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Map of South America in 1575.

Portugal was one of the most known countries for exploration in world during the 1400s. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the New World between the Spanish and Portuguese in 1494.

Explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral on the 22 April, 1500 docked at what is now Porto Seguro in Brazil. His surveyors and tradesmen established hard wood crafts, from which they could extract red dye. Brazil had a predominant population of Indians who traded with the Portuguese weaponry and fabrics. It took until 1530 before the Portuguese began to show an interest in establishing a colony.

Beginning of colonisation

France did not recognise the Treaty of Tordesillas, but felt that a country which controls an area is entitled to it. An expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa was assigned to patrol the coast and explore the area. A French tradeship had started to trade with the Indians which meant King John III of Portugal had to take a stronger grip on the colony in order not to lose it. He divided Brazil into 15 provinces, each of which would be controlled in a feudal system. The system failed for several reasons.

In 1549 Brazil got its first governor, Tomé de Sousa. He built the first capital of Brazil, Salvador. The colonisation process was slow. The wide availability of agricultural land made it possible to create large farms and plantations, but it was difficult to find workers and therefore forced labour had to be implemented. When it proved impossible to force the Indians to work the authorities began to import people from Africa. Already when the Portuguese began to trade with West Africa in the 1400s, they had been in contact with nations who sold slaves. In Africa, there were people who were involved in mining and ranching and could adapt to the situation in Brazil. Black slaves could not escape, unlike the Indians, which could escape to the woods knowing the surrounding area. Between 1550 and 1855 around four million black slaves came to Brazil.

The slave trade

The Church and religious orders were often opposed to enslave the Indians but not to enslave Africans. Benedictines took themselves a lot of African slaves and said that it was better for Africans to be baptised and to be in a Christian country rather than live in Africa. The slave trade was very profitable for both buyers and sellers. The price of a slave worked the buyer out in 2-3 years, significantly faster than waiting 10-12 years for a slave to be born and grow up in Brazil.

The Portuguese had learned to cultivate sugar cane in the Azores and Madeira and by the 1530s they began to plant sugar cane and build sugar mills in northeastern Brazil, especially in Pernambuco and Bahia. From 1570 they began to make use of African slaves.

Conflicts

Between 1565 and 1567, Mem de Sá, a Brazilian colonial officer, destroyed a ten year old French colony called France Antarctique, which was located at the Guanabara Bay. The city of Rio de Janeiro was founded in March 1567 at this location by him and his nephew, Estacio de Sá. Between 1638 and 1640 the Netherlands came and took control of Brazil's northeastern region, with the capital city of Recife. In 1649 the Portuguese won a battle against the Dutch, and in 1654 the Netherlands had given up all Brazilian land to the Portuguese.

The end of the Treaty of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas ended after the Spanish King Philip II was elected King of Portugal in 1580 and the Treaty of Tordesillas was sidelined allowing Portuguese colonists to search further away from the coast. When the Netherlands and Spain ended up at war with each other, it was Portugal and its colonies that received the brunt. After 1650 the Dutch, French and English learned to cultivate sugar cane in the Caribbean which broke Brazil's dominance.

During the 1690s gold was discovered in the rivers in Minas Gerais. This sparked a gold rush, and many colonists from Portugal began to arrive. In 1730 the colonists found diamonds. The area was named Minas Gerais, General Mines and the first significant settlements were founded in the inner part of the country. The economic centre was taken over by the southeast and in 1763 Rio de Janeiro became the capital.

The Jesuits had come to Brazil and founded São Paulo in 1553. They owned large tracts of land, gave the Indians teaching and missionary work. In 1759 all Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and its colonies. As in Brazil they wanted to partly take control of the lands, and wanted the Jesuits areas to be governed more or less autonomously beyond the colonial power control.