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| Etymology | |
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Main article: Name of Brazil
The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from Latin brasa ("ember") and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).[19][20][21] As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially-exploited product from Brazil. Through the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted European consumer goods.[22]
The official name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants commonly called it simply the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) on account of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official name. Early sailors sometimes also called it the "Land of Parrots" (Terra di Papaga).
In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama". This was the name the natives gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".
Tags:Portuguese,Ce,Br,French,Paraguay,Latin,Dye,Parrots,Guarani Language, | |
| Portuguese colonization | |
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Main article: Colonial Brazil
See also: Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Slavery in Brazil
The land now called Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral.[23] The Portuguese encountered stone age natives divided into several tribes, most of whom spoke languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, and fought among themselves.[24]
Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when Dom João III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies,[25][26] but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony.[26][27] The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes[28] while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity.[29][30] By the mid-16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export[24][31] and the Portuguese imported African slaves[32][33] to cope with the increasing international demand.[29][34]
The first Christian mass in Brazil, 1500.
Through wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking São Luís in 1615.[35] They sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds,[36] founding villages and forts from 1669.[37] In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de la Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (present-day Uruguay).[38]
At the end of the 17th century, sugar exports started to decline[39] but beginning in the 1690s, the discovery of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) in current Mato Grosso and Goiás, saved the colony from imminent collapse.[40] From all over Brazil, as well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.[41]
The Spanish tried to prevent Portuguese expansion into the territory that belonged to them according to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, and succeeded in conquering the Eastern Strip in 1777. However, this was in vain as the Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed in the same year, confirmed Portuguese sovereignty over all lands proceeding from its territorial expansion, thus creating most of the current Brazilian borders.[42]
In 1808, the Portuguese royal family and the majority of the Portuguese nobility, fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, established themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire.[43] In 1815 Dom João VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal.[43] In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Guiana (which was returned to France in 1817)[44] and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina.[45]
Tags:Utc,French Guiana,Uruguay,Colony,Portugal,Pedro Álvares Cabral,Military,Stone Age,Tupi–guarani,Dom,João Iii,Governor-general,Demand,Rio De Janeiro,São Luís,Amazon Rainforest,Sacramento,Rio De La Plata,Explorers,Minas Gerais,Mato Grosso,Goiás,1494 Treaty Of Tordesillas,Eastern Strip,Nobility, | |
| Independence and empire | |
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Main articles: Brazilian Independence and Empire of Brazil
Declaration of the Brazilian independence by Emperor Pedro I on 7 September 1822.
After the Portuguese military had successfully repelled Napoleon's invasion, the King João VI returned to Europe on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince Pedro de Alcântara as regent to rule Brazil.[46] The Portuguese government, guided by the new political regime imposed by the Liberal Revolution of 1820, attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808.[47] The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.[48] On 12 October 1822, Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned Dom Pedro I on 1 December 1822.[49]
The public flogging of a slave in Rio de Janeiro. From Jean-Baptiste Debret, Voyage Pittoresque et Historique au Bresil (1834–1839).
At that time most Brazilians were in favour of a monarchy and republicanism had little support.[50][51] The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence spread through almost the entire territory, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions.[52] The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824[53] and independence was recognized by Portugal on 29 August 1825.[54]
The first Brazilian constitution was promulgated on 25 March 1824, after its acceptance by the municipal councils across the country.[55][56][57][58] Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and went to Europe to reclaim his daughter’s crown, leaving behind his five year old son and heir, who was to become Dom Pedro II.[59] As the new emperor could not exert his constitutional prerogatives until he reached maturity, a regency was created.[60]
Disputes between political factions led to rebellions and an unstable, almost anarchical, regency.[61] It is estimated that from 30 to 40% of the population of the Province of Grão-Pará died during the Cabanagem revolt.[62] The rebellious factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy,[63][64] even though some declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics, but only so long as Pedro II was a minor.[65] Because of this, Pedro II was prematurely declared of age and "Brazil was to enjoy nearly half a century of internal peace and rapid material progress."[66]
Brazilian forces (in blue uniform) engage the Paraguayan army (some in red uniform and other shirtless) during the Paraguayan War.
Despite the loss of Cisplatina in 1828 when it became an independent nation known as Uruguay,[67] Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War, which left over 50,000 dead)[68] and witnessed the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due to successive elections and unrestricted freedom of the press.[69] Most importantly, slavery was extinguished after a slow but steady process that began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850[70] and ended with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888.[71] The slave population had been in decline since Brazil's independence: in 1823, 29% of the Brazilian population were slaves but by 1887 this had fallen to 5%.[72]
When the monarchy was overthrown on 15 November 1889[73] there was little desire in Brazil to change the form of government[74] and Pedro II was at the height of his popularity among his subjects.[75][76] However, he "bore prime, perhaps sole, responsibility for his own overthrow."[77] After the death of his two sons, Pedro believed that "the imperial regime was destined to end with him."[78] He cared little for the regime's fate[79][80] and so neither did anything, nor allowed anyone else to do anything, to prevent the military coup, backed by former slave owners who resented the abolition of slavery.[81][82][83]
Tags:Republic, | |
| Early republic | |
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Main articles: República Velha, Estado Novo (Brazil), and Brazilian Second Republic
The Brazilian coup d'état of 1930 raised Getúlio Vargas (center with military uniform but no hat) to power. He ruled the country for fifteen years.
At the beginning of the republican government it was little more than a military dictatorship,[73] and the new constitution restricted political rights, such as the right to vote,[84][85] yet provided for direct elections to be held in 1894.[86] However, already in 1891, from the unfoldings of the encilhamento bubble[87][88] and of the 1st naval revolt, the country entered in a prolonged cycle of financial, social and political instability, that would extend until the 1920s keeping the country plagued by several rebellions, both civilian[89][90][91] as military,[92][93][94] which little by little undermined the regime in a such extent, that by 1930 it was possible to the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by the majority of military,[95] lead a coup d'état and assume the presidency.[96]
Vargas and the military, who were supposed to assume the government temporarily to implement democratic reforms related to 1891's Constitution, closed the Congress and ruled with emergency powers, replacing the states' governors with their supporters.[97][98] Under the Claiming of the broken promises of changing, in 1932 the oligarchy of São Paulo tried to regain the power[99] and in 1935 the Communists rebelled,[100] having both been defeated. However, the communist threat served as an excuse for Vargas to preclude elections launching another coup d'état in 1937, creating a full dictatorship[101][102][103][104] In May 1938, there was another failed attempt to take over the power by local fascists.[105][106]
In foreign policy, the success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries[107] in the early years of this period, was followed by a failed attempt to permanently exert a prominent role in the League of Nations[108] after military involvement in World War I.[109][110][111] Notwithstanding, Brazil remained neutral at the beginning of World War II until the Pan-American Conference of January 1942 when Brazil stood alongside the U.S.A. severing diplomatic relations with the Axis powers.[112] In retaliation, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy extended their submarine warfare against Brazil, which led the country to Tags:São Paulo,Presidential,Coup D'état, | |
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