HISTORY OF BRASIL:When arriving in April 1500 in the coast of what would later be known as Brazil, the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral found the primitive people who inhabited it.[25][26] They were divided in several distinct tribes, that fought among themselves[27] and that shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family.[25] The "men were hunters, fishers and food collectors and the women were encharged of the reduced agricultural activity that was practiced."[25] Some of the tribes were nomads and other sedentary; they knew the fire but not metal casting and a few were cannibals.[25] The settling was effectively initiated in 1534, when King Dom João III divided the Brazilian territory in twelve hereditary captaincies that would be governed by members of the lesser nobility or proceeding from educated families.[28][29] The experience revealed itself to be an utter disaster, and in 1549 the king assigned a governor-general to administrate the entire colony.[29][30]
Around 1530, the Tupiniquim (the same tribe that Cabral met)[31] and their bitter enemies the Tupinambá, the largest and most important tribes in Brazil, allied themselves with the Portuguese and the French, respectively.[27] Between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim "occurred a certain intermittently pacific inter-racial assimilation."[32] While the Tupinambás, however, were mostly exterminated in long wars and mainly by European diseases to which they had no immunities.[33][34] The ones that survived were enslaved by other tribes or by the Portuguese or fled toward the countryside.[33][35] By the middle of the 16th century, sugar had become the most important item of the Brazilian exportations.[27][36] Thus, the Portuguese turned to other forms of man power to handle with the increasing international demand.[33][37] Enslaved Africans were imported and became the "basic pillar of the economy" in the most populous areas of the colony.
No comments:
Post a Comment