Colonization of Brazil
In 1494, a papal bull and the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. In 1500, Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral landed in what is now called Brazil and laid claim to it for the king of Portugal, Manuel I. Brazil became valuable to the Portuguese for its rainforests rich in brazilwood which also produced a red dye.
However, after Cabral’s initial voyage, the Portuguese were largely concerned with their holdings in China and India which were extremely profitable, and so showed little interest in their newly acquired Brazil. In the early stages of colonization, the Portuguese relied on the labor of natives to extract brazilwood from the rainforests for them, giving them mirrors, knives, scissors, and axes in exchange.
Over time, Portugal realized that other European countries, such as France, were trying to lay claim to portions of Brazil, and so the king sent large missions to defend the land. One of the first such expeditions was led by Martim Afonso de Sousa in 1530, and he created the first colonial villages along the coast like Sao Vicente.
Brazil was originally fifteen private and hereditary captaincies. Two of the captaincies succeeded, Pernambuco and Sao Civente, by dealing in sugar and indigenous slaves, respectively. The other captaincies failed, and the king decided to make colonization a royal effort. So in 1549, Tome de Sousa was sent to Brazil to establish a central government, establish a religion and convert the natives to Roman Catholicism.
De Sousa’s first act was to build the capital city, Salvador da Bahia, which he divided into an upper administrative area and a lower commercial area with a harbor. He also began repairing the villages established by the failed captaincies and reorganizing their economies.
The second Governor General was Duarte Da Costa and he faced many conflicts with the aborigines and other colonizers. The wars against the natives consumed most of his governments. However, the third Governor General was Mem de Sa and he was an efficient administrator who managed to defeat the aborigines and expel the French Calvinists that had invaded Brazil.
After 1640, the governors of Brazil the governors were coming from the high nobility and Brazil officially became a Viceroyalty around 1763. By 1775 all the Brazilian regions were united into the Viceroyalty of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro was made capital.
Initial attempts to find gold and silver in Brazil failed, and so the colonists adopted an economy based on the production of agricultural goods that they exported to Europe. They produced Tobacco, cotton, and cachaca, among other goods, but sugar became by far their largest export. The sugar-based economy lasted from 1530 to around 1700 and was known as the Sugarcane Cycle. However, at the end of the 17th century, gold was found in the interior of Brazil and a gold rush quickly ensued. Gold production would remain an essential part of Brazilian economy until it began to decline around the end of the 18th century, and a period of stagnation began.