Brazilian Fight for Independence

The need to form an independent Brazilian empire was brought on by the pride of the Brazilian people and their inability to accept returning to colonial status after becoming an empire with Emperor Cerro. But as Portugal lost wars to the British, Emperor Cerro was forced to return to Portugal, where he was in a more controllable position, and his son Dom Pedro was left as regent. Dom Pedro was a very frugal and fair ruler, cutting his own salary and selling many of the royal horses and mules. He also forbade unfairness’ against his citizens whether they were Portuguese or Brazilian, saying "their blood is the same color as mine."(1) Although native people were still abused in parts of Brazil, Dom gained much support from all around, and this support would later cause him to name himself ruler as the kingdom of Brazil was to be abolished by the Cortes.

After the Cortes voted to abolish the Kingdom of Brazil and return it to colonial status while returning Dom Pedro to Portugal, the people petitioned for him to stay. He accepted this petition and later named himself the ruler of the Brazilian empire. From there, Dom Pedro gained much support from cities throughout Brazil, and started many rebellions against Portuguese forces existing in Brazil. A peace treaty was signed in Aug 29, 1825(2), and Brazil had to pay fines to Portugal and Britain to gain their freedom.

Gotta Love the Natives

During the times of colonization, Brazil became a land of adventures and money for the Portuguese people, but success was not always that easy to find. As many explorers and settlers moved into these new forested lands, few were seen again, as many met with great misfortune with the native tribes already living there. Throughout this period of colonization, interactions with the native peoples often defined the successes and failures of the settling populations, and were persistent throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

In April 22, 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral, while on a long journey to find a new trade route to the lush and resourceful lands of India, discovered a great new land filled with forests of dyed brazilwood and uncultured native peoples. But even with the disappointment of not succeeding, Cabral and his crew traded goods for the native’s brazilwood and some traditional clothing. Before leaving, he even chose to leave behind two outcasts that would intermarry with the native people. Pedro Cabral and his remaining fleet then named that place “Porto Seguro” (1) and returned to Portugal to tell of his discovery. Little did he know, leaving behind those two outcasts behind would become one of the biggest contributions towards beneficial relations between future settlers and the native people. Out of the twelve captaincies, only two succeeded, Pernambaco and Sao Vincente.

Sao Vincente, under the control of Sousa, succeeded because of a marriage between a Portuguese castaway and the daughter of the chief of an affluent native tribe in the area. Because of this alliance, the Brazilians gained food, laborers, women, and even protection from other native tribes. This allowed the Sousa to set up many sugar plantations and fixed Portuguese control at the center of the agricultural and industrial core of Brazil. The province of Pernambaco flourished because of similar successes with the native Tobajara. The donatário, Duarte Coelho Pereira, had married into a rich and well-connected family, which provided him with financial support, but he was especially fortunate because his brother in law had also married the daughter of the chief. This alliance allowed them to fight off the French and their Indian allies, and even would lead to making Pernambaco "the northern focal point of Portuguese America."(2) Other captaincies, such as Porto Seguro, failed because of fighting with the local Aimore people. This was likely caused by the large number of Portuguese couples already existing, and therefore the lack of intermarriage between the Portuguese and the native peoples. Similarly Bahia failed because it was owned by veterans of wars in India, where abuse to natives was common, causing the natives to rebel and ceremonially capture and eat the donatário and several other citizens.

                It has become very clear that the success of early colonial captaincies were almost completely dependent on support from the local native tribes. Diplomacy between the donatário and the chief of the natives, usually involving marriage as a bond, became the most important factor towards the success of a captaincy. And because of the violent nature of the Portuguese towards these natives, most of these captaincies failed, leading to the king to establish direct royal control over all but Pernambaco and Sao Vincente. He had Sousa of Sao Vincente become the first governor, with the job to establish a capitol and support the weaker or failed captaincies. That was when Brazil first gained colonial status to Portugal.

Brazilian Colonial Life

Colonial life in Brazil was primarily dictated by Christianity and its role on forming a policy with the natives. During this period of time, conversion of the natives became the basis of Portugal's legal claims to Brazil, but this soon changed into a biased form of segregation similar to slavery. The native people were put under the protection of the crown to be treated well if peaceful and accepting conversion. Based off of the Brazilian bishop's new laws, those who were against giving up their own culture were treated horribly and legally could be enslaved to work for the plantation owners. Later, the king had an international Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus come over to spread the Counter-Reformation.

Although only a small number of these Jesuits came over, they had an extremely large impact on the Brazilian population. They wanted to blend the native cultures with existing Portuguese culture, and through it created a sort of Brazilianization, giving the intermarried Brazilians a new sort of identity. But this soon caused conflict with the bishop Don Pere Fernandes Sardinho, who preferred Europeanization over this new Brazilianization. Don Sardinho held this image of a new Brazil made of a few loyal Portuguese leading the rest of the heathen natives who would make up a majority of the population. Because of this, the Jesuits shifted their attention to the south to the “aldeia” (1) of Sao Paulo of Piratiniga, where the bishop held much less influence. Further success by the Jesuits led to a preference by the king, and the later recalling of the bishop to Portugal.

A new bishop was then sent over to support the outer regions, and he preferred the Jesuit method of conversion. This then led to a smaller slave pool causing much grief to the Portuguese investors who were losing workers. The colonists then started a "just war"(2) against the natives to capture more slaves to work for them. This damaged the trust between them while new diseases developed the decimated the native populations.