History ofBrazil

Judy Bieber, University of New Mexico

The Latin American and Iberian Institute
The University ofNew Mexico
801 YaIeNE
Albuquerque, NM 8713 1-1016

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Contents
Introduction 1
.

Antecedents: Iberian, African and Amerindian Cultures

Port ztguese Expansion
Slauery
Indigenow peopl.es of Brasil

Colonial Brazil (1500-1822)

Early Setleineni and Coverning Institutions, 1500-1580
Social Rel4tions and Ecowmy
77ie Cokny Matures: 1580-1750
l7ze Reforms of lhe Marquu of Pombal
Late Colonial Fissures
Thejoanine Period (1808-1822)
The Brazilian Empire (1822-1889) 26
PoliticalLfe: 26

2
3
6
8

10
10
13
17
19
22
24
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Econonrv and Society 30

Late Imperial Tensions and th Coup of 1889 33
.

R.epublicaii Brazil (1889.2000) 36

TheFirstRepublic(18894930) 36
T7ze VargaEra(1930-1954) 43
From Poulism lo Authoritarian Rufe 49
Brazil Under Militarj Rule, 1964-1985 52

Chronology ofBrazilian History 58

Colonial Era (14944822) 58
Imperial Period 61
Republican Brazil 64

Selected Annotated Bibliography 68

Antecedents: Iberian.. African and Amerindian Culture.s 68
Portugal 68
Portuguese Exnpire 68
African History 69
Slavcry and the Sbve Trade in Africa 69
African Reigion, Philosophy, and Art 70
Indigenous Societies 71
Primary Documents 73

Colonial Period (15004822) 73

Pnmary Documents 73
General Histories, Ediced Volumes, Bibliographical and Historiographical
Guides 76
Historiography ofEarly Settlement and the Bandeirantes 79
Government and State Instirutions 80
Indigenous History and the Amazon 82
The Church and Reigious Life 84
The Missionary Enterprise 84
Jews and the Inquision 85
Afro-Brazilian Religion. Brotherhoods. and Popular Faith 86
Ibe African Diaspora 88
Slavery and Race Relations 88

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Women and the Family 91

Mining Society ... 92
Economy and Society 94
Late Colonial Fissures 96
Thcjoaninc Period (1808.1821) and Independence (1822) 97
l7ie Emjire (1 822-1889) 98
General Narratives, Edited Volumes and Bibiiographical Cuides 98
Political Studies 99
Biographies, Autobiograplues, and Memoirs 104
Regional Revohs 107
Military, Police, and Social Control 109
Transition from Empire to Republic 112
Economie History 113
UrbanizarjonandUrbanlife 117
Slavery and Free Peopie ofColor in Siave Society 118
Aboiidon, Emancipation and the Transition to Free Labor 121
Women and the Famiiy 123
Travei Narratives 124

l889-Presenj 127
Tweneth-Century: General 127
Politics 128
FirstRepublic(1889.1930) 128
Vargas Era (1930.1945) 131
1945- Present 133
Polical Economy 135
Military 138
Interamerican and Dipiomatic . 142
Urbanization and Modernization 144

LaborandtbeLeft 146
Rural Transformatjons: Accommocjatjon and Protest 150
The Church and Reigion
(see above section as well; some overiap between the two) 154
Race and Ethnicity 157
Gender and Family History 167
Index ofAuthors 171
Hitory ofBrazil iii

History ofBrazil
INTRODUCIION
This guide is an updated and expanded version of that written by Micha ei Conmff and Fred
Sturm for the first Brazil Curricuium Guides Series publ ished by the Latin American Institute
ofthe University ofNew Mexico in 1985. To summarize neariy five hundred years of Brazilian
history and to identify reie vant historiographicai trends is a daunting task. This guide is meant
to serve asa preiiminary overview, and given Iength limitations, is by no means an exhaustire i
treatment of the subject. 1 give priority to works ofhistory, but anthropology, sociology, and
other disciplines are also represented where appropriate. For spec iaiized topics, the reader may
wish to consult the remaining guides ofThe Bra- i zilian Curriculum Guide Specialized
Bibliography, Senes II, pubiished by thc Latin American and Iberian Institute (1997-2001). To
kccp rcpctition ofmaterial in the series at a minimum, 1 have adopted a chronoiogical structure,
rather thin a thcmatic approach.
Each narrative sectiora ofthis guide has a corrcsponding select annotated
bibliography, dividecl into thematic suhheadings, that includes published prinia-i
Hskri ofBrcdl

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ry documents and major secondai-y works. Whenever possible, 1 have identified

which texts might be especially useful for classroom use.
ANTECEDENTS: IBERIAN, AFRICAN AND AMERINDIAN CULTURES
When Pedro lvares Cabral made the first landfall on Brazils northeaste m coast, the exploration ofthe
New World was not a priority for the Portuguese Crown. Cabral had signed on for a second voyage to
India, to follow up on Vasco da Gamas successful expedition of 1497-99. Ah.hough some scholars have
posi ted that Cabrals diversion was no accident, most historians concur that the disc overv ofBrazil
rcsultcd whcn Cabral sailcd too far Lo thc wcst in order to catch favorable riade winds necessary Lo
circumnavigate Africa.
The men under Cabrals command encountered semi-nomadic TupiG uarani speaking indigcnous
peoples. According to the letter to the king penncd
by the scribe, Pero Vaz de Caminha, they possessed simple forms of social organ ization and subsistence
patterns but seemed npe for Christian conversion. Two Europeans were left with the Amerindians Lo
learn their language and customs. Finding scant evidence ofreadily available mineral resources and
minimal trading opportunides, Cabral and his men spent Little time in this new land. After provis ioning
their ships, they procceded ou theirjourney to Judia. For the next thirty years, tbe Portuguese crown paid
Little attention to Brazil, preferring to focus its energies on the consolidation ofiis trading empire in
Africa and Asia. By the end ofthe sixteenth century, however, Brazil would become one ofPortugals
richest colonies as a producer of sugar, cultivated and processed by Amerindian and Af rican siaves.
1. William Brooks Greenlec, 77ie wyage of Pedro A1vare Cabra! (o Braztl and ndia, From Conk mporary
DocumenLs and Xarraiives (London: the 1-Ialduyt socicty, 1938); E. Bradford
Burns, A Documen(ary His(or ofBrazil (NY: Knopf, 1966).
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The transformation of Brazil from neglected outpost to rich colony could not have occurred without the
participation ofAfrican and Amerindian peoples, however unwilling. In 1500, Portugal had a populanon
ofonly about 1 million people spread out over 34,000 square miles, corresponding to roughly one fifth the
size of Spain and about one-eighth ofits population. lt boasted only one city ofconsequence, Lisbon, and
much ofthe hinterland was poor and backward. Rocky terrain and unpredictable rainfail limited
agricultural producon and poor roads and non-navigable rivers hindered the development ofmarkets.
Historian C. R. Boxer summed up this early modern Portuguese society as a mix ofunruly nobility, lax
and ignorant clergy, hardworking and doltish peasantry and fracrious artisans.2

Portuguese Expansion
Historically, Portugal had much in common with Spanish-speaking Iber ia, sharing similar successive
waves of occupation by the Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans by about 200 B.C.
Germanic tribes invaded in the fifth centurv. followed by the Visigoths, in the sixth, and the Muslim conq
uest in the eighth century(710-732). The Christian reconqucst gained momcnt um under Afonso
Henriques (1128-85) and was completed in 1249, over 250 years before Spain conquered Granada. The
Moors did not face wholesale expuls ion and continued to exert cultural and inteilectual influence.
Unification ofthe Christian north and the culturally Islamic south was consolidated during the reign of
King Dinis (1279-1325). Dinis promoted major reforms, including the redistribution ofunder utilized
large estates. He also supported the interests of the merchant class that exported Portuguese fish, salt,
wine, cork and ouve oil to both northern Europe and North African Muslim ports. In 1293, Dinis establ
ished a tax to underwrite an insurance fund for seagoing merchants. The resulti ng increase in maritime
trade provided the capital accumulation and laid the infrastructure necessary to spur the development
ofPortugals overseas empire.
2. C. R. Boxer, 77t Portugucse Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1969), 3.
3 Mioiy ofBrazil

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Portugals desire to expand foreign trade in the beginning ofthe l5th century coincided with the rise
ofinternational barriers impeding Christian merc hants. The rise ofthe Ottoman Turks in the lSth century
and the capture of Byzantine Constantinople in 1453 restricted Christian activity in the Biack Sea. Trade
with China aiso deciried foilowing the expulsion ofthe Mongois in 1368. The Portuguese began to
consider alternatives that would aflow t.hem to preempt or bypass Muslim middlemen. Economic
motivations combined with religious zeal prompted Portugals first incursions in North Africa.
Participation in Papai Crusades in North Africa gave the Portuguese an advantage in negotiaring favors
with the Varican. They also sought contact with Presterjohn, a Christian king rut nored to reside in
deepest Africa. In addition, the Portuguese hoped to tap into the camel-borne trade routes ofthe Sahara,
thereby gaining access to grain supp lies and the gold deposts ofthe upper Niger. The Crown launched a
successful campaign to take Ceuta on the Moroccan coast in 1415. However, maintaining a garrison
remained costly and Saharan trade routes shifted to other North African cities under Muslim control. A
follow-up attack on Tangier in 1437 was a failure.
Unable to compctc with entrenched Muslim trading diasporas, the Port uguese began to explore the
option of reaching Vest Africa by sea. Navigang the African coast required different techniques and
technology than those used to trave rse the Mediterranean. The open sea favored the use ofthe lateenrigged round ship or caravel over the gailey. Portuguese navigators used and perfected tools such as the
compass, astrolabe, quadrant, and nautical charts and deveio ped knowledge ofwrnd and current patterns.
Cape Bojador was rounded in 1434 and by 1460 when Prince Henry the navigator died, the Portuguese
had navigated some 1,500 miles ofcoastline including the offshore archipelagos of Madeira, the Azores
and Cape Terde islands. They pushed onward, reaching the Congo river in 1482-83, rounding the Cape in
1488, and with the help ofan exp erienced Muslim navigator, Vasco da Gama reachcd the west coast of
India iii 1498. Cabral made the first iandfafl in Brazil in 1500. By 1510, the Portuguese had reached the
Molucca straits, Indonesia, China, andJapan and had set up fort y trading posts throughout Africa and
Asia.
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The Portuguese retained control over their trading post empire against incredible odds. At its height in the
mid sixteenth century, it boasted only 300 ships. Portuguese crews were vulnerable to tropical diseases
and mortality rates sustained during long sea voyages were high. According to historian, A.J. R. Russ ellWood, the genius ofthe Portuguese overseas derived froni the accurate ident ification ofstratcgic
commercial and military points, the extensive use ofAsian and African crews and personnel, the ability
and willingness of Portuguese trade rs and ex-convict degregados to go native, and a willingness to
negotiate local
terms oftrade that required the least amount ofPortuguese manpower and res ources to maintain.3 This
system, howevcr, made them vulnerable, and in the seventeenth century, other European powers and local
leaders began to pick off Portuguese fortified trading posts one by one.
The Portuguese established two patterns ofempire, the fortified trading posts described above, and
settlement ofuninhabited or lighdy inhabited lands. Both strategies would be employed successively in
Brazil. Portuguese settlement strategies were developed and refined in the Adantic island groups ofthe
Madeir as, Azores, Cape Verde and So Tom. The Portuguese also hoped to lay claim to the Canaries
but the treaty ofAlcaovas-Toledo of 1479 granted Spain control over tbe Canary islands and Portugal
secured the remaining archipelagos and the Gurnea coast.
Portuguese settlement ofthe Madeira islands (14 18-1425) set two preced ents which would become
important in the history ofBrazils early colonization. The first was the introduction ofthe donatory
system, a means by which the
Crown subcontracted the costs of settlement to others. Donatory lords, in exc hange for importing
colonists, improving the land, and providing military serv ices, received sizable land grants,jurisdicrion
over their territories, and the right to grant lands to other settlcrs. The second was the use ofAfrican slaves
to grow
3. A. J. R. RusseU-Wood, A World on tke Move Th, Portup4ese in Afnca, Asia, and America,
1415-1808 (New York: Si Martins Press, 1992).
5 Iliskry ofBrazd

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and produce sugar.4 The Portuguese colonists initially had bumed the forests of the uninhabited islands in
order to plant grain. This yielded spectacular harvests in the short term but also Iost opportunities to
harvest scarce dyewoods and hardw oods for ship construction and fine furniture. Once grain yields began
to dec line, agricultural diversification followed and the setders shifted to produce livestock, rice, cotton,
and the production of sugar and wine. The climate and lands of tbe Azores, Cape Verde and So Tom
proved less favorable to sugar cultivation and these islands devoted tbemselves mostly to grain, fruits,
grazing, and the use and re-cxport ofslaves.
Slavery
The Iberian world was no stranger to the institution ofslavery. The Moors had uscd siaves extcnsively in a
variety ofcontexts. A trade in black Afric ans, dating from 650-1600 A.D. brought several thousand siaves
per year across the Sahara to Mediterranean and European markets.5 Although thc siave trade had not
been one ofthe principal motives ofthe Portuguese in their initial expior ations ofthe African coast, they
quickly saw an opportunity for additional profit. Some 2,000 siaves entered Portugal annually during the
fifteenth century and by the 1520s, 10% of the population ofLisbon were captives of color ofAfrican des
cent.6 They pursued a variety of urban and domestic occupations but were not used extensively in large
scale agriculture uniu the mid fifteenth century in Mad eira.
The Portuguese quickly shifted from indiscriminate and risky siave raidi ng to more reliable forms
ofprocurement, namely purchase. They made diplo . J. H. Calloway, The Mediterranean Sugar lndustry,
Geographical Revieu 67(1977): 17792.
5. Paul Lovejo Tran.sformation.s in Slavery (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983), ch. 2. Lovejoy estimates
the total volume ofthe trans-Saharan trade at 7,220,000.
6. A.J. R. Russell-Wood, Iberian Expansion and thc Issue ofBlack Slavery. American Hisi oricalReview 53:1

(1978): 16-42 and A.C. de C.M. Saundcrs,A Social Hisory ofBlack S1.aves and Freedmen ia Porugal, 14414555
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Prcss, 1982).
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matic and commercial alliances with African rulers, such as Afonso 1(1506-1545) ofthe coastal Central
African Kingdom ofKongo. Afonso 1 accepted Christianity and Portuguese advisors and expanded his
state through exporting siaves to the Portuguese via So Tom.
Many Sub-Saharan African societies practiced slavery as an mechanism ofassimilation Lo incorporate
prisoners ofwar from alien societies. The institut ion in black Africa shared manv features ofNorth
African slavery under Islam. Islam had penetrated sub-Saharan Africa through religious wars and raids
(jih ads) and through long distance trade. Muslimsjustified enslavement as a means to effect religious
conversion, rnuch as European Chrisrians would do. However, the institution differed legally in many
important respects. Siave status passed through the father, not the mother, the opposite ofthe precedent set
by Roman law. Manumission was relatively comrnon, especially for siave concubines and their children.
In sub-Saharan Africa, siaves were not strictly chattel. Slavery was seen as an unfortunate but temporary
status tbat diminished gradually over sevcral gene rations. Mecha nisms ofslavery included war,
punishment for a serious crime or social transgression, and debt. In smali-scale African societies based on
hierarc hies deterrnined by age, gender, and kinship, the acquisition ofslaves could be used to expand
ones kinship group with slaves who lacked ties tu competing nat al kin. Women were especially valued
for their reproductive and producdve functions and some scholars have speculated that the preponderance
ofmale over female siaves sent to the New World had more to do with African supply limita- dons rather
than European demand preferences.7 Children were also valued capt ives because they were believed to
be were more easily assimilable.
7. Joseph C. Milier has highlighted the shortage ofwomen in the siave trade from the supply side in Way of
Deatk. Merchant Capitaksm and theAngola Siave Trade, 1730-1830(Mada- son, 1988).
HLsior ofBreuil

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Slavery in Africa changed as European demand grew. When Portuguese siave traders began to procure
human captives in the fifteenth century, the costs to African societies were relatively low. lnitially,
European ideas about slavery were not internalized and a Muslim version (lineage slavery) continued. A
pre-exi sting supply ofdomestic siaves fihled the need. As demand grew, Africans shifted from a
polical model ofslavery, to an economic one, in which wars began to be waged for the purpose
ofprofit and the capture ofprisoners-of-war which cou]d be sold externally.8 Market changes caused an
increase not only in number ofslavcs but also the uses to which such siaves were put within and without
Afric a. Warfare and conflict increased in order to meet the ever-expanding demand ofplantarion socieries
in the New World.

Indigenous peoples ofBrazil

The indigenous peoples ofBrazil are believed to have migrated across die Bering straits some 12,000 to
14,000 years ago although some linguistic and arc haeological studies have suggested an earlier
migrar.ion dating from 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. Ofthe approximately 57 million native peoples
cstimated to have inhabited the Americas before European contact, about 2.5 million resided in what is
now Brazil.9 They occupied a range ofhabitats including grasslands, forest, and coastal settlements where
huge middens ofdiscarded mollusk shells dating from 7,000 years ago remam. By 4,000 years before the
present, native peoples had begun to cultivate maize and probably manioc by swidden, or slash and bum
shifng agriculture.
8. Philip D. Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson axidjan Vansina, eds. African Ilul ory 5th impression
(London and New York, 1984), 221-224.
9. The above estimate comes from William M. Denevan, cd., 77zeYative Pof.ndalion of th Americas in 1492
(Madison: Uruv. ofWisconsin Press, 1976), 291, cited inJaines Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin
America: A Ilistory o! Colonial Spauislz America and Brazit (Cambridge: Cambndge Uni,. Presa, 1983). Sec
alsoJohn Hcmming, Indians and thc frontier, in Leslie Bethell, ed. Colonial Brazi! (Cambridge: Cambridge

Univ. Presa, 1987). 145-189.

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Traditionally, scholars divided up t.he numerous tribal groups linguistic ally among the G, Tupi, Carib
and Arawak. The Tupi-Guarani predominated along the Amazon and the coast and were divided arnong
many mutually inteilig ible tribes including the Tupinambs, Poriguares, Tabajaras, and Carijs. The Gspeaking peoples, also known as the Tapuya or twisted tongues were locate d mostly in the interior;
some of the better known groups were the Aimors, Goitacazes and Cariris. Both groups practiced ritual
cannibalism ofprisoners of war and sustained a constant low levei warfare to acquire victims.
The Portuguese had greater contact with the Tupis dunng the forinative period ofsetdement. The Tupi had
moved into the coastal areas about 400 A.D., probably fnning out from the Paraguay-Paran basin. Their
villages were fenced wir.h palisades, could measure 1,000 meters in diameter, and typically housed
several hundred peopie. Kin groups lived in communal longhouses or makcas of 20-100 individuais,
subdivided according to family units. Tupi society was pama rchal and patrilineal. Leadersbip was shared
between chiefs, selected for their prowess at hunting and warfare. and shamans known as ag(s.
Tupi division of labor was determined according to sex and age. Men
burned and cleared fields, hunted and fished, rnade canoes, weapons, made fires, cut firewood,
constructed houses, and engaged in warfare. As pags, they perf ormed faith healing with breath, smoke,
and sympathetic magic and led hunting and rain ceremonies. Women planted, harvested and gathered,
processed and cooked fish, game, and other foods, wove cotton cloth and hammocks, made bask ets and
ceramic pots. They raised children, groomed men (including delousing, inscribing tattoos, and removing
body hair). They also prepared prisoners ofwar for execution. Womcn were considered to be inferior
spiritually, were barred
10. Warren Dean, With Broadax and Firebrand: Vze Destruciion ofthe Bra:itian Atlantic Forr4
(Berkdey: Univ ofCalifornia Press, 1995), chapter 2; Nide Guidon, As Ocupaes Pr.
Histricas do Brasil (Excetuando a Amaznia), and Anna C. Roosevelt, Arqueologia
Amaznica in Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, cd., Histria dos (ndios no Brasil (So Paulo:
Editora Schwarcz Ltda, 1992).
9 Ilutory ofBraiil
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from rnany ofthe ceremonies held by the pags, and were seen as especially dang erous and impure when
menstruating.
Ritual cannibalism was central to social organization. Potential enemies were defined as non-kin. To
avenge the death ofan ancestor killed by outsiders, a prisoner from a rival group needed to be captured
and consumed. In order to marry, a young man had to provide a victim for sacrifice or have one donated
on bis behalfby an older, more experienced relative. Ajaguar could substitute for a human prisoner,
providing that it was ritually taunted, clubbed to death, and eate n communally in the sarne manner
reserved for human enemies.
When the Portuguese made first contact with the Tupi-Guarani, they were cithcr incorporated as kin
through marriage into pre-existing groups or dass ified as outsiders eligible for capture and consumprion.
As the numbers of Eur opeazis arriving on Brazilian shores increased, however, the ability ofnative
groups to determine the outcome ofsocial interactions waned precipitously. The shifting relationships
among the indigenous, Portuguese, other European nationa is, and African captives wiIl be explored
further in tbe remainder ofthis guide.

COLONIAL BIIAzIL (1500-1822)

Early Settlemeni and Governing Institutions, 1500-1580
The Portuguese were slow to consolidate formal sovereignty over Brazil. Nearly fifty years elapsed from
Cabrals landfall to the establishrnent of a viceregal capital in Salvador da Bahia in 1549. Compared
with the potential riches ofthe East, Brazil initially was ofonly minimal interest to the Crown. Pero Vaz de
Caini nhas letter described innocent naked Indians, docile and ripe for conversion, but possessing only
parrots and feathers to trade. The land was well watered and fertile but offered no gold or silver. lis only

identified asset was brazilwood which yielded a deep purple-red dye. The Crown leased out contracts to a
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of Lisbon-bascd merchants who won the right to trade in pau brasil in exchange for a share ofthe profits
and mapping of the coastline. Brazilian Indians were willi ng to cut and transport logs in exchange for
steel ax heads, fish hooks, cloth and other goods. The natives also engaged in trade with the French, who
challenged Portuguese claims Lo sovercignty in the region.
The Portuguese crown recognized that a more effective form of occupat ion was needed and introduced
the donatory system in 1532. Brazil was divided up into twelve grants by drawing limes from the coast
extending indefinitely into the unexplored interior. These lands were given to royal bureaucrats and
successf ui militaryleaders from the minor nobility. Donatory lords, in addition to gaining hercditary
possession ofimmense chunks ofterritory, won the right to appoint minor officials, were granted civil and
criminal jurisdiction, the right to establish towns and supervise municipal elections, the ability to
distribute land and license s for capital improvements like sugar mills. Ofthe twelve captaincies, only ten
were setded and all but two filed due to insufficient capital, unruly colo nists, and indian hostilities.
Pernambuco, ceded to Duarte Coelho, and So Vicente, grant. cd Lo Martirn Afonso de Souza, were the
only successful grants. Both lords had extensive experience in the Portuguese overseas cmpire. Coelho
imported sugar and Africazi siaves to make his possession thrive.
In 1548, thc Crown bought back the captaincy of Bahia from its grantees heirs and appointed Tom de
Souza, a bureaucrat with extensive experience in Africa and India, as governor general of a new
centralized government in Brazil He directed the construction of a city located on the bay ofTodos os
Santos dist ributed land grants, imported cattle from the Cape Verde islands, set up a few modest sugar
mills, and hegan to exploit Indian labor on the plantations. Portug uese women were scarce so thc
colonists quickly formed partnerships with in. digenous women, much to the dismay oftheJesuit
niissionaries that had
accompanied Souza. The eariy coionists were a motiey crew of convicts and adv enturers ofPortuguese,
Spanish, Flemish, halian, German, English and French extraction. New Christians, or convertedJews,
were also present. Their capital,
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banking and credit connections, and knowiedge of sugar cultivation overrode most concerns about the
sincerity of their religious conversion.
The church remained weak during the first half-century ofcolonizarion. The regular orders began arriving
in smali numbers as early as 1503 (Franc iscans) but theJesuits becarne the most influential order.
TheJesuits were a young missionary order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1539 and officially recogn ized
by the papacy in 1540. In 1549, sixJesuits under the Ieadership of Manuel da Nbrega arrived in Brazil.
In addition to Ieading missionary efforts among the Indians, theJesuits aiso carne to play a prominent role
in the early colonial gove rnment., serving as advisors and confessors to important royal officials. They
also carne to dominate in education at ali leveis as tutors and administrators of colgios. TheJesuits
quickly becaine financially self- sustaining from income gene rated by their sugar plantations, caule
ranches and rnissionary villages (aldeias).

The first diocese ofthe Catholic Church was established in Bahia in 1551. Institutionally, the
secular church remained relatively weak throughout the colonial period. An archdiocese was
oniy established in 1676 and it covered a vast territory from its see in Bahia, including ali
ofBrazil, So Tom, and Angola. The inquisition never becarne a permanent institution in Brazil
and only visited three tiines: in 1591-95; 1618 and 1763-69. Due to the shortage ofEuropean
women in the coiony, the Crown prohibited the introduction ofconvents unr.il 1677 and delayed
nearly seventy years before permitting a second convent to
open.

Secular institutions were also attenuated. The overseas council (Conselho Ultramarino) directed
colonial policy from Lisbon. Salvador da Bahia became the viceregal capital, to be supplanted
by Rio de janeiro in 1763. The viceroys powers were limited due to poor comrnunications with
the various captaincies and local governors who over-rode viceregal mandates. Administrative
and judic ial entities on Brazilian sou frequently clashed over their areas ofjurisdiction.
Municipal councils, consisring ofprominent members ofthe landed and comHistory ofBrazil

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mercial elite, also exerted a great deal offorinal and informal autonomy and often challenged crown
officials. Thejudiciary lacked sufRcient personnel to be effect ive. The first high court (Relao) was
estabuished in 1609 in Bahia, and the sec ond was set up in Rio in 1751. Local justice was administered
byjustices ofthe peace (ouvidores) and circuitjudges (juizes difora). The treasury (provedoria) of
Salvador da Bahia also had extensive duties including oversight of customs hous es and accounting of ali
captaincies, bureaucratic and military payrolls, tax collect ion, land grants, and serving as arbiter in cases
of tax or customs fraud.11
In comparison with the Spanish American colonies, both Church and State were weak. Administrative
entities were established tardily and covered vast expanses ofterritory. The Crown received the right
ofpatronage over the Church in its territories in 1551 and devoted relatively few resources to the
sustenance of religious life in Brazil. Cities and towns grew slowly and setdement remained
largely confined to the coast. Effective administration, such as it was, tended to function on the local levei
in the form of municipal councils, militias commanded by members ofthe local elite, and prominent
religious brotherhoods.12
Social Relations and Economy
The shift from trading post to colonial settlement marked a rurning point in the social relations between
the Portuguese and Brazils native inhabitants.
During the dyewood cycle, relations had remained relatively harmoriious. Indig cnous men had been
willing to participate, seeing cutting and r.ransporting logs as logical adaptarions to traditional male forms
of labor. However, the introduction of sugar production, the arrival oftheJesuits. and the importation
ofOld World diseases quickly transforrned relations between Europeans and Amerindians.
11. Stuart B. Schrtz, Sovereignt and Society in Colonial Brazil: 771 1-figA Court of Bahia,
1609-1752 (Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1973).
12. On effeciive local instgutions see: A.J. R. RusseD.Wood, Soiefy and Government in Colo. nialBrazi4 15O01
822 (Hampshirc, Variorum Collected Studies Senes, 1992).
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Sugar plantations demanded large contingents ofsetded and reliabie workers to toil long hours in the
cuidvation, harvesting and processing ofcane. Indigenous men proved unwilling to farm, considering it to
be unpleasant and a form ofwomens work.13 The colonists then began Lo ensiave Indians Lo meet thcir
labor needs. The Portuguese crown never forxnally established mechanisms to co-opt native labor such as
the Spanish encomien&z or rebartimiento aithough it did recognize the principie of enslavement
ofprisoners in a just war. Rans oming prisoners who were slated for ritual cannibalism (resgate) also
became an acceptablejustificadon for siavery. In addition, mestios adapted the ban&ira military
traditions oftheir Portuguese fathers and the tracking skills oftheir indige nous rnot.hers to iead slaving
expeditions into the interior, often for months or years at a time. The bandeirantes counted on the
assistance ofindigenous men, who probably found making war and captunng siaves more to their iiking
than working in the flelds or becoming siaves tbemseives.
The needs ofthe settiers remained at odds with theJesuits who were int erested in converting the natives to
Christianity. TheJesuits developed a method ofconversion and acculturation callcd the al&ia system.
They approachcd ind igenous fmi1ies and villages and encouraged them Lo resettle in centralized vill
ages. The priests required strict discipline, religious instrucrion, and the adoprion of European norms such

as nuclear househoids and weanng ciothes. They aggressively sought to discredit native shamans and to
stamp out objectiona bie practices such as excess drinking and dancing, puberty rituais, poiygamy, and
ofcourse, cannibalism.
Indians began Lo seck out theJesuits as the lesser of two eviis. Governor Mem de S (1558-72) promoted
a series ofwars with tbe coastal populations that resulted in mass dislocation and privation. In addition,
epidemic diseases began to ravage the native populations influenza and dysentery in the 1 550s and
13. Stuart B. Schwdrtz, liidian Labor and New World Plantations: European Demands and Indian

Responses in Northeasem Brazil,Amtrican HistoricalReview 83 (1978): 43-79.

History ofBrazil
14

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plague and smallpox in the 1560s. Some Indians began to wonder if the ritual of baptism actuafly caused
disease or if the priests were malevolent sorcerers. Others sought theJesuits for the limited medical
assistance they could provide. Disease, unfortunately, was not theJesuits only enemy. Slavers saw the
aldeias as irresist ibly tempng and easily taken sources ofpotential captives. The numbers ofalde ia
Indians fel precipitously from 40,000 in the 1 560s to only 4,000 in the 1 590s due to disease, flight,
dislocation, enslavement, and war.14 In vain, missionaries appealed to the state for protective measures.
Throughout the colonial period, Crown policy remained inconsistent, alternately favoring religious
imperatives or scttlers interests.
Indian susceptibility to Old World diseases and their low leveis ofprod uctivity prompted settlers Lo look
Lo other sources of labor. By the 1550s, plant ation owners in tbe northeastern captaincies of Bahia and
Pernambuco began to import African slaves whn were hardier, more experienced with settled agricult ure,
and less likely to flee successfiully.5 The transition to black siave labor prog ressed steadily, comprising
over 30% ofthe plantation labor force by 1580, 50% by 1600 and neariy 100% by 1650.16 Indigenous
labor, howcvcr would still occ upy a crucial place in the regional economies ofthe Amazon and So Paulo
well into die eighteenth century, due to the high costs and mortality raLes involved in shipping Africans
inland.
Working conditions on sugar plantations were arduous. Siave mortality rates were high and slave women
were few, requiring plantarion owners to rely on continual importation to maintain a captive work force.
Slaves labored a mmim um often hours per day on the offseason, and up to eighteen hours a day during
14. Schwartz, indian Labor1 51.
15. Alfred Crosb The Columbian Exchange: Biokgical and Cultural Consequcnce3 of 1492
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972) and Philip D. Curbn, The Epidcmiology ofthc Siave
Tradc,PoliticalScience Quarterly, 83(1968): 190-2 16.
16. Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Lalin America and lhe Caribbean (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986),
41-42.
15 HutoryofBrazii

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the harvest, which lasted 300 days on Bahian estates. Once cur, tbe cane had to be processed within
twenty-four hours, meaning round-the-clock shifts. Field work was backbreaking and siaves who
processed cane risked severe burns or Ioss oflimbs in the machinery. AJthough opportunities for
manumission existed, urban siaves were more likely to be freed than rural ones.
Historian Stuart B. Schwartz has aptly applied the analogy ofthe sugar Ioafto describe tbe dynamics
ofplanter society in the Brazilian north)7 Sugar cured in pyramidal molds that permitted drainage
ofmolasses. The resultant loaf was wbite at the top, tan in the middle and dark at the bottom. Social
hierarchy was based on occupation and wealth, gender, racial category, and siave or free status. A
restncted white planter and merchant class dominated. Below them wcrc racially-mixed mu]attos and
mestizos ofmiddling status, including cane growers, artisans, and small farmers. Siaves formed a
numerous underclass, but were differentiated according to occupation, degree ofacculturation, Afncan or
creole birth. and degree ofblackness. Elite women, in short supply, were subord inated and controlled
according to a double standard which emphasized the sexual purity offemale relatives. As one descendcd
thc ladder ofcolor and class, womcn became more autonomous ifless honorable, often from economic

nec essity.
By 1580, the Portuguese had made significant advanccs in the occupat ion and exploitation ofBrazil.
Indigenous groups that had formerly occupied the coast were largely pacified. The French had been
cxpelled from their base in Rio de Janeiro, although they retained a base in So Luis in the north until the
early seventeenth century. Settlement concentratcd most heavily in the northeast where over one hundred
flourishing milis yielded 2/3 of aU sugar produced in the Americas. Religious and secular institutions had
been introduced and die bases
17. Stuart B. Schwartz, Plantaons and Pcripherics, c. 1580c. 1750, in Leslie BetheU, cd. Colonial Brazil
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987), 67.
HisiorjoJBrazil 16

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of the social relations between Arnerindians, Africans and Europeans had been established.
Although the basic infrastructure of a colonial state and export-oriented cconomy Iiad been
introduced by die end ofthe sixteerith century, cifective occu pation of Brazil remained tenuous.
Settlements were limited largely Lo the coast or interna] waterwavs and few people ofEuropean
descent. save the bandeirank.s and catde ranchers, penetrated the interior. By 1650, the colony
boasted only six cities and thirty-one incorporated towns (vilas).8 A series ofevent.s in the
teenth and eighteenth centuries, however, shifted the center of attention from thc northeastern
coast to Brazils center-south, an cconomic and demograpbic reon entation that endures to this
day.
The Colony Matures: 1580-1750
In 1578, the crown of Portugal fell vacant. The young, charismatic king Sebastio was killed
fighting the Moors at Alccer-Quibir and the throne dev olved Lo Philip II of Spain in 1580. For
the next eighty years, the Portuguese monarchy remained subsumed under the Spanish crown
unril the revolution of 1640 which brought the house of Bragana, an illegitimate branch ofthe
royal house ofAvis, to the throne. During the period known as the Dual Monarchy, di
administration ofPortugals overseas empire remained largely separate but Braz was affected by
internarional rivalries that involved Spain. Notably, the Dutchii vaded Bahia in 1624, succeeded
in occupying Pernambuco by 1630, and rem ained until Brazilian and indigenous forces
expelled them in 1653-4. During this period endemic, low-level warfare Ieft Brazils sugar
industry in consideral disarray. Unrest also made flight from the p]antations easier and the
origins oftl famous runaway slave community (quikmbo) of Palmares date from the Dutchoc
cupation. Palmares grew to become a large fortified setdement, encompassin
18. Schwartz, Plantations and Periphenes, 127.
17
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least ten viliages and thousands ofinhabitants. li withstood repeated assaults unt il it was finally defeated
in 1695.
During the seventeenth-century, the Portuguese also began to consolid ate their hold on the Brazilian
north. A series ofexpeditions, some Spanish and others Portuguese, traversed the Arnazon and many of its
tributaries. The Portug uese expelled the French from their base in So Luis in Maranho in 1615. The
Amazon remained relatively isolated due to transportation difficulties by botb Iand and sea. The expense
and increased mortality risks oftransporting African siaves into the interior made the region remained
heavily dependent upon indige nous labor well into the eighteenth-century. Settlers pursued an extractive
eco no my, harvesting the forests drugs and spices with the assistance ofindigenous captives.
TheJesuits also brought the missionary enterprise to the Amazon and established numerous agricultura]
properties and aldcias. Antnio Vieira (1608- 1697), a masterful orator and confessor to the King, became
the spokesman for the Indians and spread word oftheir plight through his fiery sermons. The cycle
ofdisease, death, disocation, and sett]er-missionarv conflict that had plagued the coast in the sixteenth
century was replicated in t.hc Amazon duriiig the sevent eenth and eighteenth centuries.
Settlement of the south also proceeded graduafly. The Portuguese had to contend with the presence oftbc
Spanish but during the Dual Monarchy (1580- 1640) colonia] boundaries between the two

nations remained blurred. Salvador de S (1602-1686), who served as governor

of Rio dejaneiro and on die Conselh o Ukraniarinho, pushed for Portuguese
territorial advancement to the sour.hern boundary ofBrazil at the Rio de la Plata.
TheJesuits also sought to establish red uctions but inevitably bandeirante
predations hampered their efforts. In 1679, the Portugucse cstablished the
Colnia do Sacramento (present-day Montevidc o) as a trading post intended to
deal in contraband Spanish silver from Potos. Portugal and Spain contested
control over the colony and the definition ofBraz ils southern boundary into the
early nineteenth century.
Hisiory ofBrazit

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The Paulista bandeirantes finally located mineral wealth in Brazils inter ior at the end of the
seventeenth-century. They discovered a series ofgold strikes beginning in the 1690s, and cliamonds
followed by tbe late 1720s. Capital, pros pectors and siaves moved from the Northeast, which was
suffering economic dec line in the face of rising centers of sugar production in the Caribbean, to the
region which carne to be known as Minas Gerais. The Portuguese crown augm ented its administrative,
institutional and administrative presence in order to more effectively supervise the nuning and collect
taxes ou production. Mineiro society matured from unruly, frontier anarchy to a weahhy society famed for
its opulent churches. As in the sugar-bearing Nort.heast, wcalth was borne on the backs ofAfrican
captives. Hundreds of thousands were imported into Minas Gerais during the course ofthe eighteenthcentury. Siaves laboring in mining arcas had greater opportunities for manumission because they could
work for wages or keep any gold in excess ofpredetermined quotas negotiatcd with thcir owners. The
relarive freedoms enjoyed by these siaves, however, should not be exaggerated. Ahhough they enjoyed
greater physical mobility r.han planr.ation slaves, they often had to support themselves out of their
earnings. Harsh workin conditions also led to shortened life spans and the widespread existence ofruna
way siave communities is indicative of the limited opportunities captives had. Typically, slavcs who

experienced the highest rates ofmanumission were worne who had sexual relations with their owners and
the racially-mixed children bor ofthose unions.19

The Reforms ofthe Marquis of Pombal

Brazils colonial relationship with Portugal changed markedly at the niid dle ofthe eighteenth
century. Gold production from Minas Gerais began to dec line and a combination ofprofligate
spending, a balance ofpavments probleni with Great Britain, and a shrinking overseas empire,
caused Lisbon to redefineib
19. A.J. R. Russell-Wood. lhe Bias ck Mau in Slaveiy and Freedom in Coknial Brazil (New Yon
St. Martins Press, 1982) and KathlccnJ. Higgins, Licenlious Libertyin a Brazilian G&
Mining Regi ou. Slaveiy, Gender, and Social Ccmrol in Eighteenth-Centur.y Sabard, Minas
Gerais (C.ollege Park., PA: Penn State Press, 1999).

j
19 Hi.stviyofBrazil

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approach to Brazil. Much ofthe mineiro gold had been expended on royal osten tation during the golden
age ofJoo V (1706-1750). R.ather than invest m the Portuguese economy,Joo V spent lavisbly to
support culture, music, and the arts and to construct grand public works, including aqueducts, libraries
and grand palaces. Irorucally, rnany of the new public buildings in Lisbon were des troyed by an
earthquake in 1755.
The British also had been siphoning offmuch ofthe Brazilian gold
through legal channels and through contraband. Joo IV had solidiied his reign (1640-1668) by
negoating a dynastic marriage betwcen Catherinc Braganza and Charles Stuart that involved payment of
a dowry oftwo million pieces ofgold. This debt took fifty years to pay. The Metbucn trcaty of 1703
granted preferential tariffs for Portuguese wines in exchange for unlimited saies ofwoolens in Portugal
and her colonies. A balance ofpaymcnts problem ensued and between 1700- 1750, and some 25 miilion
ofgold builion went to Britain to pay for Portuguese imports.2
The architect ofthe new colonial policies was SebastioJos de Carvalho e Meio, better known as the
Marquis of Pombal, who served underJos 1 as Secr etary ofStatc for War and Foreign Affairs from
1750-1755 and as Prime Minister from 17551777.21 Pombal was a meniber ofthe lesser nobility, a
Coimbra law graduate, and a diplomat who served in Loridon for several years. Influenced by
enlightenment philosophy and economic theory, he saw Brazil as the key to Port ugals progress.
Pombals ruthlessness against his rivais, including use ofthe Inq uisition Lo persecute bis enemies, won
bim few friends.Jos Is death in 1771 marked the end ofhis tenure.
20. David Binningham, A Concue Jltory of Portugal (Cambridge: Camhridge Univ. Press,
1993), 47.
21. Kenneth R. Maxwdll, Pombal, Parad.ox oftFze Enliglztinment (Cambridge: Cambndge Univ. Press, 1995).
Hi.rtory ofBrazil 20
I
,. 1

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Pombal initiated a comprehensive plan with numerous objectives. The flrst was the preservation and/or
expansion ofBrazils territorial boundaries. The sccond was to reorganize trade with Brazil to increase

Crown revenues. The third was to reduce dependency on Great Britain and increase exports to Brazil by
stimuiating Portuguese manufacturing. Fina]Iy, as part of a broader program to strengthen the State in
relation to the Church, theJesuits were expelled from Braz il in 1759. The Crown also conflscated the
wealthyJesuit estates in Brazil for its own financial gain and impiemented plans to deveiop tbe Amazon.
In addition, Pomba] instigated broad rcforms in education, modernized the miiitary and pro. fessionalized
colonial administration.
Nearly ali of these initiatives were carried out successfully. The treaty of Madrid adopted the principie
ofeifective occupation to determine boundaries be tween Spanish and Portuguese America. It secured for
Brazil territory far exceed ing that iaid oul by the trcaty ofTordesi1las in 1494 and even the treaty
ofUtrecht in 1713. Thin if effective occupation by Paulista bandeirantes from the Southan J esuit fathers
in the North secured for Portugal a competitive advantage.
Pombal aiso reorganized colonial commerce. Boards ofirade were esta lished in 1755 and sugar and
tobacco boards created in 1771 sei fair prices an regulated quaiity controi. Chartered trading companies
also introduced in 175. promoted the cuitivation ofnew expori crops such as rice, coffee, cacao, cotion
and indigo, cheaper importarion ofsiaves to isolated regions, and tbe importaot ofPortuguese
manufactures to Brazilian consumers. The company of Gro Pan and Maranho (1755-78) funded an
increased bureaucratic and militarypresena in the Ainazon and engaged in contraband trade with Spanish
Quito via the An. azonian basin. In 1765, the fleet systeiu was abolishcd and coastai trade betweu
Brazilian porta opened up in the following year. The enterprising career ofthe viceroy of Rio de Janeiro
the Marquis of Lavradio (1769-79) epitomizes this peI riod ofeconomic reform.
21 IksioryofBraiil

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Pombal formuiated a comprehensive, secular indigenous policy with the assistance ofhis balf-brother.
Francisco Xavier de Mendona Furtado, the govern or and captam general ofthe Estado do Gro Para and
Maranho. In 1755, he eiirninated tbe temporal and civil control ofmissionaries over indigenous peop ies,
abolished indigenous siavery and prornoted the principies ofindigenous seif-representation, accuituration,
and racial assimilation. Classifying Indians and mestios as Portuguese citizens bolstered Portuguese
territorial claims in the region. Furtado anticipated widespread settler protest to thcse measures and dci
ayed their implementatiori for two years. Pombals recommendations were then modified to iimit
indigenous autonomy. Under the Directorate (1757-1798) miss ionaries were replaced by European
directors who were empowered to aliocate the labor of the Indians under their tutelage. The creation ofthe
Directorate also reduced the influence ofthe wealthy and powerfuiJesuits. Pombal whipped up hatred
against the order in Portugal and had thern expelled from Brazil in 1759. The state appropriated their
numerous colieges and estates.
Pornbals economic legacy continued after his resignation in 1777 upon the death ofhis patron,Jos 1. By
1800, Portugal enjoyed a positive trade balance with its European trading partners. However, it became
dependent upon itsown colony, Brazil, in the process. By 1800, Brazil accountcd for roughly 80% ofthe
value ofgoods imported by Portugal. lt consumed 80% of ali products exported tu PortugaPs colonies.
Moreover, ofthe exports sold in other colonies, over 60% carne from Brazii. This development is striking
when we consider that in 1600, justtwo hundred years earlier, revenues from Brazil made up only 2.5%
ofcrown income.22

Late Colonial Fissures

Portugals efforts to righten its control over Brazil resuited in tensions that led to a series
of regional conspiracies and pians to revolt. Most ofthese in 2. Dauril Aldcn, Lae Colonial Brazii, 17501808, in Leslie Bethell, ed. Cokmial firazil, 332335.
History ofBrazil 22

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confidncias never carne to fruition and with the exception of the Tailors Revoli of 1798. they Iacked
revolutionary content ora broad social base ofsupport. The Inconfidncia Mineira, perhaps the best known
ofthc late eighteenth-centUrY conspiracies, broke out in 1789 in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais.23 The
movement was led by disaffected intellectuals, priests and local notables, many ofwhom held lucrative

administrative contracts. The Crown, facing declining gold revenues, sent a series ofgovernorS in the
1780s who began to remove corrupt locais frotu profitable offices and contraCtS aTld to press them to pay
back outstanding debcs. Ouvidor Toms Antnio Gonzaga articulated the discontcnt of thc local elite

mi thinly disguised satirical critique against one governor enrided the Cartas chik nas.
Matters carne to ahead in 1788 when governor Barbacena arrivedwitha extensive policy directive for
Minas to bring it back into the colonial fold. Mea sures included reform of clergy and magistrates who
charged CXCCSSiVC fees or tied up the courts, cracking down on contraband, reorganizing the rate
scheduk ofcustoms duties, and the imposition of a head tax to increase Crown revenue from the rnining
districts. Local intellectuals and professionais began to plan z armed uprising in order to proclaim a
sovereign republic. Many of r.lieir objecve were socially conservative or elitist in nature including lifting
restrictions on loa manufacturing, pardoning debts to the royal treasury, creating legislative bodic and
establishing a university in Vila Rica. To gain popular support, the conspt ators also proposed to free
Brazilian-born and mulatto siaves. The plot was disc overed before it was irnplemented and the one
participant oflow social status. J oaquimJos Silva Xavier, took the biame, was tried and executed. Also
kno:
as Tiradentes (the toothpuller), he was a low ranking military officer and pan. time dentist of mineiro
birt.h with few social connections. Some participantscs laborated with the authorities and were pardoned;
the remaining members
23. Kenncth R. MaxweU, Conflicts and Con4iiraciu: Brazil and Portuga6 1750-1808 (Cani. bridge: Cambridgc
Univ. Press, 1973).
25 ffzsLor oJBra.I

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protected due to their wealth and class and received lighter sentences including
exile to Africa.
The Tailors Revolt (alfaiates) which broke out in Bahia in 1798 had more revolutionary content and
involved the participation ofpoor people of color. lis leadership included mulatto artisans, soldiers,
sharecroppers and school teachers, and even some women. The movement found inspiration in Enl
ightenment philosophy and the French, American and Haitian revolutions and called for an egalitarian
and democratic society free ofrace prejudice. The rebeis also proposed specific reforms to afleviate the lot
of the poor including free trade, price controis on basic foodstuffs, increased pay for rank-and-file
soldiers, and emancipation for the siaves. The plot was discovered before it began. The aut horities,
threatened by the real social and economic changes proposed by the conspirators, and unimpressed by
their social status, dealt with them harsh)y. Severa) Ieaders were sentenced wir.h execution, whipping,
and exile.24

TheJoanine Period (1808-1822)

At the beginning ofthe nineteenr.h century, the desire for political mdcp endence from Portugal was
minimal. Members ofthe elite were more interested in refonning the system than eliminating it. They
expressed most interest in econ ornic refonns, particularly opening Brazil to free trade, and in increased
partici pation in colonial administrarion. These modcst desires were mct following the arrival ofJoo VI
and his court in Rio de janeiro in 1808. In 1807, faced with the threat ofNapoleons troops at the border,
Joo VI departed Lisbon with his ent ire court of ten thousand followers and set sail to Brazil, escorted by
a British squadron ofwarships. In essence, he brought the metropolitan seat ofgovernm ent to the
colony.25
24. Donald Ramos, Social Revolution Frustratcd: The Conspiracy ofthe Tailors in Bahia,
1798,Luso-Brazilian Review 13:1 (Summer 1976): 74-90.
25. See the exceflent coliection ofessays edited by A.J. R. Russell-Wood, From Cokny to .Nation: Essays on
thc Independence ofBrazil (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1975).
Hisori o! Brazil 24

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The presence ofthe court in Brazil resulted in some dramaric changes. Joo VI opened Brazilian ports to
foreign shipping and inimigrants. European
scientists and scholars wrote narratives describing their traveis and leaving histor ians with valuable

eyewitness accounts ofearly nineteenth century Brazil. Insdt utiorts ofhigher leaming, including milhary
and naval academies and medical and law faculties, were established. Restrictions were lifted on domestic
manufact uring, permitng the birth of textile and steel industries. The establishment of the first Banco do
Brasil facilitated investment in the economy. By 1815,Joo VI elevated Brazils status to that of a dual
kingdom with Portugal. A number of adm inistrative institutions were duplicated, providing bureaucratic
opportunities for the Brazilian-born. Within ten years ofthe courts arrival, the population of Rio doubled.
The desire for Brazilian independence grew out ofreaction to the Liberal Revolution ofOporto in Portugal
in 1820. The bourgeois rebeis elected a constitu ent assembly and adopted a constitution modeled on the
Spanish liberal constit ution ofCadiz promulgated in 1812. They also called for the return ofJoo VI. Thc
parliamcnt (Cortes) wanted to reasscrt thc colonial pact and tightcn cconomi c control over Brazil in
order to rebuild Portugal following the successive military occupations by the French and the British. In
1821, the Cortes invited Brazilian delegates to participate in its deliberations but began to draft Brazilian
policy bef ore they arrived. The Brazilians had only minority representation and were powe rless to stop
legislative reforms that repealed free trade measures and eliminated institutional and bureaucraric enrities
in Brazil. Rios position was weakened
through the establishrnent ofindependentjuntas dgoverno and the placement of military governors in
each province. The Brazilian delegates also were ridiculed as uncultured rustics by their Portuguese
counterparts.
Matters carne tu a head when Prince Regent Dom Pedro 1 refused to ret urn to Portugal. He barred the
arrival ofPortuguese troops and refused to imp ose decrees ofthe Cortes without his approval. Public
opinion in Brazil
rernained divided about independence, especially in provinces that resented the
I5I91 ojBrazil

25

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hegemony of Rio de Janeiro. Tbe intransigence ofthe Cortes, however, proved decisive. Attempts to
reassert the colonial pact, the refusal to grant Brazil its own parliament. the disrnantling ofthe Rio
government, and sending troops to eriforce these new policies, rnet with considerable resistance. On 7
September 1822, on the plains of Ipiranga, So Paulo, Pedro 1 declared Independence or Death,
marking the beginnings ofthe Brazilian nation.

THE BRAZILIN EMPIRE (1822-1889)

Political Life:
Although Pedro 1 declared Brazilian independence in 1822, consolidat ion of a new nation did not occur
automatically. Portugal refused to recognize Brazilian sovereignty and ocher European nations foLlowed
suit. Portuguese
troops, assisted by British forces under the command ofthe rnercenary Lord Coc hrane, attacked a number
ofBrazils principal ports. Only in 1825 did the two powcrs reach a ncgotiatcd settlcment, mediated by the
British Prime Minister, George Canning. Great Britains help, however, carne with a price. In addition to
the continuation ofpreferenrial tariffs, Brazil also had to commit Lo terininating the transatlantic siave
trade by 1830.26
The new Brazilian state also faced the problem of regional loyalties and localized resistance to the
hcgemony of the foriner viceregal capital, Rio dcJane iro. In particular, the northern and northeastern
provinces resented the centrali zcd control of Rio. In 1817, in Pernambuco, aspiring Republicans rebelled
and forrned a provisional governrnent based on the French constitution. Leaders
carne from the upper classes, including the bureaucratic and milit.ary elite, liberal professionals, planters,
merchants and the clergy. Many of r.he rebeis were mem 6. The legal cessation ofthe trade was not

passcd, howcvcr, until 1831 and it reniained forced until che passage of Lhe Queiroz biil in 1850.
Hisory ofBrazil 26
.

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bers ofMasonic lodges. Their appeals to regional separatism and anti-Portuguese

sentiment failed to gain wide support and the movement was quickly crushed.
Until the mid-nineteenth century, regional chailenges to national unity continued to erupt. Pernambuco
ied in Iocalized unrest including the Confedera tion ofthe Equator in 1824, a series ofanti-Portuguese and
barracks revoks in 1831, the Cabanos war (1832-1835) and the Praieira revolt of 1849. Other mani
festations ofloca] resistance included the Bahian Sabinada (1837), the Cabanag em in Belem (1835-39),
thc Libera] Revolution of 1842, and the Riograndense Farroupilha (1835-1845). Many ofthese revolts
were grounded in local partisan rivalries while others called for greater regional autonomy. Most were
elitist iri nat ure, at least initiaily, but the Cabanos and Cabanagem invoived mass participat ion
ofpeasants, Indians, mestios, and siaves.
Centripetal forces that cballenged nationai unity were balanced by tite act ions of a national elite which
was unified in class and education.27 During the col onial period, young men ofgood family weut Lo
Coimbra University for higher education because no universiries existed in Brazil. There, these elite
youths rec eived unifonn educatiorta] training and made contacts with their social equals from different
regions. These Brazilians, however, carne to clash with men of PorL uguese birth who heid a more
traditional, authoritarian notion of the nation state. A vocal nativist and radical minority called for more
democratic institutions and favored the principie of local autonomy.28
Coimbra graduates dominated at the constituent assembly of 1823. The
one hundred deputies drew their inspiration from the French and British consti2 7.Jos Murilo de
Carvalho, A construo da ordem. A elik oIKZica imjerial (Braslia: Editora
Universidade de Braslia, 1981).
28. The best English-language source on the poliuica] alignments that ernerged m post- Independ ence
Brazil is RoderickJ. Barman, BraziL Tke Forging of a Natiin, 1798-1852 (Stanford:
Stanford Uni Presa, 1988).
27 Hiskr ofBra.ril

Bi.b.r

tutions and a majority favored a moderate and elitist form oflibcralism. The nat ional leadership
envisioned liberalism as an acceptable means to preserve their socioeconomic privileges and were less
concerned with thc eiminaiion oftradit ional privileges and the implementation ofdemocratizing reforms.
As debate over the fine points draggcd on, Pedro 1 grew incrcasingly nervous about the likel ihood that
the proposed constitution would give more power to the General Ass emblv than to himself. He had the
constituent assembly dissolved and wrote bis own constitution in consukation with the Council ofState
which was presented to the municipal councils for rat.ificadoii in 1824.
The new charter delineated a highly centralized government with a strong executive consisting of the
Emperor and an appointed Council ofState, and ministries. Thc emperor was invested witli ibe
moderating power (poder moderador, allowing him to arbitrarily dissolve the parliarnent, thereby
limiring the powers ofnationally electcd representatives. Powers ofthe emperor included nomination
ofmembers to the Senate, name and dismiss ministcrs freely, susp endjudges and magistrates and grant
pardons. The constitution did adopt many ofthe classic components of European liberalism such as
division ofpowe rs among the executive, legislative and judicial branches and the Emperor, retat ively
broad suifrage, the reduction or elimination oftrade restrictions, the provision ofpublic education., and
formal equality before the law (slaves exclude d).
Dom Pedro 1 abdicated the throne in 1831 in order to protect bis daught ers succession to the Portuguese
throne from an aspiring usurper, bis brother Miguel. He also had become increasingly unpopular due to
bis absolutist tendenc ies, favoritism towards men ofPortuguese birth, his erratic and unstable charact er,
and dissolute moral habits. Thc long, and ultimately unsuccessful war for control over the Cispiatine
province (present-day Uruguay) contributed further Lo his decline. Pedro 1 left Brazil in the hands of a
regency unril bis son, Pedro II, then five years old, attained bis majority. Alternative visions ofthe
Brazilian nat ion became associatcd with political tendencies and parties that coalesced durH isiory
ofbrazil

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ing the Regency (183 1-1840). Some ofthe less extreme narivists and Brazilianb om graduates of Coimbra
formed the moderados (moderates). Defenders of irad itional privilege, many ofibem Portuguese-born,
formed the restorationists (caramarzis) who called for the return of Dom Pedro 1. Radical and stridently
anti-Portuguese exaltados became increasingly marginalized.
The series of regional revolts discussed above convinced many that state centralization was the only
viable option in order to retain national unity. In add ition, democrarizing reforms passed in the 1 820s
such as popular seleciion of jusces ofthe peace and juries, did not funcrion adequately. The exiled Dom
Pedro 1 died in Portugal in 1834, effectively eliminaring r.he caramaru threat, furt her facilitating a shift
to the center. Disillusioned moderados moved to the right and initiated ibe Regresso, reversing earlier
liberal reforms, strengthening the exe cutive, and introducing additional centralized forms of social
control. Chief among their counter-reforms as legisiation passed in 1841 that created centrall y-appointed
police officials and magistrates. Counter-reforms also restricted the powers ofthe provincial legislative
assemblies and reinstated the Council ofState, an entity associated with Pedro Is autocratic mie. Dom
Pedro IIs premature asc cnsion to the ibrone in 1840 ai age 14 further promoted national stability.
Out ofthe Regresso emerged the Conservative party, which fvored cent raiized government and sought to
curtail democratic privileges such as suifrage. The Liberal party, which arose from an alternative
moderado vision, favored broader voting rights, greater power ofelected officers, and increased local and
individual autonomy. Continuarion of regional revolts mio the 1840s prompted greater homogeneity
between Liberais and Conservatives in their desire for stab ility and their acccptance of a sr.rong,
effecrive state. Partisan compromise peaked cluring tbe bipartisan Conciliation cabinet (conciliao)
which iasted from 1853-1857. During thc late 1860s, ideological debate between and among the two
parties was renewed. Furthermore, in 1870, some members ofr.he military, urban professionais, and
coffee plantcrs from So Paulo, formed the Republican
29 HLstorvofBirnil

Li
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party and adopted anti-monarchical and anti-clerical positions tbat challenged

the nations traditional iristitutions.

Economy and Society

The Brazilian economy remained largely dependent upon thc cultivation and export of tropical
commodities such as sugar, tobacco, cacao, cotton, and coffee. Large agriculturalists continucd to rely
heavily upon siave labor, despite the fact that British diplomatic pressures threatened the longevity ofthe
institut ion. In 1807, Great Britain outlawed siave trafficking by its nationais and barred siave ships in
its territories. Through a variety of diplomatic and extralegal means, England pressured other nations
Lo follow its lead and the its navy implem ented an aggressive campaign Lo suppress slaving off the
African coast and the high seas. British help in escorting Lhe Portuguese court Lo Brazil in 1808 and neg
otiating recognition ofBrazilian sovereignty in 1825 facilitated that nations abui ty Lo lobby for an end
Lo the Brazilian siave trade.
Consequently, Joo VI agreed in 1810 to limit the siave trade to Portug uese colonies in Africa and to
prevent Portuguese nationais from engaging in the trade in non-Portuguese territories. In 1815, Brazil and
Portugal agreed to cease slaving north ofthe equator and in 1817 they rarified a search and seizure treaty
wit.h England. These measures concentrated the trade to Angola and Mozarnb ique. Following
independence, Pedro 1 was pressured to recognize thcsc agreem cnts and to promise a complete hah tu the
trade by 1830. A law tu this effect was passed in 1831 but itwas notenforced and between 1831 and 1846,
some 500,000 siaves were imported to Brazil. Formal prohibition actually increased the horrors and
abuses ofthe trade as slavers crammed their holds fuI] ofcaptives, including smaller women and children.
Matters carne to a head following the passage ofthe Palmerston Act of

1839 and the Aberdeen Act of 1845 which unilaterafly gave the Brirish navy the
right tu arbitrarily search and seize Portuguese and Brazilian ships, even in Bra istory ofBrazil 30

Bi.b.r

ziian territorial waters. The Brazilian government responded by passing the Queiroz bili in 1850 which
brought a definitive end Lo die trade.29 Ceasing thc slave trade brought a gain in internarional
respectability as wcll as freeing up capi tal but posed a problem for agriculturalists, especially those
involved in the exp anding coffee economy in Rio de janeiro and tbe interior of So Paulo. Labor hungry
landowners resorted Lo a variety ofsolutions, including recruitment of slaves internally from
economically depressed areas ofBrazil, enslaving unassimi lated Indians, the use of dependent tenant
farmers and sharecroppers, adopting vagrancy Iaws, and the importarion ofEuropean contract laborers.
They exp ressed little enthusiasm for importing Asian workers, free Africans or hiring the national
worker, poor, landless native Brazilians ofcolor.
Ultimately, coffee growers relied most heavily on European inuiigrants while poorer regions such as the
declining sugar areas ofthe Northeast relied on tenancy, sharecropping, and debt peonage. Cessation of
the slave trade also caused a dramatic rise in the price ofslaves, making or.her alternatives more attract
ive. Formal attempts Lo attract Europeans began in the 1 830s and by mid-century some 20,000 had
setded in Brazil, although most preferred to strike out on their own than subject themselves Lo harsh
working conditions alongside African slaves. Paulista planter and politician, Nicolau Pereira de Campos
Vergueiro. rec ruited Swiss and German colonists (colonos) Lo work as sharecroppers on his
plantation in Rio Claro in the 1 840s. As others followed his lead, contractual terms began Lo weigh more
heavily in favor ofthe planter and bad press stenuning from an account writtcn by immigrant Thomas
Davatz in 1850, led Germany and Switzerland to prohibit future immigration to Brazil.30 Paulista coffee
growers then looked Lo southern Europe Lo meet their labor needs, recruiting from Italy, Spain and
Portugal. They lobbied efFectively for state subsidization Lo offset the
29. On anu-siave tradc lcgislation scc Lcslic Bcthdll, Th Abolit,on o! th Brazilwn Siave Tra&. Brilain, Brtzzil
and lhe Siave Trade Qustion, 180 7-1869 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1970).
30. Warren Dean. Rio Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System, 1820-1 920 (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press,
1976).
31 HtIIOTY ofBrczzil

1
-j

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costs ofimporting contract laborers. By the 1880s, several thousand immigrants poured into Brazil
annually and Europeans continued Lo compnse much ofthe labor force in the coffee sector until World
War j3I
Weakhy planters developed alternatives Lo meet their labor needs as the slave trade became progressively
restricted. Abolitionist measures also threate ned but were slow to gain force.32 In 1871, the Law ofthe
Free Womb was passed. li granted freedorn to siave children bom after 1871 upon reaching the age of2l.
Owners could receive some indemnification from the state only ifthey freed siave children at age 8. In
adclition, the law made provisions for mandatory siave registration, and the creation ofan emancipation
fund. It also provided legal protection for property accumulated by caprives, prohibited the separation of
marncd siave couples and safeguarded conditional manuznission.
The abolitionist movcment finally took offin 1880 when Liberal politic ian and lawyerjoaquim Nabuco,
established the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society. Nabuco and other reformers such as Jos do Patrocnio,
tbe illegitimate son of a planter; Andr Rebouas, a mulatto lawyer; and Luiz Gama, a lawyer and exs
iave, generated enthusiasm for the cause, principally in urban areas. In 1884, the provinces of Cear and
Amazonas, neither possessing a sizable caprive populat ion, abolished slavery. The following year, the
Saraiva-Cotegipe bil] was passed. It freed siaves above the age of 65 without indemnification to their
owners and provided some additional legislative protection for captives. By 1886, siaves had begun to
desert coffee plantations in significant numbers, aided and abetted by abolitionist agents. Finally, on 13
May 1888, princess regent Isabel freed Brazils remaining 750,000 slaves. Despite widespread planter
fears, siaves continued to labor on coffee plantations following emancipation and economic disruption

31. Thomas II. 1-Iolloway, Immigrant.s on ihe Land. Coffee and Society in So Paulo, 1 886-1 934 (Chapel HiU
Univ. ofNorth Carolina Press, 1980).
32. Roberi E. Conrad, Th Dcstrisdion ofBrazilian Slavery, 1850-1888 (Berkcley: Univ. of Caii fornia Press,
1972).
flistory ofBrazil
32

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proved minimal. No subsequent social legislation was passed to help the newly
freed adjust Lo their new status or to train them for decent wage employment.33

Late Imperial Tensions and the Coup of 1889

The latter decades ofthe military saw the emergence of new social groups that for one reason or
another felt marginalized within the patronage-based, twop arty political system. It failed to
accommodate increasing numbers ofurban prof essionais, a glut oflaw students who traditionally had
stafTed the Imperial bur eaucracy and legisiatures, newiy affluent Paulista coffee growers, and perhaps
most importantiy, the military. The arined forces, a despised and degraded instit ution that traditionaily
had to resort Lo the coerced recruitment ofvagrants and criminais to flui its ranks, had grown in stature
following their parriciparion in the War of thc Triple Alliance (1865-1870) which pitted Brazilian,
Argentine, and (Liberal) Uruguayan forces against Paraguayan dictator, Francisco Solano Lopez. Lopez
proved Lo be a surprisingly formidable foe and mobilized 80,000 troops compared to Brazils
standingarmy ofless than 17,000 soldiers. National pride demanded that Brazil demonstrate that it was
capable ofwaging and winning a modern war against an opponent that was seen as inferior, indigenous
and mired in barbarous caudilio politics. By 1866, Brazilian troop strength was raised tu 60,000 men.
Although coerced recruitment ofsiaves, libertos and poor men of color made up the bulk of new recruits,
idealistic elite youths also responded tu patriotic appeais. The war quickly devolved into an expensive
stalemate, costing $200,000,000 and 24,000 lives ofthe 83,000 combatants.34
Brazilian forces finally prevailed in 1870 but gratitude towards the comb atants proved short lived. A
downsized military budget and limited opportuni 3. Rebecca Scott, cd., TheAbolition o! Slauery and Lhe
Aflermaih oJEmancifrniion in Brazil (Durham: Duke Uni. Press, 1988).
34. Peer M. Bcattie, Transforming Enlistcd Arniy Service in Bruzil 1864-1940: Penal Servitude Vcrsus
Conscripon and Changing Conceptions of Honor, Race and Nation. (Ph.D. diss,
Uni ofMianii,1994).
33 Hutorv oJBrazl

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ties for advancement foilowing die war proved inconsistent with a military selfi mage that saw itself as
Brazils salvation. Demobilized veterans found few opport unities and the arrny continued Lo resort Lo
impressment to flui its ranks. Stifled military officers also began to question the corrupt nature of late
Imperial patrona ge politics and saw thcmselves as a morally redemptive force, a sense ofnational mission
that would endure well into Lhe twentieth century.
The miitary found ideological inspiration in Lhe positivist phiiosophy of Auguste Comte which soon
became part ofthe curriculuxn ofthe military academ y. The experience offighting alongside slaves,
libertos, and poor men ofcolor, led many to support abolition as a political cause. Officers who had fought
at the Paraguayan front were keenly aware ofthe politica] opportunities afforded Lo their brothers iii arms
in Lhe Spanish republics and many becarne ardent Republ icans as a resuit. The two historical parties, the
Liberais and Conservatives, each sought Lo curry favor with particular high-ranking officers with Little
success. li would be a Republican military officer, Marshal Manoel Deodoro da Fonseca (1827-1892),
who would lead Lhe coup that Loppled the monarchy in 1889.
Growing tensions or questions contributed to the Ernpires destabiliz ation.35 The church question
(1872-1875) addressed Lhe relanonship of church Lo state by challenging the Brazilian government right
ofpatronage, a privi lege dating from colonial times that allowed the state Lo sanction or dismiss papal
edicts. The matter carne to a head when a European friar, Dom Vital Maria Gonalves de Olivera bccame
Bishop ofOlinda, and attempted to enforce an 1864 encyclical that conclemned the Masonic Order.

Although Lhe Masons wcre often associated with anti-clericalism in Europe, they had co-existed
peacefully with Catholicisrn in Brazil. Even the Emperor, Dom Pedro II. and rnany other prominent
statesrnen were practicing Masons. Dom Vital, however, took a hard une and began suspending and
excommunicaring Masons in his diocese. The pa
5. Charles Willis Simmons, Marslwl Deodoro and th Fali of Dom Pedro II (Durham Dulce Uruv. Press.

1966).
Histo,- ofBrazil
34

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pacy supported his actions but the Brazilian council ofstate did not and sent enced Dom Vital to a prison
term. After much wrangling the bishops were granted ainnesty and the papacy modified its position on
Brazilian masonry.
The so-called military question emcrgcd in 1883 around tbe issue of civilian ministers ofwar
controlling military discipline, appointmenr.s and dism issais. When debate over the topic emerged iii the
press, an edict was passed in 1884 prohibiting officers from discussing political or military affairs in the
press without prior approval ofthe mirLister ufwar. Military freedom ofthe press was thereby challenged
and ultimately confirmed in a ruling in 1886. The officers inv olved in the dispute, however, received no
apologies and considered the enrire affair an affront to their honor.
Rebublicanism and the abolition ofslavery represented additional chall enges. The Republicans
advocated a number ofreforms to the political system and called for separation ofchurch and state. They
were considerably more cons ervative concerning the slavery question as many among their membership
were coffee planters who owned captives. The party made only modest inroads in thc 1870s and 1880s,
boasting only one minister ofjustice, appointed in 1878, and three depuries to the Chambcr in 1884. Not
until 1888, when Brazils reinaining 750,000 siaves were freed by Princess Isabel without indemnification
to their owners, did the Republicans begin to gain a decisive advantage. The Ouro Preto cabinet under the
leadcrship ofAfonso Celso proposed some defensive rcforms to satisfy Republican demands including
greater local legislative autonomy, abol ition oflife tenure in the Senate and the Council of State, and
religious freedom. The Chamber ofDepuries balked and was dissolved. Deodoro seized the mom ent to
launch a coup on 15 November 1889, a plan that had been in the making as early as May 1887. In so
doing he had the support ofFloriano Peixoto, the adj utant general ofthe army, the oflicer corps and most
of the rank and file. Thc civ ilian ministers surrendered relatively peacefully and D. Pedro II went into
exile in Paris, where he died two years later in 1891.
35
Hzsto? ofBrzzil

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REPUBLICAN BI.zIL (1889-2000)

The First Republic (1889-1930)
Both the militar> and civilians took part in Brazils transirion to republic an mie. Deodoro took charge as
provisional president, placed militar> men in gubernatorial positions, but staffed his cabinet with a
number ofcivilians. A wides pread changing of the political guard took place in the national and state
legislat ures and in the bureaucracv as older, seasoncd politiciaris froin die monarchical regime were
replaced by younger and less experienced Republican representat ives, many from the militar> and
professional classes.
Under thc Republic, the national government was decentralized and aff orded greater fiscal,
administrative, and legislative autonoiny to the individual statcs. For prosperous regions like So Paulos
expanding coffee sector, this meant that a greater share of their tax revenues would remam within the
state. In contrast, thc poorer states to the north and northeast could no longer rely on the centralized
reapportioning offunding that had obtained under the Imperial gove rnment. This realiocation ofpower

and resources would have far reaching eff ects in terms ofuneven regional economic deveioprnent into the
twentieth century.
The Republican constitution, written largely by Rui Barbosa in consult ation with Deodoro, was passed in
1891. It provided for a strong executive with the power to cafi up the militar> at will and to freeiy
appoint ministers and secret aries. The electoral system, inspired by the U.S. model, elected a president
and vice president every four years, congressional representatives every three years and senators every
nine years. The franchise was limited to literate males. The Constitutiori separated Church and State and
transferred the keeping of vital stat istics from ecciesiasticai to state authorities.
Histoiy ofBrazil 36

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The military retained power ofthe execurive for tbe briefspan of only five years. Deodoro won the first
presidenrial election with Floriano as bis running mate but resigned late in 1891, in iii heakb and unable
to negotiate effectively with a recalcitrant congress. Floriano succeeded to the executive and lost to the
civilian president ofthe Senate, Prudente de Moraes, in 1894. Prudente hailed frorn So Paulo and bis
presidency marked the beginning ofpolitical machinations that would come to be known as the politics of
cafcom leite (coffee with milk), ait ernating the presidency between the coffee-growing paulistas
and tbe dairy.prod ucing mineiros. So Paulo was the wealthiest state; Minas Gerais was the most
populous, thereby controiling the iargest number ofcongressionai representa. tives.

1
Beneath tbe changes brought by political decentralization and the shift to a one party system, considerable
continuity with late Imperial politics remained. Patronage endured as the fundamental operating principie
ofthe politicai system. Incumbent presidents handpicked their successors in negotiation with state gove
rnors, a process referred to as the olz1ica dos goveriadores or politics ofthe governors. The governors
in turn manipulated electoral procecdings through their patron-cient relations with strongmen at the local
levei. They doled out funding and municipal positions in exchange for bringing in t.he desired vote. In
turn, ainbitious locais, typically referred to as coloneis (coron6s) brought press ure to bear on the rural
poor though threats or enticements. In weaker states like Bahia, the effective power of the coronis was
such that the federal governrnent had to negotiate direcdy with them on some occasions. Iii contrast,
stronger and more affiuent states Iike So Paulo developed effective judicial and policing instit utions that
limited the autonomy of local patrons.36
36.John D. Wirth, Minas Gerais in iAs Brasilian Federation, 1889-193 7 (Stanford: Stanford
Univ Press, 1977). Eul-Soo Pang, Bahia in lhe First Brazilian Repuhlic, Coronelismo and
Oligarchies, 1889-1 934 (Gainesvilie: Univ. of Florida Press, 1979).Joseph L. Love, So
Pauk in lh Brazilian Federalion, 1889-1937(Stanford: Stanfurd Univ. Presa, 1980).
37 Hutory of Brasil
.

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Brazils political base remained largely rural and regionally defined. This began to change in 1910
when a powerful senator from the southemmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, Jos Comes Pinheiro
Machado, proved decisive in helping war minister Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca secure the
presidency.37 Riog randense participation was crucial in a number ofrespects. Much of the elite off
icer corps hailed from tbat state. lis economic output was second Lo So Paulos. Along with So
Paulo and Minas, it accounted for over halfthe electorate by
1910.
Economic fluctuations and instabiity marked the early years ofthe First Republic. A wave
ofeconomic speculation in the mid-1890s referred Lo as the bubble or Eneilitamento witnessed
the excessive printing ofpaper currency, inflation and currency devaluation. Austerity measures
were implemented r1 the early twentieth century Lo trim budgets, repay foreign debt, and limit
currency in circulation. Key arnong these economic reforms was the Convention ofTaubat, a
coffee valorization scheme passed in 1906. As the worlds leading coffee prod ucer, Brazil was in a
position Lo mampulate the market. In order to address overp roduction, the government
purchased coffee when the world price dropped below a certain point. Growers also agreed to forgo

new planting and the convent ion remained effective until the economic crash of 1929.
The government also invested in various modernizing initiatives includi ng the improvement
ofport facilities, transportarion networks (especially railr oads), and urban infrasr.ructure. The
centerpiece was the modemization of Rio which underwent rapid transformations at the turn of the
century. As the capital city ofan up-and-coming Republican nation, Rio de janeiro was remade in
the image of Paris with broad avenues, majesric public buildings and ornate private residences.
Centrally located neighborhoods were razed to make room for these
37. Pinheiro later wenc on Lo establish his own party, the Partido Republicano Conservador
(PRC) and made his own unsuccessful bid for the presidency before being assassinated in
191 5.Joeeph L. Love, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism 1882- 1930 (Sranford:
Stanford Univ. Press, 1971).
History ofBrazil 38

Bi.b.r

improvexnents, resulting in the displacement ofthousands ofpoor and working class people.38
Economic policy favored production of tropical commodities for export although Brazil also began
to industrialize in this period. Protective tariffs were passed on imported manufctures to protect
nascent industries that sprang up in Rio, So Paulo, and Minas Gerais. Manufacturing took offfirst
and foremost in So Paulo where coffee growers began to diversif, and reinvest some of their profi
ts in industrial production.39 Thousands ofEuropean migrants who had been recruited to work the
coffee plantations opted for factoryjobs as they opened up. Their racial background enabled them
to compete effectively with Brazilian-born workers, ofien poor people ofcolor or ex-slaves.40
Industrialists took fuil advant age of this competition and workers experienced harsh working
conditions, earned meager wages and received little or no benefits. Many organized into soc ialist,
communist and anarcbist unions, especially during the years preceding, during and foflowing
World War 1.
Resistance to the social, econoniic, and political demands ofthe First Rep ublic occurred on a
number offronts. As early as 1893, the navy commander Custdio de Melo revolted iii Rio and
monarchists in Rio Grande do Sul resisted the government ofthe positivist caudilhojulio de
Castilhos. Both movements were handily suppressed. A more difficult chalienge was posed by a
penitent rel igious community called Canudos located in the impovenshed northeastern backlands.
Canudos was established in 1893 by a lay preacher nained Antnio
38.Jeffrey D. Needeil, A Tropical BeU poque: Elite Czdture and Society in Tunz-of- the-Century Rio & Janein,
(Cambridge: Cambridgc Univ. Prcss, 1987); Teresa A. Meade, Civilizing Rio: Reform and Resistance in a
Brazilian City 18894930 (Univ. Park, PA: Pena Stae Presa, 1997).
39. Warren Dean, 77te Ind usintzlization of So Pauk, 1880-1945 (Austin: Univ of Texas Press,

1969).
40. George Reid Andrews, Blackj and W,4iICS in So Pauto, Brrzzi4 1888-1988 (Madison: Univ. ofWisconsin
Preas, 1991).
39 Histoiy ofBrazil

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Conselheiro who promised salvation if one adhered Lo his rigid moral code. The community attracted
tens ofthousands ofbackianders who were attracted to both his apocalyptic message and the economic
opportunities that Canudoss valley oasis afforded. Conselheiro was also an outspoken critic ofthe
Republic, particu larly the separation of church and state, but never went so far as Lo advocate reb eilion.
The opinion ofstate authoriries concerning Conselheiros social experiment underwent a dramatic shift
following the repulsion of a small military force which had been sent Lo Canudos tu resolve a local
conflict. Its defeat was an affront to military honor and quicldy escalated into years ofarmed conffict.
The fourth and final campaign against Canudos in 1897 involved some 8,000 troops and mont.hs ofsiege
warfare. The tragic consequences ofthis episode were subs equently immortalized by Euclides da Cunha
in bis epic eyewitness account, Os Sert5es (Rebdilion in th Backlands).
Canudos was not unique; Robert Levine has identified eight separate millenarian movements that took

place from 1820-1940, mosdy occurring in sparsely populated, marginal geographic zones. In particular,
the Contestado (Paran and Santa Catarina, 1912-1916) and the Caldeiro (Bahia, 1934-37) also drew
sustained and brutal military repression.41 Unless reigious leaders aflowed themselves to be co-opted by
local politicians and Iandowners, as was the case with the influential Cearense priest, Padre Ccero, they
risked severe retaliation for chaflenging the status quo.
Rural resistance was not limited Lo reigious channels. The First Rcpubl ic saw a dramatic rise in rural
banditry. Many fctors contributed to this phen omenon. Changing patterns ofland tenure pushed thc poor
into landlessness or a bare subsistence. Polirically ambitious landowners providedjobs for and off ered
protection to unemployed mcn who were willing Lo use violence Lo coerce
41. Rober M. Levine. Vale of Tears. Remsiting the Canudos Massacre in JortIzea,tern Brazi4
1893-1897 (Berkcley: Univ. ofCa]ifornia Press, 1995), 217-225. On Lhe Contestado, Todd Alan Diacon,
Millenarian swn, Capitalisi Redity: Brazils Contestado Rebeilion, 1912-

1916(Durham: Duke Univ. Presa, 1991).

HiStO,y ofBrazil 40

Bi.b.r
and intirnidate during elections and be otherwise available for dirty work. In most areas, particularly the
poorer northeastern states, police forces were underm anned, underpaid, insufliciently armed, and
generally ineifective. Despite the romantic images that developed around some bandit figures like the
infarnous Lampio, most bandits did not act as modern-day Robin Hoods. They preyed on rich and
poor alike and often resorted to arbitrary cruelty and brutal tactics to survive.42 Rural banditry would not
be curtailed effectively until the 1930s under the government ofGetlio Vargas.
By t.he 1 920s, rising urban groups also began to chailenge the status quo. Workers conunued to form
independent trade unions and political organizations despite increasing police surveiliance and repression.
The urban populations of both Rio and So Paulo increased dramatically due to rural-urban migration and
massive irnrnigration of southem Europeans. Industrial laborers and white coilar workers alike grew
increasingly dissatisfied over their exclusion from the pred ominantly rural-based political system. They
gained more clout as their numb ers increased; between 1920-1930 the size ofRios electorate tripled. In
1922, workers mobilized to form the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and Brazilian feminists created
the Braziian Federation for Feminine Progress to lobby for the female vote. lii the sarne year, artists and
intellectuals also challenged Brazils slavi sh adherence tu European cultural norms during Modern Art
Week. They beg an to develop a Brazilian form ofmodernism that incorporated indigenous and African
elements. The middle and elite classes also contained reformist elements. In 1926, urban professionais,
industrialists, and a small number ofprogressive planters created the Partido Democrtico (PD). Among
other demands, they called for the secret baflot and greater electoral supervision.
42. BillyJaynes Chandier, 77ie Bawiit King: Lampio efBrazil (Coliege Station: Texas A&M University
Press, 1978). For a counter-example see Linda Lewin, The Oligarchical Limiti tions of Social Banditry in
Brazil: Thc Case ofthe Good Thier Antnio Siivino, Pa.star4 Present, 82 (Feb. 1979): 116-146.
41 H1wyofBrazil

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Perhaps the most sustained and vocal criticism carne from the junior off icer ranks ofthe military.
Throughout Lhe First Republic, the military objected to the corrupt oligarchical politics ofthe First
Republic. In Lhe mid 191 Os the salv acionistas attempted to redeem their native states from the grip of
poitical olig archies and enjoyed some modest success in the Northeast. Between 1922- 1927, a series
ofmilitary uprisings with varied reformist objectives carne to be known as the tenenk (lieutenant)
movement. Young officers led a barracks revolt in Copacabana in 1922 and a revolution in the state of
So Paulo in 1924. The most drarnaric expression ofdiscontent carne in the form ofthe Prestes Colurnn, in
which 1,500 of Lhe So Paulo rebeis rnarched some 25,000 1cm in a little over two years.43 The
reforinist officers hoped to galvanize Lhe rural poor tojoin them and protest the status quo but rnost were
unwilling to risk their small margin of security for an even more uncertain outcome. Luis Carlos Prestes
took the remn ants ofhis rnovement into exile in Bolivia in 1926 but returned to Brazil to assist Getlio
Vargas in his bid for power in 1930.
Rising chailenges to Lhe Republican regime carne to a head during Lhe presidential elections of 1930
which pitted presideni Washington Luiss handp icked successor, paulista Jlio Prestes,
against Riograndense chalienger, GetlioVargas (1883-1953). Vargas, a lawyer, career bureaucrat, and

politician ran on Lhe Aliana Liberal (Liberal Alliance) ticket and proposed a package of top-down
reforrns that included electoral reform, a progressive labor code, Lhe fem ale vote, and arnnesty for the
tenentes.Jlio Prestes made similar appeals to Lhe carioca electorate, thereby winning much of Lhe
labor vote. Vargas secured only 700,000 votes compared to his opponents one million but afleged that
Prestes had won through fraud. The Liberal Alliance then began to plan a revolt and rec ruited military

tenente support. A number of Lhe veterans of Lhe Prestes column returned to Bra.zil to
lend Vargas their support, minus their leader, Luis Carlos Prestes, who was drawn
increasingly to Marxism-Leninism. Fighting broke out
43. Neil MacCaulay, 77ie Prestes Column. Revolutwn in B,-o.zil (New York: New Vicwpoints,
1974).
Hutory ofBrazil 42

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on October 3 and president Washington Luis was deposed by the army high comniand on October 24. On
November 3, 1930, Vargas was sworn in as chief ofthe provisional government, the first step in a quest
for personal power that would endure for more than two decades.
The Vargas Era (1930-1954)
Getlio Vargas Faced a nuinber ofchallenges upon assuining executive power. First and foremost was the
economic depression. Coffee, which during the 1920s, had provided 70% ofBrazils export revenues,
dropped from 22.5 cents a pound to only8 cents per pound on the world market. Vargas faced the
daunting task of diversifying the economy while simultaneously keeping his promises to improve
conditions for the working class. This delicate and contrad ictory balancing act characterized the
remainder ofhis political career.
Politically, Vargas also vacillated between the right and the left. Until presidential elections were cafled
in 1932, he controlled the executive as a de facto dictator. His provisional government resorted to
temporary censorship of the press and appointed tenentes replaced elected governors and mayors in key
chies. His alliance with the tenentes helped him to maintain power but also exerie d a powerful influence
on his early policies. Idealistic tenente advisors and rising populist politicians such as the reformist
physician Pedro Ernesto Batista fonned thc Clube 3 de outubro as a platform to push for popular
rcforms.44 During this interim period, Vargas created new health, education and labor ministries. He ext
ended retirement funds and social security benefits to key labor sectors and passed legislation that
required that at least 67% ofemployees ofany business be Brazilian nationais. Electoral reforin passed in
1932 gave women the vote, lowe red the voting age to 18, provided for secret balloting and supported
broaderinf rastructure for voter registraon. Pedro Ernesto, appointed as interventor ofthe Federal District
by Vargas, formed a new political party, the Partido Autnomo
44. Michael L. Conniff, Urban Politks in BraziL 77ze Rise ofPojuksm, 1925-1945 (Pittsburgh Univ.
ofPittsburgh Press, 1981).
43 lfiskny ofBrazil

Bl.b.r

do Distrito Federal (PADF) and launched an aggressive campaign to register urb an voters. The PADF
also enjoyed wide support among feminists and inteflect uals. Six of the ten Rio delegates to the
Constituent Assembly in 1933 were PADF members.
The constitution of 1934 reflected r.he populist concerns ofthe early Varg as years. Labor particularly
benefitted from new protectionist measures. The chamber ofdeputies was also restructured to include 50
representatives accordi ng to social class (labor, industry, bureaucrats, etc.) However, shortly upon ass
uming the presidency in 1934, Vargas began Lo favor a corporatist approach to government. Increasingly
influenced by European fascist models, he sought Lo incorporate private institutions under the tutelage
ofthe state and abandoned populist, bottom-up approaches.45 Social planning and labor organizations beg
an to shift from the private to public sectors. For example, Lhe ministry of labor required each trade Lo
form a single official union (sindicato) and refused to reco gnize Lhe rights ofalternative workers
groups to strike, negotiate, or demand benefits. Few workers found these unions appealing; one study
found that only .003% ofworkers in the metallurgy and textile trades in So Paulojoined their res pective
sindicatos.46
Vargass move towards the right did not sit well with ali ofhis constitue nts. Disaffected tenentes, labor

activists, populists, and middle-class libcral ref ormers formed tbe Alliance for National Liberarion
(ANL) in early 1935. This popular front organization also incorporated many former mcmbers ofthe
PCB, which had been outlawed in 1934, and appointed Cornmunist leader and former tenente, Luis
Carlos Prestes, as its president. li attracted a largely urban, middle and lower middle-class base with
workers being relatively under-repre 5. Robert M. Levine 77ie Vargas Regime: l7je Crilicai Years: 1934-1938
(New York: Columbia Univ Press, 1970) is still the best source on this period.
46. Joel Wolfe, Working Women, Working Men. So Paulo and lhe Rue af Brazils Industrio.! Working Class,
1900.1955. (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1993), ch. 2.

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sented. The ANL called for broad-based urban and rural refoz-ms and greater nat ionalization of the
economy.
Vargas responded to this chalienge by passing a National Security Act that gave him and his police forces
broad authority to suppress social protcst. The police duly banned labor and leftist groups, mcluding the
NL, while simultan eously tolerating and even encouraging ultra-righst groups such as the fascist
Integralists. Following its suppression, the ANL reorganized in a more militant mode, alienating some
ofits middle class constuents. lt became involved in fom enting military uprisings in Natal, Recife and
Rio dejaneiro in November 1935. Vargas called for, and was granted, a thirty day state ofsiege during
which he purged the military and expanded the power of the executive. The National Comm ission for the
Repression ofCommunism and the National Security Tribunal were established in 1936. Wholesale
repression and censorship ofthe left ensued and several thousand political arrests were made between
1935-193 7, including Luis Carlos Prestes and former interventor of Rio and PADF leader, Pedro Ernest o
Batista. Political prisoners were housed lii the most squalid ofmakeshift priso ns where they held classes
in literacy, foreign languages and political philosophy and ideology. Vargas had some political prisoners
deported; Prestess wife Olga Benrio ultimately died in a Nazi concentration camp.
In 1937, Vargas began making moves to retain conr.rol ofthe executive. The 1934 constitution stipulated
that he could not succeed himself, a lixnitation that required extralegal measures. He again began to court
military support, this time approaching more poliuically conservative officers. Vargas t.hen discove red
a (bogus) Comrnunist plot., dubbed the Cohen plan, and persuaded Cong ress Lo suspend constitutional
rights on October 1, 1937 until this threat to nationa] security was resolved. On November 10, he
dissolved Congress and the state legislatures, replaced governors with his own appointees, eliminated
existi ng political parties and canceled tbe upcoming elections, claiming that they posed a threat to
national security. With the backing ofthe military, he an- nounced a new corporatist constitution, and
assumed dictatorial powers under
45 HutoryofBrazil

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what he called the Estado Novo or new state (1937-1945). His most influential advisors included military
chief of staff Pedro Aurlio de Ges Monteiro; minist er ofwar, Eurico Dutra; and forrner labor minister
and pro-Nazi police chiefof Rio, Filinto MulIer.47
Vargas quickly implemented an aggressive policy ofeconomic nationali sm and irnport substitution
industrialization (ISI) under the catchphrase renov ation (renovao).48 His top-down, statecontrolled plan emphasized the
development and nationalization ofheavy industry, particularly steel production and petroleum refining.
Key to his success were long-term, low-interest loans and technical expertise proffered by the U.S. in
exchange for the right to set up air bases in Brazil during World War 11. The National

Steel Commission and the Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce, established in 1940
and 1942 respectively, fac ilitated Bra.zils selfsufficiency in steel production.
The military approved, seei ng the development of a domestic steel industry as essential to
Brazils status as an up-and-coming military power. Vargas also pumped resources into the agric ultural
sector, parricularly m coffee financing and technological improvements in sugar refining. By 1950, Brazil
was the most industrializcd nation in ali ofLatin America.
Although much ofVargass approach was macro-institutional, he did not neglect the micro-social. He
continued to provide social welfare benefits and prot ective legislation for workers, providing that they

remained politically quiescent. In 1941, the organization ofthe state-run unions changed. Funding that
dcrived from the payment of a tax equivalent to one days wages was fiinneled exclusively through the
sndicatos. In order to have access to social services Iike heahh care, education, and cooperarives, workers
had tojoin tbe union. Ifthe unions engaged
47. Levine, Vargas Regime.
48. An cxcellent ovei-view ofthe domesLic and foreign policy of the Vargas era through the miiit ary coup
of 1964 is provided by Thomas E. Skidmore, Politics in Biuzi4 1930-1964: Ais Exjeriment in Demecracy (N.Y.:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1967).
Huio,y ofBrszzil 46

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in subversive acrivities such as strikes, the government pulled their funding. Union leaders appointed by
the goverrunent tended to be career bureaucrats in cahoots with industrialists z-ather than actual workers.
The secret police (DOPS) also placed operatives in the unions Lo spy on their membership and weed out
troublemakers.
Brazils entry into World War II in 1942 increased industrial output but did not benefit workcrs. Workers
were pressured Lo labor longer hours for the war effort but wages remained flat despite a rising cost of
living. Restrictions on female and child labor were abandoned but women were denied access to new ind
ustrial training programs. However, Vargas did not rely solely on patriotic app eals to control the work
force. From 1943-1945, he reformed the labor unions to allow greater worker autonomy and freedom to
negotiate. This move was largel y strategic; Vargas had promised free elections aL the wars end and
hoped Lo use die sindicatos as the basis of a pro-Vargas political party.
During the Estado Novo, Vargas also manipulated the media in order to retain legitimacy among the
popular classes. The DI? or Propaganda Ministry controlled more than 60% ofthe media and had the
power to censor independent papers. Vargas also used radio to good effect, particularly his weekly
appearances on the Hora do Brasil and m cinema newsreels.49 Using these tactics, hewas able to create
and sustain an image as the father of the poor that offset the weight of his contradictory policies
towards labor.50 Pro-Vargas propaganda and speaking tours were also directed towards impoverished
rural dwellers although they rem ained virtually neglected in policy terms. Vargas tended Lo cultivate
relation 9. Ludwig Lauerhassjr., Who was Getlio? Theme and Varia bons ia Brazilian Poliacal Lore,
JournalofLatnAmerscanLore, 5:2(1979): 273-290
50. Especiaily evocaLive are leUers writtcn by common folk Lo Vargas requesting help Lo resolve personal
problems. A selection ofsuch correspondence can be found in Robert M. Levine, Fazer of the oor: Vargas
and his Era (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997) and Wolfe, 1rking Women, WorkingMen.
47 HLSLOy ofBra.il

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ships with the rural elites to achieve specific objectives such as an end Lo rural banditiy.
By the end ofWorld War II, however, censorship ofopposition opinion began Lo break down. ln 1943,
Vargas allowed polirical parties Lo form, the first nationwide democratic parties in Brazilian history. Two
were founded by him:
the Partido Social Democrtico (PSD) which represented urban, moderate, midd le-class interests and the
Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) which appealed Lo workers and the left, principafly Lo members of
the government-dominated lab or unions and economic nationalists. The Unio Democratica Nacional
(UDN) represented conservative interests and the landed oligarchy who had been marg inalized under
Vargas. The Communist party (PCB) also returned in 1945.
Vargas still enjoyed considerable support among conservative politicians and bureaucrats, industrialista,
and urban workers who had benefitted from bis social welfre policies. Much of the Ianded oligarchy and
some sectors ofthe mili tary opposed him. Vargass cautious shift towards the left during bis final years in
power caused concern within miii Lary circies and iL was the military that finally forced Vargasto step
down in 1945. General Eurico Dutra, the PSD/PTB candid ate won the presidency with 55% of the vote
and the PSD gained a majority in Congress. Two states elected Vargas to the Senate; he chose Lo
represent bis home state, Rio Grande do Sul, as a PSD candidate.
Little institutional or socioeconomic change occurred under Dutras presidency (1946-195 1). The new
Brazilian constitution left Lhe centralized structures imposed under Vargas largely intact. Dutra iced
economic instability and post-war inflation. Akhough he implemented regional development prog rams

that addressed the drought-stricken interior, he tended to pursue economi c development at the expense
ofworkers who expenenced a decline in real wages and renewed repression. He also cracked down on Lhe
left, banning Lhe Commun istpartyin 1947.
Hisloiy ofBrtzzii 48

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Vargas returned to the presidency in 1951, captunng nearly 49% ofthe vote. He represented both the PTB
and the Partido Social Progressista (PSP), a new party formed by the populist governor of So Paulo,
Adhemar de Barros. Vargas articulated a platform of Ira balhismo which emphasized smooth relaons
between labor, capital and the state rather than union autonomy. Nonetheless, he garnered overwhelming
support in Rio and So Paulo. However, he found iL
more difficult Lo govern under a democratic system and a more powerful militaiy. He also had Lo grapple
with an incfllcient and increasingly bloated bureaucracy, an unstable economy, and rising inflation.
Vargas attempted to articulate a mode rate econornic policy in an attempt Lo navigatc bctween the two
extremes of
neoliberalism and economic nationalism. However, the tenuous economic situat ion made Vargas unable
to court both workers and industrialists simultaneously as he had done in the past. Akhough he raised the
minimum wage in 1951, it
made up for losses due to inflation rather than signifying a real advance. Vargas was forced Lo
irnplement austerity measures and alienated the right and center as a rcsult. Press opposition mounted and
he faced an unsuccessful impeachrnent att empt engineered by the UDN in 1953.
Matters carne ro a head when Vargas again attempted Lo increase the min imum wage in 1954 by 100%.
He was then unjustly implicated in an assassination attempt against right-wingjournalist, Carlos Lacerda.
Pressured by the militaiy Lo step down and feeling unable to govern effectively, he took bis own life in
1954, leaving behind a controversial suicide note that claimed his dcath was a sacrifice that would keep
Brazil unified. The Vargas era thereby carne to an end and
Getlio added politicai martyr Lo bis array of conflicting political irnages.

From Populism to Authoritarian Ride

Justas the military contributed Lo Vargass ultimate demise, so did it overs ee the hot]y contested
presidential elections of 1955. Mineiro governor and PSD candidate, Juscelino Kubitschek UK) won the
election but failed Lo attain an ahs olute majority, receiving only 36% of the votes that were divided
among four pol irical pardes. The right disputed the resulta, claiming ilegal Cornmunist
49 Hubry ofBrazii

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involvement inJKs victory. Despite his selection offormer labor minister and PTB memberJoo Goulart,
as bis running mate,JKwas able to convince the mili taryto intervene to ensure bis inauguration. Despite
this shaky start, he managed Lo serve a fuli terrn, controlling Congress through the alliance that he forged
bet ween the PSD and the PTB.
Kubistschek launched an ambitious economic program, emphasizing public works construction. During
bis administration, industrial output expande d by 80%; and Lhe metallurgy, chemical, electric,
communicatioris and r.ransport equipment sectors grew between 100-600%. Brazil sustained an annual
growth raLe at 7% and per capita growth at 4%. Particularly notable was the growth of Brazils
automobile industry which inade Brazil selfsufficient in car production by Lhe end of 1960. Ernblematic
ofJKs approachwas the construction ofBrasflia, a completely new capital in the hinterland.
Development, however, carne at a price. Large governrnent projects freq uently were tainted by patronage
and corruption. Industnalization also ftieled debt and inflation.JKs reluctance to cut public expenditures
and implement aust erity measures might have endeared hirn to Lhe Brazilian public but carried little
weight with lenders such as Lhe IMF. He also favored industry over agrarian int erests and did nothing Lo
arneliorate conditions for Lhe rural poor. These probl ems he leR Lo bis succcssor.
In 1961,JKwas succeeded byJanio Quadros, a populistpolitician from So Paulo who ran on Lhe Christian
Democrat ticket (PDC) with additional supp ort from Lhe UDN. Quadross reformist platform made him
popular with both Lhe working and middle classes. However, he immediately set into place economi c
stabilization measures in order Lo secure loans from Lhe IMF to service the debt thatjK had leR behind.
Currency devaluation, inflation, and ge freezes weighed heavily upon bis constituents. Janios friendly

overtures to Lhe Soviet Union and his neutrality over Cuba also raised Lhe suspicions of Lhe rnilitary and
inspired Lhe hostility of Lhe right-wing press.Just months into bis terin, Quadros

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resigned from office, leaving the executive in the hands ofhis vice-presidentJoo Goulart
Goulart, however, did not have the backing of the rnilitary. Althoughhe had extensive political experience
as a PTB leader, former Minister of Labor un der Vargas, and vice-president underJK, he was considered
by the right to be a Comrnurnst sympathizer. The radical left found him too moderate. The military
divided over his succession to oflice and he was allowed to assume office only af ter adopting a
parliamentary system, wbich effecrively reduced the power of the presidency. Sixteen months later he
was able to organize a plebiscite to return Brazil to a presidential system following a massive general
stnke
Goularts administration was plagued by rapid turnover at the highest ap. pointed ranks and a deeply
divided legislature. He was unable to articulate an economic policy that simuhancously meL the needs of
domestic cominercial and industrial elites and the middle and working classes. He felt pressure from
intern ational lending agencies to implement austerity measures, but did so inconsist ently. Goulart
implemented currency devaluation and cut subsidies on basic comniodities such as whcat but then pushed
through substantial wage increases leading the histonan Thomas Skidmore to conclude, ...having
halfheartedly supported a policy aimed at achieving development without inflation, he [Gou. lart] had
only achieved inflation without development.5
Goularts attelnpts to define a middle ground pleased neither the right nor the left. Student orgamzations
began to organize literacy campaigns while the rural poor formed peasant leagues and orchestrated land
invasions. By the early months of 1964, with his popularity waning, Goulart began to push forth a num.
ber ofreforms by decree including the nationalization ofprivate oil reflneries and expropnation oflarge
non-productive agricultural estates. Yet Goulart lacked a
51. Skidmore, Poliiics in Brazil, 260.
51 Histovy fBrazil

popular base to support his reforms. The miii tarv high command began to spread rurnors that
the president planned to use the governrnent-controlled labor unions as a political base for
overturning the Constitution and that Goularts cail for cons titutional reform was a ploy to begin a
dictatorship. Fearing an impending coup, Goulart fled Brasflia on 1 April and went into exile in
Uruguay.

Brazil Under Military Rule, 1964-1985

Few could have predicted that the military would remam in power and establish an
enduring authoritarian regime. Thc crisis of 1964 marked a depart ure from previous patterns
ofmilitary intervention.52 First, leadership carne
from a politically conservative old guard, not from yourig populist officers. Seco nd, the military
did not transfer power back to civilians as it had done in the past. The Supreme Revolutionary
Command quick]y drafted an institutional act
which gave the Executive broad extraordinary powers to ovemde Congress, purge the
bureaucracy and mulitary ofundesirables, and to selectively limit or susp end individual political
rights. Within two days, the Congress was required to elect a new president and General
Humberto Castelo Branco assumed power (1964-67). Existing poLitical parties were dissolved and
presidential and gubern atorial elections were made indirect (to be determined by Congress and
state legislatures, respecrively).
The new governmentjustified its position according to thc doctrine of nadonal security and
development, an ideology that had been articulated by Gene ral Golbery do Couto e Silva ofthe
Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG). The Sup erior War coilege, founded in 1949, promoted cold
world theories about the dangers ofthe enemy within. The theory oftotal war held that internal
security was integral to national security against an undeclared war being waged by Comm unist
subversives. Such thinking providedjustification for the development of
52. On the militaiy era see Thomas Skidmore, 77ze Politics of Military Rufe in Bra.i4 1964-

1985 (N.Y. and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Presa, 1988), and Maria Helena Moreira Alves, State and Of4osiiien
in Miliiaiy Brazil (Auscin: Univ. of Texas Presa, 1985).
History ofBrazil 52

1
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an inteiligence nctwork by GoLbery; by 1964, dossiers on 400,000 cizens had been gathered from covert
agents who infiltrated student, labor, and peasant or ganizations. Economic developnient was also key to
national security, especialiy in the area ofmilitary defense. Population oflightly settled frontier regions
wou]d help to preserve the iritegrity of Brazils fronriers.
The doctrine of national security and development, then,justified rep ression to ensure political stability
and economic growth. Shortly afier taking power, the new governrnent Iaunched Operao Limpeza, or
Operation Cleanup. The military police was given free rein to try agitators for crimes against the state
and were able to convict on ffimsy evidence. Tens ofthousands ofcivilians, especiafly trade umon leaders,
peasant leaders, intellcctuals, teachers, students. and lay organizers of Catholic movements were
arbitrarily arrested, torturcd and imprisoned before negative mternational press brought pressure to bear
against the caznpaign. However, Operation Cleanup had the desired effect as political leaders associated
with the previous govez-ninent and/or leftist tendencies lost their political rights for a ten-year period.
Left-leaning military men were even dec lared legafly dead by the new regime.53 UDN adherents were
largely spared and provided congressional support for the new state.
Institutional change proceeded rapidly. The National Intdiligence Ser- vice (SNI) created by Golbery
injurie, 1964, enjoyed nearly unlimited powersw investigate private citizens and was accountable onlyto
the president. Passage ai the second Institutional Act (AI-2) further weakened democratjc rnstitutions like
thejudiciary and the legislature. The executive eliminated thc secret ballot, as. sumed the authority to dose
legislative bodies by decree, to and altered the elect oral system so that the president would be clected
indirecdy by an Electoral Coilege of Congressmen rather than by direct popular vote. Existing political
par. ties were abolished and new political parties were given only 45 daysto organize. Two parties
emerged following this transition, the pro-government party
53. Alves, Siate and (posiiion in Military Brazil, 35-49.
53 Hstoiy ofBrazii

9,:
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ARENA (Aliana de Renovao Nacional) and the opposition MDB (Movimento Democrtico
Brasileiro).
Economic and social policy further infringed on customary rights. In part icular, labor was hit hard. An
anti-strike law passed in 1964 forbade public emp loyees and workers in essential services to strike and
made most strikes iliegal. In 1966, workers lost existingjob security provisions and were forced to
contribu te to an indemnity fund wbich they could draw from iflaid off. Under president Marshal Arthur
da Costa e Silvas (1967-69) so-called policy ofrelief, unions were required to increase their welfare
functions and bear more of the direct
costa. Real wages continued to decline. The mininium working age was reduced to 12.
Although workers were Jeft with little room to organize, resistance
mounted on othcr fronts. Studenta mobi]ized following purges offaculty and stud ents from the
universities and the outlawing ofthe national student union
(UNE). Elite political protest coalesced in the Frente Ampla, a politically conserv ative civilian group
which the military governrnent oudawed in April 1968.
MDB members began to use their right to parlianientary imlnunity to cri ti cize the government on the
floor ofCongress. In response, the executive passed AI-5 in 1968 which gave it the power to suspend ali
legislative bodies, including Cong ress, to cancel the political mandatcs ofclected officials, and to dismiss
at will public employees and judges. It also provided the means to coerce and repress suspending the
right ofhabeas corpus in cases ofpolitical crimes, permitting arrests without formal charges or warrants,

trial by military courts, and the right to confiscate private property.

Although popular resistance emerged to counter the govemments inc reasingly repressive stance, it
proved vasrly disproportionate to the perceived
threat. Maria Helena Moreira Alves estimates that guerrilia activists numbered
[1p erhaps 6,000 in a population of 100 million.54 Nonetheless, relatively isolated events such as the
kidnaping ofthe U.S. arnbassador in 1969 provided thejusti

___-

History ofBrazit 54

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fication to pass more institutional acts Lo curtail threats Lo narional security. From
1969-1974, the government maintained a culture of fear through censorship,

arbitrary arrest, and torture. Emblematic oft.his period was t.he massacre of a
small Communist cd at Araguaia in the Amazon in 1972.
The military regime was able Lo maintain political legitimacy through the successful and
aggressive promotion of economic growth. A combination ofaus terity measures, international
borrowing, and attractive incentives for foreign inv estors fueled growth and achieved a measure of
stability. During the so-called economic miracle of 1968-1973, inflation was reduced to 20%,

industnal
growth attained double digit figures, but the national debt tripled. National eco nomic policy
emphasized the production and consumption ofdurable consuma goods, especially automobiles.
Not surprisingly, economic benefits were disttib. uted unevenly and the only the top 20% grew
richer while the bottom 80% grew poorer. Land use shifted increasingly from subsistence Lo
export crops.
By 1973, however, Brazil began to experience difficulties servicirigits debt. Thc govcrnmcnt had to
take on short-term, high-interest loans to make iU payments and the intemational lenders like the
IMF required the implementatioc ofausterity measures, furr.her exacerbating the lot of the poor.
As tbe cconomic situation worsened, the military regime was forced to backpedal politicaliy in ci.
der tu retain some degree oflegitimacy. Under Lhe government ofErnesto Geisd (1974-79)
censorship was eased and the MDB gained limited access Lo the media. However, Lhe politica] left
still suffered repression, particularly in So Paulo. Fd. lowing the death by torture
ofprominentjournalist Viadimir Herzog in 1975, dz Archdiocese of So Paulo began to protest
human rights violations. Secular and professional groups also objected increasingly to Lhe political
system including the resuscitated UNE, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and the Organizarni
ofBrazilian Lawyers (OAB). Due tu Lhe participation ofmainstream elements,tlz professional
classes. middle class and elite interests, and the Catholic Church,tlz
54. Alves, State and (44wsition in Military Brazil, ch. 6.
55 HLsory ofBrazil
-

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regime gradually modified its stance and repealed some ofits more repressive dec rees.
Popular protest also grew during the abertura or opening under the Figueiredo administration (197985). By the mid 1970s, liberation theology bec arne increasingly popular. Christian base communiries
began to combat local poverty and proxnoted consciousness raising among the poor. They also served as
a breeding ground for working class acrivism. Particularly m greater metropoli tan So Paulo, workers
began to protest the restrictions ofthe Braziian labor code and massive general strikes were organized in
1978, 1979, and 1980. Urban workers also called for broader political reforms like a return to direct and
demo cratic popular elections. Despite the real threat ofstate repression, industrial workcrs in some
sectors made significant gains, especially in the arca ofwages. Rural workers organized as well.
The political system began to open up in 1979. Prisoners ofconscience were granted political axnnesty in

1979. The Party Reform Bill of 1979 permitted the formation of new parties. The MDB and ARENA
were dissolved but quickly reformed under new naines, the PMDB and the Partido Social Democrtico
(PSD) respectively. New parties had to generate mass support in order to gain leg al recognition.
Effective grassroots campaigns led to the formation ofthe popul ist Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB),
the Partido Democrtico Trabalhista (PDT) and the working class Partido dos Trabalhadores or PT, under
the leade rship ofthe So Paulo labor orgamzer Luis Incio da Silva (Lula). In 1982, dir ect elections were
held and opposition candidates secured 60% ofthe gubernatorial seats and gained control ofCongress, but
not the electoral coilege who elected PMDB candidate, Tancredo Neves, to tbe presidency in 1985. He
died before taking officc and bis vice presidem, PSD leaderJos Sarney assumed power. His
administration implemented some democratic reforms and even took a stab at land redistribution but bis
main legacy was hyper-inflation and economic instability.
Histoiy ofBrazit 56

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In 1989, Brazilian cirizens voted directly for their president for the fim time in nearly thirty years. They
chose Fernando Coilor de Meio, a former go ernor ofthe small northeastern state of Alagoas over the PT
candidate, Lula. Co1 lor ran on an anti-corruption campaign butjust two years into his mandate faced
impeachment proceedings due to his involvement in extensive bribery and mon ey laundering schemes.
He resigned shortly bcfore the Senate confirrned his im peachment and left his successor, mineiro Itamar
Franco, to grapple with the economic problems that he had failed to resolve. Franco was honest but
relatively ineifectual. However, in 1994 near the end ofhis term, his finance minister, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, implemented a successful stabilization package cal.led the Plano Real. Fernando Henriques
success enabled him to capture the presidency in the fali of that year.
Under Fernando Henrique, Brazil has enjoyed stability but growth has been uneven at best and
redistribution ofresources has not been a priority. The disparity between rich and poor remains acute and
high rates ofunemployment and internal debt pcrsist. The lilure to address land reform has stirnulated nd
social movements like the Movimento Sem Terra to orchestrate land invasions and othcr forms ofprotest.
Sustainable economic growth continues to remam elaS sive for Fernando Henrique in his second
presidential term. It remains unclear what lies ahead for Brazil in social and economic terms.
57 HuImy ofBra2iI

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CHRONOLOGY o Ba&zILIj HISTORY

Colonial Era (1494-1822)
1494 Treaty ofTordesilhas divides unexplored territory in the Americas, Africa, and Asia between Spain
and Portugal.
1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral discovers Brazil.
1502 Beginning of the brazilwood trade.
1530 Colonization expedition ofMartim Afonso de Sousa.
1532 Settlements of So Vicente and Piratininga founded.
1534-36 Donatory capaincies (donat(rios) granted by kingJoo III.
1538 First shipment ofAfrican siaves to arrive in Brazil to work on sugar plantations.
1540-42 Francisco de Oreilana leads an expedition to explore the Amazon.
1549 Donatory system replaced by centralized crown government. The captaincy of Bahia reverts to the
king. Salvador da Bahia becomes the seat ofgovernrnent under Tom de Souza. The firstJesuits arrive led
by Manoel de Nbrega.
1551 Bishopric of Brazil created.
1554 Jesuits found the Colgio de So Paulo in the soutb.
1555 The French establish a colony at Guanabara Bay.
1565 Rio de Janeiro founded.
1567 Mcm de S expels the French from Guanabara.
1580 King Sebastian dies in the Levam but his body is never recovered, leading to the development
ofmessianic traclitions known as sebast ianism. Philip 11 of Spain assumes the Portuguese crown,
initiating the sixty year dual monarchy.
History ofBrazil 58

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1560s-80s Smallpox epidemics devastate indigenous populations. Transition

from indigenous to African slavery accelerates.
1599 The founding of Natal.
1591-95 Inquisitional visits to Brazil. Subsequent visits in 1618, 1646, and
1763-69.
1604 Admrnistration ofBrazil subsumed under the council ofindia.
16 12-16 The French establish settlements in Northern Brazil.
1616 Expulsion of thc French from the north. Establishment of Belm.
1621 Captaincy of Maranho founded.
1624-25 The Dutch briefly capture Salvador da Bahia.
1630 The Dutch capture Recife and other northeastern sugar regions.
1637-44 Governorship ofJohan Maurits.
1637-39 Pedro Teixeira expedition to the Amazon. Tabatinga founded.
1640 Joo IV leads the Portuguese fight for independence from Spain and
founds the Braganza dynasty.
1654 The Dutch are finally defeated, largely through Brazilian initiativc cluding the participation
ofleaders ofcolor like Henrique Dias. Por. tuguese rule over the Northeast restored under the Treaty of
Taborda.
1658 First permanent settlement founded in Santa Catarina.
1680 Portuguese found the Colnia do Sacramento in present day Uru
as a buifer zone and a base for contraband trade with the viceroyaltv
Peru.
1695 Gold discovered in Minas Gerais.
1697 Destruction of the quikmbo ofPalinares in prescnt-day Alagoas. Tl
African kingdom lasted nearly a century, encornpassed tens ofthou
sands ofpeople, and sustained decades ofmilitary assaults.
59 HLstoyofBra.il

Bi.b.r
1708-09 War of the emboabas between paulista prospectors and upstart Port uguese migrants over
control of the mining zones.
1709 Captaincies of So Paulo and Minas de Ouro established Lo oversee the Crowns rnining interests.
1710-11 War ofthe mascates (peddlers) in Pernambuco.
1720 Governors-general redefined as viceroys.
1727 Coffee introduced to Brazil.
1728-30 Discovery ofdiarnonds in Minas Gerais. Creation ofthe Diarnond District.
1750 Treaty of Madrid redefines Lhe boundaries between Spanish and Port uguese America based on the
concept ofeifective territorial possess ion, resuking in Brazils formal acquisition ofmuch of the Aniazon.
1755-77 Pombal serves as prime minister underJos 1, implementing a series ofeconomic and social
reforms in Portugal and throughout the emp ire.
1755 Establishment ofthe Gro Par and Maranho trading company.
1758 The Marquis of Pombal abolishes Indian slavery and transfers indige nous administration from
ecciesiastical Lo secular control (Directora te system).
1759 Jesuits expelled from Lhe Portuguese empire. Pernambuco and Pai-ab a trading company founded.
1761 Treaty of Madrid annulled by the Treaty of El Pardo. Hostilities on Lhe Spanish-Portuguese
frontiers resume.
1763 The capital ofBrazil is transferred from Salvador da Bahia to Rio de Janeiro.
1777 Treaty of San Ildefonso redefines Portuguese-Spanish borders along Lhe limes established m Lhe
Treaty of Madrid.
1785 Alvar prohibiting competing manufactures in Brazil, notably fine textiles.
Histoiy ofBrazii

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1789 The Inconfidncia Mineira, a republican plot motivated by the rig

ous coilection ofnew and back taxes, is betrayed.
1792 Tiradentes, the participant ofthe Inconfidncia with the least socio.
economic status, is executed as a scapegoat.
1798 The Tailors Revolt, a republican movement led by artisans and
mulattoes, breaks out in Salvador da Bahia and is severely rcpressc

Abolition ofthe Directorate system.

1807 Napoleons troops invade Portugal.
1808 The Portuguese court arrives in Rio dejaneiro under Britishnaval.
cort. Joo VI opens Brazils ports to free trade.
1810 Great Britain acquires preferential trading status through conimerdi
treaties.
1815 Brazil is elevated to the status of a kingdom, on par with Portugal.
1816 Luso-Brazilian Lroops occupy the disputed Cisplatine Province (Un
guay).
1817 Republican revolt in Pernambuco.
1818 Ai-rival ofthe first Swiss and German colonists.
1819 Steamship sei-vice begins functioning in Bahia.
1820 Libera] revolution breaks out in Oporto, Portugal. The Portuguese
cortes demands thc return ofDomJoo VI.
1821 Joo VI returns to Lisbon. Bra.zil annexes Uruguay.

Imperial Period
1822 Pedro 1 declares Brazilian independerice.
1824 The first Brazilian constitution promulgated.
The Confederao do Equador, a rcpublican revolution, is crushedia
Pernambuco.
61 HuIory ofBrazii

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1825 Brazils sovereignty recognized by Portugal and other internanonal powers.

1825-28 The unpopular Cispiatine war concludes in 1828 when Brazil and Arg entina agree to make the
disputed territory an independent buifer state, Uruguay.
1 820s-30s Establishment ofBritish gold mining companies in Minas Gerais, Braz il.
1831 Dom Pedro 1 abdicates Lhe throne to return Lo Portugal and defend the rights ofhis daughter,
Maria, Lo the Portuguese crown.
183 1-40 The Regencyperiod begins with the abdication of Dom Pedro! and concludes with the premature
and unconstiturional coronation of Dom Pedro II at age 15.
1831 Creation ofthe National Guard and abolition ofthe ordenana (miiit ias). Under British pressure,
Brazil agrees Lo abolish the transadantic siave trade. This legislation goes unenforced and 500,000 more
siaves enter Brazil by 1850.
1832-35 War ofthe Cabanos, an urban restorationist plot turned rural guerrilla movement, occurs in
Pernambuco.
1833 Revoh ofBarbacena, Minas Gerais, calling for Lhe restoration ofPedro
1.
1834 Additional Act to the constitution granis greater autonomy to Lhe provinces.
Mal revolt led by Muslim African siaves breaks out in Salvador.
1835-40 Cabanagem revolt waged in Par.
1835-45 The Farroupilha, an elite, scparatist revolt is sustained in Rio Grande do Sul for ten years uniu
suppressed by Lhe Duke ofCaxias.
183 7-38 Sabinada revolt, involving radical liberais, militaiy officers and free and enslaved blacks, breaks
out in Salvador.
1840 Pedro II ascends Lhe throne.
History ofBrazit 62

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1825 Brazils sovereignty recognized by Portugal and other international powers.

1825-28 The uripopular Cispiatine war concludes in 1828 when Brazil and Arg entina agree Lo make
the disputed territory an independent buffer state, Uruguay.
l82Os-30s Establishment ofBntish gold mining companies in Minas Gerais, Braz il.
1831 Dom Pedro 1 abdicates the throne to return Lo Portugal and defend the rights ofhis daughter, Maria,
tu tbe Portuguese crown.
1831-40 The Regency period begms with the abdication ofDom Pedro! and concludes with the
premature and unconstitutional coronation of Dom Pedro II at age 15.
1831 Creanon ofthe Nationai Guard and aboliuion ofthe ordenanas (miiit ias). Under Bntish pressure,
Brazil agrees Lo abolish the transatlantac
siave trade. This legislation goes unenforced and 500,000 more siaves enter Brazil by 1850.
1832-35 War ofthe Cabanos, an urban restorationjst plot turned rural guerrilia movement, occurs in
Pernambuco.
1833 Revolt ofBarbacena, Minas Gerais, calling for the restoration ofPedro

1.
1834 Additional Act Lo the constiturion grants grea ter autonomy Lo the provinces.
MaI revolt led by Muslim African siaves breaks out in Salvador.
1835-40 Cabanagexn revolt waged in Par.
1835-45 The Farrouplha, an elite, separatist revolt is sustained in Rio Grande do Sul for ten years
until suppressed by the Dulce ofCaxias.
183 7-38 Sahinada revolt, involving radical liberais, military officers and free and enslaved blacks,
breaks out iii Salvador.
1840 Pedro II ascends the throne.

Bi.b.r

1840 Interpretation ofthe Additional Act of 1834 passed which transferi power back to the central
government, marking the dose ofthe Iib. eral Decade.
1842 Revolution of 1842 brings together Liberais from Minas Gerais, Sio Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro in a
failed effort Lo regam political power.
1843 Steamboat service begins on the Amazon.
1844 Anglo-Brazilian Treaty of 1827 expires. Great Britain brings greater pressure to bear against the
continuation of the ilegal slave trade,
1 840s Nicolau Vergueiro experiments with the importation of Gerrnan and Swiss conr.ract laborers to
work his coffec plantations as the supp)yd African siaves begins to diminish.
1849 The Praieira Revolt breaks out among the Pernambucan politicalel
1850 Queiroz law effectively abolishes the transatlaiatic slave trade.
The lei das terras mandates the first national land registry. Unc lainied land, including indigenous
territories, reverts Lo the state as public lands.
1851 Stcamship service Lo Europe begins.
1852 Brazil helps to overthrowJuan Manuel Rosas in Argentina. Amazon Steam Navigation Company
established by Mau.
First womens newspaper, O Jorna.! das Senhoras, founded.
1854 First railroad established in Brazil.
1850s The Amazons rubber boom takes off.
1865-70 The War ofthe Triple Alliance waged against Paraguay
1870 Publication of the Republican manifesto marking tbe emergence of a third political party.

1871 Law ofthe Free Womb Ventre Livre) passcd.

1873 Italian immigrants begin to arrive ira Brazil.
63 History ofBrazil

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._IIII1I__

1870s The Church question pits anti-Masonic bishops and the papacy
against the ecciesiastical authority ofthe Emperor.
1877-79 The Great Drought ravages the northeastern serto ofBrazil.
1881 Electoral reform draniatically reduces the size ofthe Brazilian electora
te.
1885 Saraiva-Cotegipe Law frees aU siaves age 65 or older.
1888 The institution of slavery abolished by Princess Regent Isabel on May

13.
1889 Republican coup forces Dom Pedro 11 to step down and go into exile,
ushering in the First Republic (1889-1930).

Republican Brazil
1890 Separation ofChurch and State.
1891 Federal constitution ofthe Repuhlic promulgated.
1893-95 Naval revolt chailenges the new Republic.
Separatist revoh in Rio Grande do Sul.
1894 Brazil returns to civilian government after a period offive years under
military rule with presidential elections.
1893-97 The Canudos war waged between federal troops and a messianic
community in the northeast led by Antonio Conselheiro.
1900 Brazil acquires Amap.
1905 Brazil acquires the territory of Acre.
1906 Convention of Taubat inaugurates policy of coffee valorization
through government subsidies to keep the world market price ofcoff
ee high.
Hermes law passed which mandates universal military conscription.
1907 Rui Barbosa represents Brazil at the Second Hague Peace Confer
nce.
HLSIOIy ofBrazil 64

Bi.b.r
1910 Indian Protection Service (SPI) founded.
1917 Brazil declares war on Germany. General strike in So Paulo.
1922 Copacabana revolt of radical military officers (tenentes). Communist party founded.
Modern Art Week takes place in So Paulo, ushering m the modernist movement which emphasized
indigenous and African cultural forma.
Bertha Lutz creates the FBPF, the first Brazilian feminist organization.
1924 Creation ofthe secret police, the Departamento de Ordem Poltica Soc ial (DOPS) Lo investigate
labor leaders and other social agitators.
1924-27 The Prestes Column marches more than 15,000 miles tbrough Brazil in a failed attempt to garner
popular support for its reformist platform.
1930 Getilio Vargas gains the support ofthe tenentes in a coup to seize power ofthe Federal govemment.
1931 Pedro Ernesto Batista founds the populist PADF, the Autonomous Party ofthe Federal District.
1931 Creation of the Frente Negra Brasileira, the Brazilian Black Front.
1932 Revoh against the Vargas regime led by the So Paulo state militia fails.
1932 Women get the vote in Rio Grande do Norte.
1934 Constituent Assembly elected. Getlio Vargas elected president by Congress.
1935 Communist-inspired revolts in Rio de janeiro, Recife and Natal are defeated, leading to greater
repression of the political left by Vargas.
1937 Vargas declares the Estado Novo, suspending constitutional rights, abolishing political parties, and
granting himselfabsolute power.
1943 Brazil declares war on Germany.
1945 Military deposes Vargas, enabling a return to popular, democratic elections.
65 Hiory efBrazil

RI.b.r

1946 New Constitution replaces that of the Estado Novo.

1951 Vargas popularly elected to the presidency.
1954 Vargas commits suicide after a scandal which implicates him in an assassination attempt against
right-wingjournalist, Carlos Lacerda.
1955 Jusceino Kubitschek UK) elected presideiit.
1960 Braslia becomes the new capital ofthe nation.
1961 Political mavenckJanio Quadros assumes the presidency only Lo res ign after eight months. The
military allows pro-labor VPJoo Goul art Lo take office only after the political system is changed to
parliamentarism.
1963 By national plebiscite the parliamentary system is abolished.
1964 The military overthrows the Goulart Administration and passes the first Institutional Act. Humberto
Castelio Branco elected to presidenc y by Congress.
1967 Constitution passcd under the miitary government that incorporated institutional acts that had
restncted civil and poliucal rights.
1968 An investigation ofthe Servio de Proteo aos ndios (SPI) reveals ext ensive corruption and it
is replaced by FUNAI.
1968-73 Heighr ofthe Brazilian economic miracle.
1970 Construction begins on the trans-amazonian highway.
1974 Brazils econornic miracle falters witb rising oil prices and mounti ng debt.
1975 Journalist Vladinir Herzog tortured Lo death.
1978 Unified Black Movenicnt foundcd.
1978-80 Series of general strikes organized out of So Paulo pose a chailenge to the regime.
1979 Movimento Sem Terra founded.

1982 The abertura permits the formation ofnew political parties and a ret urn to open elections for
congress, governors, and municipal offices.
1985 Electoral coilege selects civilian Tancredo Neves as president but he dies before taking oflice,
leaving vice-president,Jos Sarney, to ass ume his mandate.
1988 Brazilians celebrate 100 years since the abolition ofslavery.
1989 Return to direct popular elections for the presidency. Fernando Col1 cr de Meio beats the PT
candidate Luis Incio da Silva (Lula).
1992 Impeachment proceedingsjudge Colior guilty ofmassive corruption and he resigns his office. VP
Itamar Franco takes over.
1994 Finance Minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso implements the Plano Real to stabilize the Brazilian
economy. Its success contributes to bis winning the presidency.
1999 Fernando Henrique wins a second presidential term.
2000 Brazilians celebrate (and protest) the 500th anniversary of Brazils dii covery.
67 Hutoiy ofErazil

Bi.b.r

SELECTED ANNOTATED BIBLI0G1UJ11Y

Antecedents: Iberian, African and Amerindian Cultures
Portugal
Birmingham, David. A Concise Histoiy of Portugal. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Prcss, 1993.
Briefhistory from Roman times Lo thc present.
Livermore, Harold Victor. PortugaL A Short History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Umv., 1973. A general
overview ofPortuguese history.
Oliveira, Antnio Henrique Marques de. Histoiy of Portugal. 2d. cd., 2 v. New
York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1976. Oliveiras narrative is a classic and comprehensive source detailing
Portugals history from the Roman era to the twentieth century. Birrninghams text provides less detail
but is more
accessible to the non-specialist reader.

Russell-Wood, A.J. R. Iberian Expansion and the Issue ofBlack Slavery, 1440- 1770.American
HistoricalReview, 83:1 (1978): 16-42. Discussion ofthe
origins ofthe Portuguese maritime siave trade, early images ofblacks in Portugal and Spain, and aspects of
social, economic and reigious life of
African captives.
Saunders, A.C. de C.M. A Social HistoTy of Black Siaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441-1 555.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982. Saunders
provides an overview ofthe rise ofthe Portuguese siave trade and the condid ons under which slaves
ofAfrican descent livcd in Portugal. He discusses siave occupations, religious and social life,
manumission, and forms ofracial
and cultural discrimination.

Portuguese Empire
Boxer, C. R. 77ze Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1 825. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1969.
Diffie, Bailey W., and George D. Winius. Foundations ofthePortugueseEmpire, 1415-1580.
Minneapolis: Univ. ofMinnesota Press, 1977.
History ofBrazit 68

Bieber

Russell-Wood, A.J .R. A World on th Move. Vie Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and
America, 1415-1808. New York: St. Martins Press, 1992. The three books
cited above address different aspects ofthe rise ofthe Portuguese empire.
Boxer provides a narrative which emphasizes social history. Diffie and
Winius focus more on polirical and economic factors. Russell-Wood probes
the mentality of the Portuguese and their strategic methods which enabled
them to maintain an empire on a shoestring.
African History
Curtin, Philip D. and Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina.
African History. 2nd. ed. London and New York: Longman, 1995. The
most comprehensive one-volume text by senior scholars iii the field of
African history.
Duffy,James. Portuguese inAfrica. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963. Deals more
specifically with the Portuguese, their endeavors in Africa and connecons
between Africa and Brazil.
Slavery and the Siave Trade in Africa
Cooper, Frederick. The Problem ofSlavery in African Studies.Journalof
African Siudies, 20 (1979): 103-125. An overview ofthe institution of
slavery in Africa and how it cliffered from that articulated by European colo.
nizers in tbe Arnericas. Demonstrates the ways in which Africans actively
engaged in the slave trade and how African slavery changed with the rise of
world capitalism.
Curtin, Philip D. 77ze Atlantic Siave Trade, A Census. Madison: Univ. of
Wisconsm Press, 1969. The first attempr to quantify the siave trade through
a synthesis ofempirical, quantitative data instead ofputting forth inflatedor
deflated estimates to uphold ideological arguments about slavery. The book
covers t.he fifteenth to mneteenth centuries and siave irnports into Spanish,
Portuguese, and Northern European colonies. Curtin concludes that about
9.6 million Africans were imported Lo the Americas and that 40% ofthem
amved in Brazil.
69 Hixiory ofBrazit

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Bi.b.r

Kopytoff, Igor and Suzanne Micrs. Slavery as an Institution ofMarginality, in

Kopytoff, Igor and Suzanne Miers, eds, Slavery in Africa. Htorical and
Anthropokgical Perspectives. Madison: Univ. ofWisconsin Press, 1977.
Examines slavery in frica as an incorporative institution that provided
labor where population was scarce and land abundant.
Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformaions in Slavery: A Htory ofSlaveiy in Africa. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983. Lovejoy examines conceptions of slavery under Islam and how
these notions were transplanted into subS aharan African societies. He emphasizes that African
slavery was a marke dly different institution than the European chattel slavery that developed in

tbe Americas. frican slavery fijnctioned to incorporate outsiders into new cultures. kinship
groups, and religious faiths.
The Volume ofthe Atlantic Siave Trade: A Synthesis.Journal of African Historj, 23 (1982):
473-501. Lovejoys article summarizes the historiography ofthe slave trade since Curtins 1969
study. Although figures for particular regions and time periods have undergone some revisions, he
argues that Curtins estixnates were surprisingly accurate and have stood the test of time.
African Religion, Phiosophy, and Art
Idowu, E. Bolaji. Obdumare: Cod in Toruba Betief. London: Longmans, 1962.
African Traditional Religion: A Definition. Maryknoll: Orbis Books,
1973. Jdowu provides the perspective of a Yoruba scholar to analyze
Yoruba cosmology in Okdumare. He provides a broader synthesis of
African belief systems in African Traditional Religion.
Mbiti,John S. African Religions and Phiksophy. New York: Praeger, 1969. Mbiti provides a
general overview of Sub-Saharan reigions and philosophies froni the perspective ofan East African
Christian scholar.
Parrinder, E.G. African Traditional Religions. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1970.
Religion inAfrica. New Yorlc Praeger, 1969. These two works are now considered classics in the
field of contemporary African reigious studies.
Hisory ofBrazil 70
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African Traditional Religions emphasizes West African societies while Relig ion in Africa
provides additional material from other areas ofthe continent.
Peel,J.D.Y. The Pastor and theBabalawo: The Interaction of Rcligions inNinet eenth-Century
yorubaland. Africa, 60 (1990): 338-369. An interesting discussion of the points ofinteraction
between ninetcenth-century Yoruba babal.awos (divincrs) and Christians, in this case British
protestant rnissiona ries. Peel provides some insight into the appeal that Christianity might exert
upon practitioners oftraditional African faiths.
Thornton,John K. On tbe Trail ofVoodoo: African Christianity in Africa and the Americas.
TheAmericas, 44 UanU 1988): 261-278. Thomton demonstrates that the blending ofAfrican
religions and Chrisanity began in Central and West Central Africa, predating that process
among siaves in the Axnericas. Lay Portuguese and African catechists were vital in the transmiss
ion ofthe Christian fair.h because formal clergy were scarce.
Thompson, Robert Farris. Fla.sh of lhe Spirit, African and Afro-American Art and
Phiks4hy. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.
Face of lhe Gods: Art and Altars ofAfrka and lhe African America.s. New
York: The Museum for African Art, 1993. In Flash of lhe Spirit, Farris examines the art and
visual traditions ofthe African societics and regions that most contributed to New World siave
populations. Face of lhe Gods explores the concept ofthe religious altar by comparing ahars ofthe
West and Central West African worlds with altars of the African American world, including Brazil.
Both volumes are lavishly illustrated with black and white photos.
Indigenous Societies
Carvalho, Sflvia Maria D. de. Jurapari: estudos de mitolegia brasileira. So
____

Paulo: tica, 1979. A study ofmyths and oral narratives ofvarious indigen ous groups in Brazil.
Cunha, Manuel Carneiro da, cd. Hist6ria dos (ndios no Brasil. So Paulo: Editora
Schwarcz, 1992. This edited volume covers a wide variety ofcu.ltures and
geographical regions, spanning from prehistory to the prcsent. Especially
71 Histoy ofBrtuil

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noteworthy is the theoretical attention devoted to iconography. The text is

lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings.
Dean, Warren. With Broadax and Firebran& 771 Destruction ofthe Brazilian Atkzntic Foresi.
Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1995. Deans environm ental history of Brazils coastal forests
includes a very fine treatment of Tupi history, culture, socicty, and environrnental patterns in chaptcr 2.
The book covers tbe major trends and events ofBrazilian history through the lens ofdeforestation. Dean
adopta an intriguing approach that is brilliantly executed.
Femandes, Florestan. Organizao social dos Tupinambf. So Paulo: Instituto Progresso Editorial,
1948. lii this classic text, sociologist Florestan Femandes analyzes the social organization ofthe
Tupinarrib Indians that inhabited the coastal regions ofpresent day Rio de janeiro and Bahia when the
Europeans arrived.
Mapa etno-hist(rico de CurtNimuendaju. Rio de janeiro: Fundao IBGE em colaboraao com a
Fundao Nacional Pr-Memria, 1987. Reproduction of a map compiled in 1944 by indigenist scholar,
Curt Nimuendaju. The map locates the past and present territories ofdiverse Brazilian indigenous groups.
Accompanied by an exhaustive bibliography on the subject.
Meggers, BcttyJ. and Clifford Evans. Archaeokgical Investigatwns at the Mouth oftheAmazon.
Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957. Authoritative source that details the material
culture ofAmazonian tribal groups.
Metraux, Alfred. La Civiisation Materielie des Tribus Tupi-Guarani. Paris: P.
Geuthner, 1928
A religio dos Tupinambd e suas relaes com as demais tribu.s Tup(G uaran. So Paulo:
Editora Nacional, 1950. Two classic ethnographies
that focus on indigenous groups that the Portuguese first met in Brazil.
Roosevelt, Anna C. Moundbuil&rs oftheAmazon. GeophysicalArckaeology on
Maraj1sland, Bra.zil. San Diego: Academic Press, 1991. Archaeological
study ofindigenous groups that relied heavily on shellfish for subsistence.
___

Hiitor ofBrazil

72

73

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Primary Documents
Burns, E. Bradford. A Documentary History ofBrazil. NY: Knopf, 1966. A coilection ofprimary
documents in English transiation. Includcs an extended excerpt ofthe letter ofPero Vaz de Caminha.
Documents span the colonial period to the 1960s. Although out ofprint, a good resource for classroom
use.
Greenlee, Williarn Brooks. Tlze Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral lo Brazil and
ndia from Contemporary Documents and Narralives. London: Hakluyt
Society, 1938. Tbis volume includes facsimiles and transcriprions ofseven
docurnents written in 1500 on Cabrals voyage. It includes the letter ofPero

Vaz de Caminha.
Verger, Pierre. Trade Relations Between lhe Bigkt ofBenin and Bahuzfrom tht Seventeenth lo tke
Ninetecnth Century. Transi. Evclyn Crawford (Ibadan, Nigeria: Univ. oflbadan, 1976).
Vergersworkconsists largely ofannotated primary source material translated into English that he
collected from archives on three continents. The volume elaborates the commercial, cultural, and
diplomatic relations between Bahia and West Africa during the colonial penod.

Colonial Period (1500-1822)

Primar Documents
Anchieta,Jos. Cartas, infor,naes,fragmentos hist(ricos e sermes do padre Jos( deAnchi eta,
S.J. (1554-1599). Rio de janeiro: Civilizao Brasileira, 1933. Collected writings by one ofthe foremost
sixteenth-century missionaries in Brazil.
Antonil, Andr Joo. Cultura e opulhzcia do Brasil or suas drogas e minas. So Paulo: Editora
Melhoramentos, 1976. This eyewitness account written by an lialianJesuit detailing Brazils resources,
especially its mines, was first published in 1711. The crown suppressed the work out offear that it would
motivate other European powers to chailenge Portuguese sovereignty. n invaluable source for
historians.
Huorv ofBrazii

Bettendorff,Joo Felipe. Crnica da misso dos fradres da Companhia Jesus no Estado do

Maranho. 2nd. ed., Belm: Fundao Cultural do Par Tancredo Neves/Secretaria de Estado da
Cultura, 1990. Mid seventeenthc entury account by aJesuit ofthe orders activities in the Amazon,
especially the establishment of mission aldeias.
Brando, Ambrsio Fernandes. Os dilogos das grandezas do Brasil. Rio de
Janeiro: Dois Mundos, 1943. A critical edition ofthe chromcle written in
1618. With notes and commentary byJaime Corteso, Afrnio Peixoto,J.
Capistrano de Abreu and Rodolfo Garcia.
Cardim, Femo. Tratados da terra e gente do Brasil. So Paulo: Editora Nacional, 1978. Three
documents written in the late sixteenth-early sevent eenth centuries focusing onJesuit endeavors
among the coastal Tupi. With notes byJ. Capistrano de Abreu and Rodolfo Garcia.
Conrad, Robert E. Children of Cods Fire: A Documentaiy History ofBlack Slavery iii Brazil.
Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983. A lengthy volume containing translated docurnents about
various aspects ofBrazilian slavery frorn the colonial era to abolition in 1888. Includes
commentary on the siave trade, legal traditions, the role ofthe church, rebeilion and resistance, and
differing work regimes. Reissued by Penn State Univ. Press in 1995.
Heriate, Maurcio. Descriam do estado do Maranham, Pard, Corupf, Rio das Amazonas.
Vienna: Akademishe Druck., 1964. Mid seventeenth century chronicle of the Amazonian region
with detailed descriptions ofindigenous cukures.
Lery,Jean de. Histor, of a Voyage (o (he Land ofBrazil. Translation and introduct ion byJanet
Whatley. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1990. English transiation of the chronicle ofJean de
Lery, a French Protestant missionary who sailed to Brazil at age 22 in 1556. Lery spent two months
among the Tupinamb Indians and produced a surprisingly even-handed account about the virtues
ofthe Bra.zilian natives, their customs, and material life. Also includes details about the
transadantic crossing and European norms ofthe time. Excellent for classroom use.
Histo,y ofBrazil 74

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Mathias, Herculano Comes. Um recenseamento na capitania de Minas Gerais:
Vila Rica, 1804. Rio de janeiro: Arquivo Nacional, 1969. A transcription of a household levei census
taken in 1804 in the mining capital of Ouro Preto. Provides demographic information about family

structure, siave ownership, race, occupation, and birthplace ofthe population of a declining urban center.
Nbrega, Manuel da. Dialogo sobre a converso do gentio. Com f.reliminares e anotaes
histtfricas e cr(?icas de Serafim Leite. Lisbon: Ministrio dos Negc ios Estrangeiros, 1954.
Cartas do Brasil e mais escritos. Coimbra: Univ. de Coimbra, 1955. The above two works contam
the wridngs of Manuel da Nbrega, the leader of theJesuits who arrived in Brazil with Tom de Souza in
1549. The Didiogo argues for the basic humanity ofthe Indians and tbeir capacity for religious
conversion, and opposes their enslavement. Cartas discussesjesuit policy towards the indigenous in
Brazil and reveals some ofthe dynamics and conflicts ofthe arder in its early years.
Schwartz, Stuart B., ed. A Governor and His Image in Baro que BraziL Tlze Funeral Eukgy
ofAfon.so Furtado de Castro do Rio de MeiuLona b Juan Lofres Sierra. Transi. Ruth E.Jones
(Minneapolis: Univ. ofMinnesota Press, 1979). Transcription of a manuscript held by the Univ.
ofMinnesota. An eyewitness account ofthe adininistration of Afonso Furtado, viscount of Barbacena and
Governor of Brazil (1671.75). Includes details about Indian slaving expeditions, colonial military
organization, and funeral rites. With an introduction, explanatory notes, and annotauons by Stuart
Schwartz.
Staden, Hans. 7lte True History ofHis Captivity, 1557. Transi. and edited by Malcoim Letts (London:
Routledge and Sons, 1928). The chronicle of a common sailor who was captured by Tupinamb Indians
in the rnids ixteenth century. He attributes his escape from being eaten by cannibals to divine guidance,
protection and deliverance. He also provides a detailed account ofindigenous material life and social
custonis. The 1960s movie, Como era gostoso o meu francs is loosely based on bis account. The
movie, fihned in Portuguese and Tupi, is available with English subtitles as How Tasty Was My Little
Frenchman.
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75 !Izsiory oJBranl

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Thevet, Andr. Tlie Xew Found Worl& orAntarctike. Facsimile ed. (1568) Amsterdam and New
York: Theatruni Orbis Terrarum and Da Capo Press, 1971. Early sixteenth century account
ofFrance antarctique, or the French colony located in thc Bay of Guanabara, by a Franciscan
friar and member ofthe French court. Thevet launches criticisms ofthe French Prote stant rnission
thatJcan de Lery attempts Lo discount in his narrave, Vo,age lo ih Land ofBrazil. Also
available in Portuguese transiation as As singular idades da Frana anttfrtica. Translated from
the French by Eugnio Amado. Belo Horizonte: Editora Itatiaia, 1978.

General Histories, Edited Volumes, Bibliografrizical and Hisloriographic al Guides:

Abreu,Joo Capistrano de. Chapters ofBrazils Colonial History, 1500-1800. Transi. by Arthur
Brakel, preface by Fernando A. Novais and introduction by Stuart Schwartz (New York and
Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997). English-language transiation ofAbreus Captulos da htoria
colonial (1907), an innovative synthesis ofits daythat challenged the interpretations ofthe great
bistorian Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen. Abreu called for a shift away from the elite narrative
and incorporated both social history and global processes in his analyses. An important work
ofhistoriography suita ble for adoption in upper division or graduate courses.

Captulos da hCtoria colonial e os caminhos antigos e povoamento do Bras il. Braslia:

Editora da Universidade de Braslia, 1982. This edition cont ains both the Captulos, described
above and Caminhos antigos. The latter highlights the importance ofthe exploranon and
settlement ofthe interior in the development of Brazilian unity. An innovative analysis formulated
when most scholars empbasized the role of the coast.
Alden, Dauril, cd. Colonial Roots ofMod.ern Brazil. Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1973. An
fine edited volume ofessays that addrcss a nuinbcr of themes including trade, regionalism, slavery,
frontiers, and the influence of the enlightenment in colonial Brazil.
History ofBrazil 76
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meber

Bethell, Leslie, cd. Colonial Brasil. Caxnbridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987. Essays derived
from the Cambridge History of Latin America. An excellent compilation ofkey works by

experts in their respective fields. Recomm ended for course adoption.

Dutra, Francis A. A Guide to the Histoiy ofBrazil, 1500-1 822. Santa Barbara:
Univ. ofCalifornia at Santa Barbara, 1980. Annotated bibliography ofworks
on colonial Brazil.
Faoro, Raymundo. Os donos do poder:formao do patronato polaico brasikiro. 2nd. ed. Porto
Alegre-So Paulo: Editora Globo, 1975. An interpretive study that traces tbe bureaucratic nature
of the Brazilian state back to the fourteenth-century Portuguese state.
Holanda, Srgio Buarque de, cd. Histlria geral da civilizao brasileira, 1: A
(poca cokmial. 2 vois. So Paulo: Difuso Europia do Livro (DIFEL), 1960.
A fine coilection of essays by experts in their respective fields.
Lang,Jaines. Portugzsese BraziL 77ze Kings Plantatwn. New York: Academic Press, 1979. A
synthesis ofthe colonial period that offers comparisons with Spanish and British colonial
societies in the New World. Now a bit dated, but still provides a useful overview.
Prado Jnior, Caio. 77e Colonial Background ofModern Brazil. Transi. by Suzette Macedo.
Berkeley: Univ. ofCaliforrua Press, 1967. Translation of his Formao do Brasil contemor
neo: colnia. A Marxist interpretation that views colonial history through the lens of export
cycles of sugar, tobacco, gold, etc. Labor relations are also discussed. This is a synthesis based
largely in secondary sources.
Rodrigucs,Jos Honrio. Ht (ria da hist (ria do Brasil, la. parte: kistoriografla
colonial. So Paulo: Editora Nacional, 1979. A comprehensive guide to
manuscript and secondary sources on colonial Brazilian history.
Russell-Wood, A.J. R. Society and Government in Colonial Brasil, 1500-1 822. Harnpshire:
Variorum Collccted Studies Series, 1992. A coilection of seminal essays that deal with diverse
themes of colonial Brazilian history including municipal government, religious brotherhoods,
frontier societies, justice, and historiography.
77 Hisloiy ofBrazil

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United States scholarly contributions Lo tbe historiography of colonial Brazil,

HzspanicAmerican Histori cal Review, 65:4 (Nov. 1985): 657-682. Reviews historiographical
trends in the literature authorcd by North Ameri cans and identifies themes that merit
further development. Reprinted in Society and Government, cited above.
Salvador, Vicente do (Frei). Hist (ria do Brasil. 6th cd. with notes by Capistiano de Abreu,
Rodolfo Garcia, and Frei Venancio Willeke. So Paulo: Edies Melhoramentos, 1975. A
reprint of the first general history of Brazil, origin ally published in 1627, with commentary
by noted Brazilian scholars.
Simonsen, Roberto. Hist(ria econ6mica do Brasi4 1500-1 820. 8th cd. So Paulo: Editora
Nacional, 1978. An influential First Republic analysis of productive cycles during the
colonial period, including a discussion ofthe importance ofthe interior and internal
markets.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Somebodies and Nobodies in the Body Politic: Mentalities and Social
Structures in Colonial Brazil. Latin American Research Review, 31:1(1996): 113-134. A
view of recent literature that focuses on the realities ofevcryday life rathcr than broad
socioeconomic factors. Themes include economy, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity.
Southey, Robert. Histoiy ofBrazil. 3 vois. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown,
1817-1822. Three-volume history ofBrazil from the first landfall to the early nineteenth
century. Interesting details ofeveryday life.
Souza, Laura de Melio e, cd. Hist(ria da vida privada no Brasil 1: cotidiano e vida pri va&z
naAmrica portuguesa. So Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 1997. The first of a series of volumes that
addresses the history ofprivate life in Brazil, inspired by the French Annales school. Deals
with gender, sexuality,
morality, the use oflanguage, conceptions ofspace and other themes of social history.
____

Extensive and impressive use oficonography.

Varnhagen, Francisco Adolfo dc. Hist6ria geral do Brasil. Reviso e notas deJ. Capistrano
de Abreu e Rodolfo Garcia. 7th cd. So Paulo: Edies Melhor amentos, 1962.
Varnhagens bistory ofBrazil, originally published in the 1850s, was a landmark work
ofscholarship in its day. He produced a

detailed narrative based on extensive archival research that emphasizes insti to ofBzil 78

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tutional, political, and economic factors. The influence ofpositivism is evident in the focus on elite
figures and on the idea ofprogress.

Historiograpliy of Early Settkment and tke Bandeirantes

Corteso, Jaime. Raso Tavares e aformao territorial do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Ministrio da
Educao e Cultura, 1958. Reconstructs the life of Rapso Tavares and makes a case for the influence
ofthe Tup-Guaranf in the formation of Brazilian national identity.
Dean, Warren. With Broadax and Firebran& Ylie Destruction ofthe Brazilian AtkznticForest.
Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1995. An environmental history ofBrazils coastal mata atl4ntica.
The first three chapters address Brazils prehistory, indigenous patterns ofland exploitation and the arrival
ofthe Portuguese.
Dutra, Francis A., Duarte Coelho Pereira, First Lord-Proprietor ofPernamb uco: The Beginning of a
Dynasty, TheAmericas, 29:4 (April 1973): 415- 441. One ofthe few essays published in English that
provides an in-depth case study ofone ofthe donatory lords oft.he early colonial period.
EllisJimnior, Alfredo. Meio s(cuk de band.eirzsmo. So Paulo: Editora Nacional, 1948. Argues that the
slaving activities ofthe bandeirantes in the flrst halfof the seventeenth-century represented coordinated
and necessary economic effort that was crucial to the development of sugar plantations in the Northe ast.

J ohnson, Harold B., The Donatory Captaincy in Perspective: Portuguese Backg rounds to the
Settlement of Brazil, Hispanic-American HistoricalReview, 52, (1972): 203-2 14. Analyzes the
trading post and donatory modeis employed by the Portuguese in their exploitation of the African coast
and their application to Brazils early colonial settlement.
Machado,Jos de Alcntara. Vida e morte do bandeirante. So Paulo: Livraria Martins, 1943.
Interesting study that makes good use ofwifls and mventories to reconstruct the material life and social
organization of the bandeirantes.
Marchant, Alexander. From Barter (o Skveiy: 77ze Economic Relations ofPortl4- guese and
Indians in th Settlement ofBrazi4, 1500-1 580. Baltimore: Johns
79 Hukiy ofBrazil

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Hopkins Univ. Press, 1942. A classic study which interprets the economic motivations held by
indigenous groups in their relations with the Portuguese and how these dynamics changed
following the transition from dyewood harvesting to sugar production.
Monteiro, John M. Xegros da terra: (ndios e bandeirantes nas origens de So Paulo. So Paulo:
Cia das Letras, 1994. lnteresting study of the use ofindige nous siave labor in So Paulo, especially
as farm laborers during the Dutch occupation, when So Paulo became the bread basket
ofBrazil.
Moog, Clodomir Vianna. Bandeirantes and Pioneers. Transi. by L. L. Barrett (New York: George
Braziier, 1964). Moog compares the effect ofthe bandeirantes and the pioneers who populated the

U.S. west on the subseq uent socioeconomic development and formation ofnational identity ofthe

two countries.
Morse, Richard M. 7le Bandeirantes. Tlze Histori cal Role of th Brazilzan Pathf inders. New
York: Knopf, 1965. A series ofcssays, excerpts from classic studies, and primary documents in
transiation that examine the social and military organization ofthe racially-mixed bandeirantes,
their explorations in the interior, and thcir slaving expeditions.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Indian Labor and New World Plantations: European Demands and Indian
Responses in Northeast Brazil, American Hislorical Review, 83 (1978): 43-79. Schwartz offers a
revision ofMarchants From Barter to Skveiy in this article which includes a detailed discussion
ofthe sexual division of labor among coastal indigenous populations and further elaboration ofthe
conflicting interests ofsettlers and Jesuit missionaries.
Taunay, Affonso dEscragnoile. Histria geral das bandeiras paulistas. 11 vois. So Paulo: Typ.
Ideal, H. L. Canton, 1924-1950. Exhaustive survey ofthe paulista bandeiras and their conflicts with
theJesuits.

Government and State Institutions

Alden, Dauril. Royal Government iii CoknzialBrazil with SpecialReference lo lhe Administration
of The Marquis of Lavradio, Viceroy, 1769-1779. Berkeley:
Univ. ofCalifornia Press. Alden examines the effects ofthe Pomabaline
Historj o! Brazil 80

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reforrns in Brazil through the administration ofan unusuafly enterprising viceroy. This excellent study
examines innovations in trade, agriculture, the church, the military, and administrative norms in the late
colonial period.
Arquivo Nacional. Fiscais e meiriniws: a administrao no Brasil coknial. Rio de Janeiro: Nova
Fronteira, n.d. A clescripdve account ofthe administrative organization of colonial Brazilian society with
an emphasis on the hierarchy ofthe various entities and theirjurisdictions.
Boxer, C. R. Portuguese Society in lhe Troics: The Municipal Councils of Coa, Macao, Bahia
and Luanda 1510-1800. Madison: Univ. ofWisconsin Press, 1965. Boxer demonstrates that municipal
councils in the Portuguese empire enjoyed a fair amount of administrative autonomy due to inadequate
resources and manpower deployed overseas. The Bahian case is notable for its domination over the sugar
economy and its willingness to ovemde vicer egal orders.
77ie Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1 654. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957. Discusses the establishment
ofthe Dutch West Incha Company and the strat egic and economic imperatives that led to its military
occupation ofPernainb uco. The Dutch occupation is portrayed as a tolerant regime that allowed the sugar
industry to flourish. Special attention is paid to the administration ofJohan Maurits (1637-43) who
promoted science, literature, and r.he arts.
____

____

Salvador de Sd and liii Struggk for Brazil and Angola, 1602-1686.

London: Univ. ofLondon, 1952. A biographical account of one ofthe

leading figures ofseventeent.h-century Brazil. Salvador de S served as
governor ofthe captaincy of Rio de Janeiro and was influential in settling the south, and expelling the
Dutch from the Northeast and from Angola; he ultim ately served on the Overseas Council in Lisbon.
Lobo, Eullia Maria Lahmeyer. Processo administrativo bero-A meri cano. Rio de Janeiro:
Biblioteca do Exrcito, 1962. An institutional history of the struct ures of Spamsh and Portuguese
colonial govemment in the Arnericas based mostly on secondary sources.
Russell-Wood, A.J.R. Fidalgos and Philanthropists. 77ie Santa Casa da Miseri cirdia of Bahia,
1550-1755. Berkeley: Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1968. A

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ground breaking study of the role played by elite rcigious brotherhoods in the organization of
social life in colonial Bra.zil. The Santa Casa provided services that a weak colonial state could
not, including banking, legal aid, orphanages and other charitable endeavors, hospitais, and
buriais. This
study emphasizes the efTicacy oflocal institutions in colonial society.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Sovereignty and Society in CoknialBraziL TkeHigk Couri of Bahia, 16091752. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1973. A study that
employs prosopography tu analyze the social and ethnic composirion ofthe &sembargadores, high
courtjudges, that servcd in Bahia during the colonial
penod.
Zenha, Eduardo. O municu ,wBrasil. So Paulo: Instituto Progresso, 1948. A discussion ofthe
changing legislation governing municipal government m Brazil from colonial times tu the twentieth
century.

Indigenozts History and lhe Amazon

Alden, Dauril. Indian versus Black Slavery in the State of Maranho During the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries, Bibliotheca Americana, 1 (Jan.
1983): 91-142. Documenta the continued irnportance ofindigenous slave labor in the North and the
shift tu African caprives during the Pombaline era.
Barickman, BertJ. Tame indians, Wild Heathens, and Settlers in Southern Bahia in the late
eighteenth and early mneteenth centuries. Tlze Americas,
51:3 (Jan. 1995): 325-368. Documenta conceptions held by settlers, offic ials, and missionaries ofthe
Botocudo (Aimor) Indians inhabiting
southern Bahia in the late colonial period.
Farage, Ndia. As muralhas dos sertes: os povos ind (genas no Rio Branco e a cokn izao.
Rio de janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1991. Demonstrates how indigenous
groups located at the boundaries of Spanish and Portuguese colonial control sought to negotiate
with both sides and how such strategies broke down
once formal territorial boundaries were drawn.
Hemming,john. Red Gold: TIze Conquesi of lhe Brazilian Indians, 1500-1760. Cambridge:
Harvard Univ. Press, 1978.
History ofBrazil 82

Bi.b.r

Amazon Frontier. 77ie Defeat ofthe Brazilian Indians. Cambridge:

Harvard Univ. Press, 1987. In Red Gold, Hemming uses published primary and secondary sources to
recreate the history of a variety ofBrazilian indige nous groups from first contact to the expulsion
.

oftheJesuits and the rise of secular indigenous policy under the administration ofthe Marquis of
Pombal. Amazon Frontier discusses the directorate period (1758-1798) and the rnneteenth-century.
Kieman, Mathias. 77ze Indian Policy of Portugal in the Amazon region, 16141693. Washington, D. C.: Catholic Umv. ofAmerica Press, 1954. Publicat ion ofthesis that explores
indigenous policy through an analysis of contemp oraneous legislation.
Moreira Neto, Carlos de Arajo. ndios da Amaznia, de maioria a minoria
(1750-1850). Petrpolis: Vozes, 1988. Examination ofindigenous groups in the late colonial and early
Imperial periods. Based largely on coritemporan eous legislation, published manuscripts, and secondary
sources.
Palmatary, H.C. The River of tlzeAmazons, Its Discovery and Early Exploration, 1500-1743. New
York: Carlton Press, 1965. Popular survey ofearly Iberian expeditions on the Amazon.
Pires, Maria Idalina da Cruz. Guerra dos brbaros: resistncia ind(gena e
conflitos ,wNordeste colonial. Recife: FUNDARPE/Cia. Editora de Pernamb uco, 1990. Documents
the conquest ofthe Tapuya in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Sommer, Barbara Ann. Negotiated Seulements: Native mazonians and Portug uese Policy in Par,

Brazil, 1758-1798. Ph.D. diss., Univ. ofNew Mexico, 2000. Important re-evaluation ofthe role played by
indigenous peoples
within the Directorate system.
Sweet, David. A Rich Realm ofNature Destroyed: The Middle Aniazon Vallcy, 1640-1750. Ph.D. diss.,
Univ. ofWisconsin, 1974. Lengthy dissertation focusing on the activities ofbandeirante
transfrontiersmen operating in tbe Rio Negro region. Includes material about slaving, commerce,
disease and the environment.
83 Iitoy ofBrazil

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The Church and Religious L!fe

The Missionary Entcrprise
Alden, Dauni. 77ie Making ofan Enterprise: 77ze Society ofJesus in Portugal, its
Empire, and Beyond, 1540-1750. Stanford: Stanford Umv. Press, 1996.
Provides an overview ofthe relationship between theJesuits, the Portuguese
Crown, and its colonies. Brazil is placed within the broader context ofthe
Portuguese empire.
Azevedo,J. Lcio de. Osjesuitas no Gr o-Par& suas misses e a colonizao. Coimbra:
Coimbra Univ., 1930. Classic account ofJesuit activities in the Brazilian north in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
Burns, E. Bradford. Introduction to the BrazilianJesuit Letters. MidAmerica, 44:3 (July 1962):
172-186. Discusses the importancc ofthe letters as an historical source and provides transiations
offour examples.
Cohen, Thomas M. 77e Fire of Tongues: Anttnio Vieira and lhe Missionarj Churck in Brazil
and Portugal. Stanford: Stariford Univ. Press, 1998. A long overdue study about Lhe
eminentJesuit missionary Antnio Vieira (1608-1697) who was active in the conversion ofindians
ofthe Brazilian Amazon. Cohen explores Lhe religious and social thought of this very import ant
figure in the Portuguese missionary enterprise.
Fishman, Laura. Claude dAbbeville and the Tupinamb: Problems and Goals ofFrench
Missionar> Work in Early Seventeenth-Century Brazil. Church 1-listar,, 58:1 (1989): 20-36.
Description of Lhe French Capucbin mission that operated in Maranho from 1612-1615 and
European perceptions of indigenous spiritual beiefs.
Hooernart, Eduardo, cd. Histfria da igreja na Amaz8nia. Petrpolis: Vozes, 1990. Editcd volurnc
that covers Lhe colonial period to Lhe twentieth
century. Critical r.reatment of missionary endeavors in Lhe Amazon.
Leite, Serafim. Breve itinerrio para uma biografia do padre Manuel da Nlrega, fundador da

provncia do Brasil e da cidade de So Paulo, 1517-1570.

Lisbon: Edies Brotria, 1955.

1
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Hist6ria da Companhia de jesus no Brasil. 10v. Lisbon: Livraria Portugiia, 1938-1950. Leite, a
notedJesuit scholar, provides definitive accounts both of the life of Manuel da Nbrega and of theJesuit
mission during the colonial period.
Jews and the Inquisition
Aufderheide, Patricia Ann. True Confessions: the Inquisition and Social Attit udes aL the Turn ofthe
Century. Luso Brazilian Review, 10: 2 (Winter 1973): 208-240. Examines popular conceptions ofsin
and blasphemy, sexi.a lity, and traits believed to be held by New Christians in late sixteenthc entury
Brazil.
Bellini, Lfgia. A coisa obscura. MuIJier, sodomia e Inquisio no Brasil colonial.
____

So Paulo: Brasiliense, 1989. An analysis ofdocuments from the visit ofthe

Inquisition in 1592 that deals with lesbian and female sexuality.
Farinha, Maria do Carmo Jasmin Dias. Os arquivos da Inquisio. Lisbon:
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, 1990. Guide to Portuguese archival
materiaIs about the Inquision.
Mott, Luiz. O sexo prohibido: virgens, gays e escravos nas garras da Inquisio. Campinas:
Papirus, 1988. Analysis of cases from the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Focus on sexual crimes
cmphasizing male homoscxuality and froB razilian sexual patterns.
Myscofski, Carole A. Heterodoxy, Gender, and the Brazilian Inquisition:
Patterns in Religion in the 1590s.journal of Latin American Lore, 18: 1-2 (1992): 79-93. Reconstruction
of popular beiefs based on records from thc first visit of the Tribunal to the colony.
Novinsky, Anita. Inquisio, rol dos culpados:fontes tara a hist6ria do Brasi4 s(cuk XVIII. Rio de
Janeiro: Expresso e Cultura, 1992. A discussion of manuscripts related Lo t,he 1,800 Brazilian New
Christians arrested by the Portuguese inquisition in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The most
recent offering by a prolific scholar specializing in the history ofJews and the Inquisition.
85 Hisiory ofBrail

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Salvador,Jos Gonalves. Cristos novos, jesu itas e inquisio. So Paulo:

Livraria Pioneira Editora e EDUSP, 1969.
.

Os cristos novos: Povoamento e conquista (Lo solo brasileiro (1 530-1 680). So Paulo:

Pioneira Editora e EDUSP, 1976.

Os cristos novos e o comrcio no Ati4njjco meridional. So Paulo: Livraria Pioneira e

Instituto Nacional do LivrofMEC, 1978. Brazils leading
authority on the bistory of the New Christians or convertedJews in colon ia! Brazil. The three
volumes examine the social position ofJews and New Christians, emphasizing their economic
contributions.
Vainfas, Ronaldo. Trico&speca4is. Moral, se ualidadeelnquisiiio no Brasil. Rio de janeiro:
Cainpus, 1989. Study of sexual mores and mentalit(of colon ial Brazil reconstructed through use
____

oflnquisition records.
Wiznitzer, Arnold, 77iejews in CoLonial Brasil. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1960. One
ofthe few studies in English that examines Lhe experience ofjews in colonial Brazil and the relaxed
emigration policy ofthe Portuguese crown towardsJews and New Christians.
Afro-Brazilian Religion, Brotherhoods,
and Popular Faith
Bastide, Roger. 77ie African Relig2ons ofBraziL Toward a Socwlogy oftlie Intere netration of
Civilizafioll$ Transl. by Helen Sabba (Baltimore: Thejohns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1978). Classic
study that constructs a model of relig ious syncretism combining African and indigenous traditions
and Catholic ism.
Boschi, Caio Csar. Os leigos e o o&r: irmandades leigas e ol1ica coLonizadora em Minas
Gerais. So Paulo: Atica, 1986. Demonstrates the cruciai role played by lay brotherhoods in Minas
Gerais in the absence ofmissionary orders that were forbidden to operate in Lhe mining regions.
Hooernart, Eduardo. Formao do catolicismo brasileiro, 1550-1800: ensaio de interpretao a
partir dos orimidos. Petrpolis: Vozes, 1974. Hooernart interprets Lhe colonial church from Lhe
perspective ofliberation theology. Includes information about popular lay manifestations ofreigious

faith.
Histoiy ofBrazil 86
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Kiddy, Elizabeth W. Brotherhoods ofOur Lady ofthe Rosary ofthe Blacks:

Comrnunity and Devotion m Minas Gerais. Ph.D. diss., Univ. ofNew Mexico, 1998. Au
interdisciplinary study that combines archival research with participant observation
ofprescnt-day congados festivais. Argues that tbe brotherhoods provided a space to
perpetuate Central West African forms ofreligious devotion from colonial times to the
present day.
Mott, Luis. Rosa Egipc(aca: uma santa africana no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro:
Bertrand, 1993. Lengthy account of Rosa Egipcaca, an eighteenth-century African siave
girl who becaxne a popular saint in Brazil and was eventually arrested by the Lisbon
tribunal. Rich in detail about everyday life, popular beliefs, and attitudes towards sexuality.
Mulvey, Patricia A. Black Brothers and Sisters: Membership in the Black Lay
Brotherhoods of Colonial Brazil,Luso-BrazilianReview, 17:2(1980): 253279. Analysis ofstatutes goverriing the black brotherhoods dedicatcd to N.
S. do Rosrio.
Russell-Wood, A.J. R. Black and Mulatto Brotherhoods in Colonial Brazil,
HisanicAmerican Historwal Review, 54:4 (1974): 567-602. Argues that black brotherhoods
conformed to the status quo rather than serving as vehic les for resistance or retention
ofAfrican culture.
Scarano, Julita. Devoo e escravido: A irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosdrio dos Prtos
iw Distrito Diamantino no sculo XVIII. 2nd. cd., So Paulo, Editora Nacional, 1978. A
detailed case study ofthe black brotherhoods devoted to Our Lady ofthe Rosary in colonial
Minas Gerais.

____ Black brotherhoods: Integration or Contradiction? Luso Brazilian Review, 16:1

(1979): 1-17. Descriptive treatment ofthe brothcrhoods of Our Lady ofthe Rosary in colonial
Minas Gerais and Bahia. Argues that participation provided some autonomy for slaves and
an opportunityto preserve African traditions.
Souza, Laura de Meio e. O diabo e a Terra de Santa Cruz: feitiaria e religio sidade popular
no Brasil colonial. So Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 1989. Traces the European, indigenous, and
African roots ofwitchcraft and popular
87 Ht.I1OTy ofBrizzit

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superstition in colonial Brazil using ecciesiastical court cases, Inquisition

records, and contemporaneous chronicles. Recommended.
Torres,Joo Camilo de Oliveira. Hisi (ria das i&as religiosas no Brasil: a igreja casociedad.e
brasileira. So Paulo: Grijalbo, 1968. A surveyofBrazilianreig ious life from the colonial era to the
present, including Catholicism, Prote stantism and Kardecism.
The African Diaspora
Bastide, Roger. African Civilization in th New World. Transi. by Peter Green (New York Harper
and Row, 1971). A noted sociological study ofAfrican
cultural manifestations and beliefs aniong black populations in the Ameri cas.
Fraginals, Manuel Moreno. Africa in Latin A,nerica: Essays on Histoiy, Culture, and
Soci.aiization. Transi. Leonor Blurn (New York: Holmes and Meier,

1984). Interesting volume that debates the extent to which slavery in the
Aniericas preserved or destroyed manifestations ofAfrican culture, music, language, and religion.
Includes essay byJosJorge de Carvalho on African
musical forms in Brazil.
Herskovits, Melvilie J. 77e New World Negro: Selected Papers in Afro-American Religioits Lfe.
Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1966. Seminal essays by
Herskovits that document the existence ofAfrican survivals in black communities in the

Arnericas.
Thornton,John K. Africa and tlzeAfricans in theMakingoftheAtl.antic World, 1400-1 680.
Carnbridge: Cambridge Univ. Prcss, 1992. This book synthes izes much of the current
historiography about the active participation of African societies shaped the siave trade and trade
relations with Europeans more generafly. li also eznphasizes how African cultures and faiths wcre
transformed in the new world.

Slavery and Race Relationj

Anderson, Robert Nelson. The Quilombo ofPalrnares: A New Overview of a Maroon Stat.e in
Seventeenth-Century Brazil,Journal ofLatin American
Htory ofBrazit 88

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Studies, 28 (1996): 545-566. nderson re-evaluates the primary document ation on Palmares using a
careful linguistic analysis to question rnany ofthe conclusions reached by R. K. Kent in bis 1965 article.
Andrews, George Reid. Race and State in Colonial Brazil, Latiu American Research Review, 19:3
(1984): 203-216. Review article ofrecent publica- dons.
Boxer, C. R. RaceRelations in thePortugue.se CoknialEmpire, 1415-1 825. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1963. Discusses racial atritudes ofthe Portuguese overseas in theory and practice. Although peoples
of ot.her races and raciallym ixed individuais fced formal discriniination by church and state, formal
guidelines were often overturned.
Conrad, Robert E. Brazilian Slavery: An Annotated Research Bibkography. Boston: G. K. Hali,
1977.
Freyre, Gilberto. 77e Maskrs and 111 Siaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization.
Transi. by Samuel Putnam (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956). Freyres influential thesis concerning
racial democracy was a responsc to the scientific racism in vogue in Brazil during the early twent ieth
century. He argued that Brazilian slavery and race relations were relat ively benign due Lo Portugals
previous contact with the Moors and the propensity ofthe Portuguese slavcholder to seek out sexual
relations with non-whitewomen. Originallypublished in 1933, TheMaskrsandtheSlaves launched the
sub-fleld of comparative slavery as a generation ofscholars sought to identify the variables that shaped tbe
severity ofvarious siaveh olding regimes.
Gorender,Jacob. O escravnw coknial. So Paulo: tica, 1978. Gorender bnngs a Marxist perspective
to r.his socioeconomic analysis of Brazilian slavery.
Goulart, Maurcio. A escravido africana no Brasil das origens extino do trafico. 3rd cd., So
Paulo: Alfa-Omega, 1975. An early attempt Lo quantify the magnitude ofthe transatlantic siave trade Lo
Brazil.
Grahazn, Richard. Siave Faxnilies on a Rural Estate in Colonial Brazil,Journal ofSocialHistorj, 9
(Spririg 1976): 382-402. Important article that analyzes
89 HisioryofBrazil

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a late eighteenth-century census from a large estate to show that slaves lived
as families and not as undifferentiated groups. a
Kent, R. K. Palmares: An African State in Brazil, Journal of Social History, 6 (1965): 161-75.
Influential article in English about the seventeenth-century runaway siave community of Palmares.
Discusses social organization, relig ion, economy, and leadership.
Lara, Slvia Hunold. Campos de violncia. Rio de janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1988. A fine social history ofthe

slave population of Campos, a sugar region of Rio de janeiro that flourished during the eighteenthcentury.
Malheiros, Perdigo. A escravid4o no BrasiL ensaio histri co, jurdico, social. 3rd. ed. Petrpolis:
Vozes, 1976. Originaflypuhlished in 1868, an essay and compendium oflegislation dealing with African
and Indian slavery promulg ated in Portugal and in Brazil. Addresses the institution ofslavery dunng the
pre-colonial, colonial, and post-Independence periods. Malheiros was influential iii the writing of thc
law ofthc Free Womh of 1871 tbat granted freedom Lo siave children upon adulthood.
Mattoso, Ktia M. de Queirs. To Be a Siave in Brazil, 1550-1 888. New Bruns wick: Rutgers Univ.
Press, 1985. English transiation of Ser escravo no
Brasil. This book synthesizes contemporary scholarship on slavery in Bahia from the colonial period tu
emancipation in 1888. Emphasizes social and cultural factors.
MetcaIf lida. Searching for the Siave Family in Colonial Brazil: A Reconstruct ion from So Paulo.
Journal ofFamily Histoy, 16:3 (1991): 283-297. Demographic analysis ofmarriage and reproduction
patterns axnong slaves in colonial So Paulo.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Resistance and Accomrnodation in Eighteenth-Century Brazil: The Slaves View of
Slavery, HispanicAmerican HisloricalReview, 57 (February 1977): 69-81. Interesting article that
analyzes a contract
writtcn between a slave owner and a group ofrunaways. Conditions for their return included limitations
on certain kinds ofwork and freedom Lo engage in petty trade. The docurnent is reproduccd in an English
translation. Good for classroom discussion.
Histoiy ofBrazil 90

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Women and Me Family

Metcalf, Alida. Famil, and Frontier in Colonial Brazil: Santana de Parnaba, 1500-1 822.
Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992. Innovarive study that examines how families from different
social strata used the frontier as a resource to accumulate and preserve wealth.
Fathers and Sons: The Politics oflnheritance iii a Colonial Brazilian Township, Hpanic
American Historical Review, 66:3 (Aug. 1986): 455- 484. Demonstrates how elite families sought Lo
preserve wealth in the family despite partible inheritance laws.
Women and Means: Women and Family Property in Colonial Brazil, JournalofSocialHistory,
24:2 (Winter 1990): 277-298. Documents strateg ies used by women to maintain control over family
property in colonial So Paulo.
Nazzari, Muriel. Disa&pearance ofthe Dozuiy: Women, Families and Social Change ia So
Paulo, Brazi4 1600-1900. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1991. An interesting work that charts
changing inheritance strategies applied to male and female heirs. Nazzari also examines a shift
from patriarc hal conceptions ofthe family and marriage in the colonial period to more egalitarian
notions based on romantic love in the nineteenth century.
Russell-Wood, A.J. R. Women and Society in Colonial Brazil.JournalofLatin American Studies,
9:1 (1977): 1-34. An early study that focuses on elite white women and their role in the family as
unmarried daughters, wives, and dows.
Silva, Maria Beatriz Nizza da. Sisknza de casamento no Brasil colonial. So Paulo:
T.A. Queiroz, 1984. Examines the incidence of formal marriage and customary unions in colonial
So Paulo cmploying a variety of legal docum ents.
Soeiro, Susan A. A Baroque Nunnery: The Economic and Social Role of a Colo- rija] Convent:
Santa Clara de Desterro, Salvador, Bahia, 1677-1800. Ph.D. diss, New York Univ., 1974. A study
ofthe first convent established in
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91 Hkiy ofBrazil

Brazil. Discusses social hierarchies within the convent, opportunities for leadership, education, and
participation in r.he economy.
The Feminine Orders in Colonial Bahia, Brazil: Economic, Social, and Demographic Implications,
1677-1800, in Asuncin Lavrin, cd. Latin American Women: Hr.storical Perspectives, 173-197.
____

Westport: Greenwood Press, 1978. Places the late establishment ofconvents in Brazil into context by
comparing their development witb those in Spanish Ainerica. Explores the economic and social functions
ofconvents in Brazil
The Social and Economic Roles of the Convent: Women and Nuns iii Colonial Bahia, 1677-1800.
HispanicAmerican Histori cal Review, 54 (May 1974): 209-232. Examines the limited choices
available to elite women and the motivations and advantages involved in entering a convent.
Catarina de Monte Sinaz: Nun and Entrepreneur, in David G. Sweet and Gary B. Nash, eds, Struggk
and Survival in CoknialAmerica. Berkeley: Univ. ofCaliforrna Press, 1981,257-273. n intercsting
case study of a nun who started out by making and marketing sweets and accum ulated a vast fortune for
her cominunity. Her active life is contrasted with that of the penitent. Effective for classroom use.
____

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Mining Society
Bergad, Laird W. After the Mining Boom: Demographic and Economic Aspects ofSlavery in Mariana,
Minas Gerais, 1750-1808. Latin American Research Review, 31:1 (1996): 67-97. Also published in
Portuguese as Depois do boom: aspectos demogrficos e econmicos da escravido em Mariana, 17501808. Estudos Econmicos, 24:3 (1994): 495-525.
Higgins, KathleenJ. L icentiousLiberty in a Brazilian Gold-MiningRegion.. Slavery, Gender,
and Social Control in Eigkteenth-Centuiy Saba r,f, Minas Gerais. Coilege Park, P: Penn State
Press, 1999. Emphasizes gender in the construction ofsocial relations in the siave society of a colonial
mining town.
LimaJr., Augusto de. A Capitania das Minas Gerais (origens eformao). Belo Horizonte. Instituto
de Histria, Letras, e Arte, 1965. Popular history that emphasizes the cultural and artistic heritage of
colonial Minas Gerais.
Hisio,y ofBrazil 92

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Libby, Douglas C. Reconsidering Textile Production in Late Colonial Brazil:

New Evidence from Minas Gerais. Latiu American Research Review, 32,1 (1997): 88-108. Uses
quantitative sources, including an inventory oflooms confiscatcd by the colonial authorities, Lo
reconstruct a race and gender proifie ofworkers in cottage textile production.
Lima, Francisco Vidal. Minas Gerais: escravos e senhores: anlise da estrutura ppulaciona e
econmica de alguns centros minerat6rios (1718-1804). So Paulo: IPE, 1981. A demographiC
reconstructiOn ofslaveholdingpatte in severa1 colonial mining towns.
Ramos, Donald. Slavery in Brazil: A Case Study of Diamantina, Minas Gerais. TheAmericas 45
(July 1988): 47-59. Uses a siave registerto linkpatterns of siave mortality and flight to African

ethnic origin.
Vila Rica: Profile of a Colonial Brazilian Urban Center, TkeAmericas, 35 (April 1979): 495526. Uses the 1804 nominal census from Vila Rica Lo reconsr.ruct household and family patterns.
City and Country: The Family in Minas Gerais, 1804-1838, Journal of Family History, 3
(1978): 361-75. Uses household censuses Lo reconstruct household composition in colonial Minas
and provides a comparative analy sis to European residential patterns.
____ Marriage and the Faniily in Colonial Vila Rica, HispaniAmeriCafl HtorkalReviW, 54
(May 1974): 200-225. DemographiC analysis that shows t.hat female-headed houseliolds and
nuclear households were more prevalent than the patriarchal, extended family.
Russell-WoOd, A.J. R. T7ie Bl.ack Man in Slavery and Freedom in Colanial Brasil. New York:
St. Martins Press, 1982. Coilection ofessays about siaves and free people of color in colonial Minas.
Exnphasis on work, reigion, resisL ance and the fluidity ofracc relations.
Scarano, Julita. Cotidiano e solidariedade: vida didria da gente de cor nas Minas Gerais, s(cuk
XVIII. So Paulo: Brasiliense, 1994. Social history of everyday life ofthe Afro-Brazilian population
of Minas Gerais in the mature colonial period by a scholar of Afro-Bra.zilian religions.
.

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93 11 uIoTy ofBrazil

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J
Bber

Souza, Laura de Meio e. Desckssficados do ouro. A pobrem mineira no Siculo XVIII. third cd.,
Rio deJanejro: Graal, 1990. An analysis ofthe marginalizat ion of the free, colored poor in the siave
society of Minas Gerais. Lucid and innovatjve use ofarchjyaj sources.
Torres,Joo Camilo de Oliveira. Hist6ria de Minas Gerais. 5 vois. Belo Honz onte: Difuso PanAmerjca do Livro, 1961. An extended narrative ofthe history of Minas Gerais. The first three
volumes contam information about the colonial period. Minimal citations.
Vasconcelos, Diogo L.A.P. Htst6ria antiga das Minas Gerais. 2 vols. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa
Nacional, 1948. Provides a detailed narrative ofthe captaincy through 1720. Grounded in primary
sources but uses few citat ions.
Ht6ria m(dia das Minas Gerais. Rio de janeiro: Imprensa Nacional 1948. Continuation of the
previous volumes to the end ofthe colonial period.
Vasconcelos, Sflvio de. Vida e obra de Antnio Francisco Lisboa, o A1ezadinJzo. So Paulo:
Editora Nacional, 1979. A study ofthe mulatto artisan leijadi nho who designed many notable
eighteenth.cenry baroque mineiro churches, sculptures and carvings in wood.
Zemeila, Mafaida P. O aba,stecimenjo da capitania das Minas Gerais no s(cuk XVIII. So Paulo:
Hucitec, 1990. A well-documented study ofthe interna] markets that provisioned the mining
communities dunng the eighteenth century.
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Econom, and Society

Alden, Dauril. The Growth and Decline ofindigo Production in Colonial Brazil: A Study in
Comparative Economic History,Journal ofEconomz.c History, 25 (March 1965): 35-60. Describes
the introduction ofindigo as an export crop in order to diversify Brazils agricultural economy
during the late colonial period.
Barickman, BertJ. A Bahian Counterpoint: Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Staveiy in th
Recncavo, 1 780-1860. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1998. Exain &story ofBro.zil 94

Bkh.r

ination ofthe resurgence and decline of the agrarian economy in the environs of Salvador da Bahia during
the late colonial period and early decades ofthe Einpire.
Costa Filho, Miguel.A cana-de-acarem Minas Gerais. Rio dejaneiro: Instituto de Acar e do
lcool, 1963. History ofthe cultivation and processing of sugar in Minas Gerais frozu the late seventeenth
to the twentieth century.
Flory, RaeJean. Bahian Society iii the Mid-Colonial Period: The Sugar Planters, Tobacco Growers,
Merchants and Artisans of Salvador and the Recncavo, 1680-1725. Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Texas, 1978.
Multi-class analysis ofBahian society during a period ofecononiic decline.
Kuznesof, Elizabeth. HouseholdEconomy and Urban Devekpnzent: So Pauto, 1765-1836.
Boulder: Westview Press, 1986. Well-documented quantitative analysis ofhousehold economy, family
size, residential patterns, sex ratios, marriage age and other dernographic indicators in late colonial So
Paulo. Co-operative work groups and neighborhood militias are analyzed as well as the shift from a
subsistence to a market economy.
Lugar, Cathenne. The Portuguese Tobacco Trade and Tobacco Growers of
Bahia in the Late Colonial Period. in Dauril Alden and Warren Dean, eds.

Essays Concerning the Socioeconomic History ofBrazil and Portuguese ndia.

Gainesvillc: Univ. ofFlorida Press, 1977,26-70. Examines the class makeup
and slaveholding patterns ofBahian tobacco growers.
Novais, Fernando A. Portugal e Brasil na crise do antigo sistema coknial (1777- 1808). So Paulo:
Hucitec, 1979. Au influential synthesis that describes the crisis ofthe Portuguese empire in the mature
colonial period within the broader context ofthe rise and decline of European mercantilism.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Sugar Pkntations in th Forination ofBrazilian Society, Bahia, 1550-1 835.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985. The defini- tive study to date ofplanter society in Bahia during
the colonial period. Meticulously researched account drawing on numerous European and Brazilian
archives. Schwartz employs qualitative and quantitarive data to examine the dynamics ofrace,
socioeconomic position and gender that shaped social and economic life in this Brazilian sugar region.
95 Hu&iyofBrazi1