlled for a while by the Dutch – port city.
Minas Gerais – gold district
Diamantina – district where diamonds were discovered
Bahia – first capital ; northest
Palmares – slave quilombo

PEOPLE

Pedro Alvares Cabral – discovered Brazil in 1500
Manuel da Nobrega / Jose de Anchieta – Jesuits who established schools / villages for Indians
Piratininga – Sao Paulo grew up around it.
Jose da Silva Xavier – TIRADENTES – martyr of revolutionary attempt of 1788-89
Braganca royal family: Dom Joao VI; Pedro I; Pedro II

TIMELINE

1494 – Treaty of Tordesillas
1500 – Cabral discovers Brazil
1530 – first colonists arrive
1549 – Jesuits arrive
1580-1640 – Spanish and Portuguese royal dynasties merge
1607-1695 – Palamares quilombo of fugitive slaves hold out
1330 – 1654 – Dutch invasion of Northeast Brazil
1695 – Discover of gold in Minas Gerais
1710-1711 War of the Mescates – planters of Pernambuco against Recife merchants.
1727 – coffee introduced into Brazil
1750 - Treaty of Madrid ends the Treaty of Tordesillas
1763 - capital moved to Rio de Janeiro
1788-89 – Tiradentes revolt
1794 / 1798 / 1801 / 1817 – smaller revolts against crown
1807 – French invade Portugal
1808 – transmigration; arrival of Braganca royal family
1810 – commercial treaty gives Britain control
1815 – Portugal elevated to a kingdom
1820 – Revolution in Portugal - reactionary attitude towards Brazil
1821 – Joao VI returns to Portugal – leaving Pedro behind
1822 – Dom Pedro refused to return to Portugal; September 7, 1822 – Cry of Ipiranga
1823 – Constitutional monarchy
1825 – 1828 – War with Argentina; Uraguay is created
1830 – Revolution in France – Pedro I abdicates in favor of 5 year old son Pedro II
1834 – Additional Act
1835 – Revolt of Rio Grande do Sul
1840 – Pedro ascends to the throne
1845 – Rio Grande do Sul revolt suppressed by Caixias
1848 – 1849 – revolt of Confederation of Equator
1850 – Queiroz – end of slave trade
1865 – 1870 – War with Paraguay
1871 – Law of Free Womb – Rio Branco Law – frees newborns
1885 – Saraiva – Cotegipe Law frees slaves at age 65
1888 – remaining slaves emancipated – Golden Law
1889 – military coup overthrows the Emperor and exiles Dom Pedro II
1891 – constitution adopted

HISTORY OF BRAZIL

Brazil has been a colony, a seat of royal monarchy, a republic, and dictatorship (private and military) and a democratic republic. Throughout its history, Brazil has shared similarities with its Spanish neighbors in Latin America, but has never experienced the degree or severity of violent insurrections and civil wars.

The Age of Exploration began in 1419 when Prince Henry founded a school for navigators on Portugal’s southwest coast. Hoping to get his hands on the Far East’s treasures, Henry sought trade opportunities and gold along Africa’s coast. With the development of the caravel, an ocean-worthy ship that could make the return voyage, Portuguese merchants established trading posts along Africa’s west coast, where they developed a robust trade for enslaved Africans. In 1487, Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. One year later, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape and cut across the Indian Ocean to the southwestern coast of India, where he landed at Calicut. In the years that followed, Portugal established trading posts in Goa, India, and the Mulaccas (Spice Islands), as well as on the coast of China.

Due to its small population and limited treasury, Portugal did not attempt to establish permanent colonies. Its empire consisted of trading posts situated on coastlines, not extensive inland explorations or domination of local inhabitants. The Portuguese trade dominance was soon challenged by the British and the Dutch, and their empire would not last.

Source : http://www.mikaeldavis.com/us/BNCH.1.doc

Web site link: http://www.mikaeldavis.com

Google key word : Present Day Brazil summary file type : doc

Author : not indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.